Notre Dame defeats WVU
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – Matt Carroll and Chris Thomas scored 18 points each and Notre Dame had a season-high 51 rebounds as the Fighting Irish beat West Virginia 88-69 Wednesday night. The Irish outrebounded the Mountaineers 51-27, the first time they have outrebounded an opponent since beating Marquette on Dec. 2, an 11-game span. Notre Dame is 6-0 when outrebounding opponents. The Mountaineers, last in the Big East in rebounding, have been outrebounded in all but four games.
The Irish (17-3, 5-1 Big East) improved to 11-0 at home, while the Mountaineers (11-7, 2-4) fell to 0-6 on the road. West Virginia has lost seven straight to Notre Dame.
Dan Miller added 15 points and nine rebounds for the Irish, who were 24-of-27 from the free-throw line. Carroll, who scored all but two of his points in the second half, added seven rebounds, while Thomas had seven assists and six rebounds.
Tom Timmermans tied his career high with nine points and eight rebounds in 14 minutes.
Drew Schifino led the Mountaineers with 20 points and five rebounds, and Kevin Pittsnogle, who played just 22 minutes because of foul trouble, added 11 points. The Mountaineers were 11-of-19 from the free-throw line.
The Irish used an 11-2 run to take a 15-8 lead and never trailed again. They led by as many as 12, at 27-15, in the first half on a basket inside by Torrian Jones.
But the Mountaineers used a 15-5 run, led by seven points by Schifino, to cut the Irish lead to 32-30. Notre Dame scored the last two baskets of the half, though, and led 36-30 at halftime.
The Irish opened the second half with a 12-5 run to open a 48-35 lead and were never seriously challenged from there. Torin Francis had seven points during the run, including a three-point play, and Carroll scored five.
The Irish continued to pull away throughout most of the second half. Thomas scored eight points in 58 seconds as they opened a 62-45 lead. Notre Dame built its biggest lead when Thomas made a pair of free throws with 7:22 left to make it 72-50. The Mountaineers never got closer than 16 the rest of the way.