Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Big East: Notre Dame Dumped

West Virginia 74, Notre Dame 62

Notre Dame's Luke Harangody scored 27 points, but the Irish were outplayed, outmuscled and outrebounded by Devin Ebanks and the West Virginia Mountaineers. Ebanks came off the West Virginia bench to dominate the boards, wiping the glass for a game high 18 rebounds.

Alex Ruoff scored 25 points and Da'Sean Butler had 20 for West Virginia.

The Irish, who have been fighting inconsistency demons all season were never really in the game. The Mountaineers scored the first 7 points of the game and never trailed, building up a 17-2 lead just 8 minutes in. With 7 minutes remaining in the first half, the Irish were down 26-6. The closest they got in the second half was 7 points, but they were turned back by the Mountaineers every time they made a run.

Notre Dame bested Rutgers in the opening round of the Big East tournament, but are now 18-14 and likely will not receive a bid to the NCAA tourney. West Virginia will play Pitt in the quarterfinals tomorrow night.

Elsewhere in the Big East, Providence held off DePaul, 83-74 and Marquette beat down St. John's, 74-45, getting 20 points from Wesley Matthews and 17 from Lazar Hayward.

Providence gets Louisville and Marquette will match up with Villanova in tomorrow's games. Tonight, Syracuse faces Seton Hall to determine which will play Connecticut in the next round.

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