Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Irish Down Mountaineers, 79-65

Feb. 2, 2000

Postgame Audio:
? Coach Doherty
? M. Carroll
? D. Graves
? T. Murphy

Box Score?|? Quotes

By JR ROSS
Associated Press Writer

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Matt Carroll and David Graves scored 17 points apiece as Notre Dame rallied from a double-digit deficit to beat West Virginia 79-65 on Wednesday and snap the Mountaineers’ five-game winning streak.

Notre Dame (14-8, 5-3 Big East) trailed by 11 points just over three minutes into the first half before Carroll and Graves found their touch from the outside while Troy Murphy began to dominate inside.

With West Virginia (12-7, 4-4) up 48-37, Notre Dame ripped off an 18-3 run – 13 of those points coming from Carroll, Graves and Murphy – to go up 55-51 with 10:40 left, Notre Dame’s first lead since 4:23 into the game.

West Virginia retook the lead briefly at 56-55 before the Irish went on a 12-3 spurt and held the Mountaineers to nine points the rest of the game.

Murphy finished with 16 points and nine rebounds, while Harold Swanagan had 12 points and nine boards.

Carroll was 1-for-6 from the field in the first half, including 0-of-3 from 3-point range, while Graves took just one shot from the field as the Irish trailed by as many as 17.

Meanwhile, the Mountaineers hit eight of their first 16 3-pointers on their way to sinking 13 3s. Still, they went 4-of-16 from behind the arc in the second half.

Calvin Bowman led West Virginia with 16 points, while Lionel Armstead and Josh Yeager added 12 points each.

The Mountaineers put Murphy on the bench for almost four minutes in the first half after he picked up his second foul midway through the period.

Murphy re-entered the game with less than 5:48 left and the Irish down 33-19 when he hit a 3-pointer that sparked a 16-5 run that he capped with an alley oop on a fastbreak to pull within 38-35 with 1:40 left in the half.

Notre Dame trailed 41-35 at the half.