Jan. 12, 2000
By JR ROSS
Associated Press Writer
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – Troy Murphy scored 27 points as Notre Dame beat Boston College 86-77 on Wednesday, making the Irish 2-0 in the Big East for the first time since they joined the conference.
Playing one week after beating then-No. 2 Connecticut, the Irish (11-5) showed few signs of a letdown in a physical game that matched the Big East’s two leading scorers, Murphy and Boston College’s Troy Bell.
Bell had 24 points, but Murphy was 9-of-13 from the field and 8-of-8 from the foul line.
Employing mostly a zone defense, the Irish forced Boston College (9-4, 1-1 Big East) to rely on its outside game. While that worked in forcing the Eagles to shoot just 26-of-71 from the field – 8-of-36 from 3-point range – Boston College grabbed 23 offensive rebounds to Notre Dame’s seven and scored 22 second-chance points.
The Irish only trailed once in the second half but couldn’t pull away from Boston College until the very end, in part because the Irish had problems with the press.
The full-court pressure contributed to Notre Dame’s 18 turnovers and made it harder for the Irish to set up in their half-court offense and pound the ball inside to Murphy.
But the Irish overcame their turnovers by shooting 60 percent (26-of-43) from the floor.
Notre Dame also outshot Boston College at the foul line 27-of-32 to 17-of-28.
Matt Carroll scored 15 points for the Irish and David Graves added 13.
Michael Cotton and Xavier Singletary both scored 14 for the Eagles.