Nov. 22, 2000

Notre Dame vs. Loyola Chicago Box Score

By TOM COYNE
Associated Press Writer

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Before this season, Notre Dame went 211 games between 100-point outings.

Now the No. 11 Irish have done it twice in two games.

The Irish (2-0) set school records by making 16 3-pointers and shooting 76.2 percent on 22 shots from 3-point range to beat Loyola of Illinois 107-68 Wednesday night. The Irish also had 29 assists, four off the school record.

“The neat thing was guys were turning shots down to keep swinging it,” first-year coach Mike Brey said. “They like how that ball moves. We do have weapons, there’s no question.”

Troy Murphy scored 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, and Matt Carroll tied his career-high with 22 points and was 5-of-6 on 3-pointers. David Graves added 18 points and five assists and Ryan Humphrey had 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting.

Martin Ingelsby, Notre Dame’s other starter, had nine points and 11 assists.

“When you have five guys on the court at the same time who can all shoot, it makes it hard to defend,” Carroll said. “We’re all going to get our shots if we’re just unselfish.”

North Dame, which beat Sacred Heart 104-58 on Saturday, broke the 100-point mark when Carroll made a 10-foot jumper with five minutes left.

Loyola coach Larry Farmer said the Ramblers wanted to make the Irish beat them from the outside. They did.

“They just have so many ways to score,” Farmer said. “Notre Dame is the package because they’re good on the inside and they’re good on the outside. They’re a greatly improved team.”

Schin Kerr had a couple of emphatic alley-oop baskets for the Ramblers on feeds from David Bailey, but those were their only real highlights. Kerr finished with 21 points and 15 rebounds and Bailey had 13 points and eights assists.

The Irish took command early, hitting 70.4 percent of their shots, including 9-of-12 3-pointers, and using runs of 18-2 and 19-3 to open a 62-26 halftime lead.

“I told them at halftime it’s the kind of stuff offensively you can take and show at clinics in spring as far as making the extra pass,” Brey said.

The Irish hit their first six shots of the second half, two of them 3-pointers by Carroll, to make it 77-35.

“Every time someone took a 3-pointer, everyone knew it was going in. You could feel it in the crowd,” Murphy said. “When you have five guys shooting well from 3-point range it’s tough to defense.”

North Dame was shooting 79 percent when Torrian Jones hit a 3-pointer with 10:21 left to give the Irish a 98-46 lead. The Irish then hit their only cold stretch as they missed their next five shots and had a turnover during a 12-0 Loyola run. They shot 64.3 percent for the game.

The last time the Irish had back-to-back 100 point games was in February 1986. That’s when Notre Dame beat Manhattan 102-47 and Miami of Florida 126-73