Devereaux Peters led the Irish with 14 points on Wednesday night.

No. 12 Irish Cruise Past Cardinals, 80-60

Jan. 12, 2011

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP)Devereaux Peters and Kayla McBride scored 14 points each as No. 12 Notre Dame cruised to an 80-60 victory over Louisville on Wednesday night.

Skylar Diggins and Natalie Novosel scored 12 points each and Brittany Mallory and Becca Bruszewski added 11 each for the Irish (14-4, 3-1 BIG EAST).

Asia Taylor had 16 points for Louisville (12-6, 3-1). Shoni Schimmel scored 11 and Monique Reid added 10.

Notre Dame used a 16-2 run to close the first half and take a 37-22 lead at the break.

Peters, who had sat out 10 minutes of the first half, scored eight points as the Irish opened the second half with an 11-2 run to take a 24-point lead. Their biggest advantage was 29 with 6:08 to go.

Neither team could establish much in the first 8 minutes of play. McBride hit a 10-footer to start an 8-1 run by that gave Notre Dame a 17-13 lead with 9 minutes to go in the half.

Louisville shot around 30 percent for much of the game before finishing at 34 percent (21 for 61) – including 4 for 17 on 3-pointers. Notre Dame was at 47 percent (26 for 55) overall and 4 for 10 on 3s.

— ND —

POST GAME NOTES: Notre Dame had six players score in double figures for the first time since Nov. 15, 2009, when the Fighting Irish had a school-record eight double-figure scorers in a 102-57 season-opening win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Purcell Pavilion … Notre Dame shot better than 45 percent from the field for the 15th time in 18 games this season … Notre Dame also held its opponent to fewer than 40 percent shooting from the floor for the 13th time this year and ninth time in the past 10 games … the Fighting Irish improve to 6-4 all-time against Louisville (5-2 as members of the BIG EAST Conference) and win their third consecutive game over the Cardinals (the longest winning streak by either side in the series) … in its last two matchups with Louisville, Notre Dame has held the Cardinals to 21 and 22 points in the first half (21 on March 6, 2010, in the second round of the BIG EAST Championship at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.) … Wednesday’s 22 first-half points were the fewest allowed by the Fighting Irish in a regular-season conference game since Feb. 9, 2010 (18 at Cincinnati) … Notre Dame wins its 38th consecutive game when leading at halftime and rises to 201-17 (.922) in such games since the start of the 2000-01 season … the Fighting Irish scored at least 80 points for the 11th time this season (10-1 record) and jump to 150-5 (.968) when topping the 80-point mark since joining the BIG EAST in 1995-96 … Notre Dame handed out at least 20 assists for the 11th time this season … sophomore guard Skylar Diggins also delivered at least five assists for the 11th time this year … junior guard Natalie Novosel posted her second consecutive “5-5-5” game (and third of her career) with 12 points, five rebounds and five assists.