Notre Dame vs Rutgers Box Score

By TOM COYNE
Associated Press Writer

Notre Dame, Ind. (AP) – Troy Murphy was told to start down low against Rutgers and move out only if he had to. He never had to.

Murphy spun around, shot over and occasionally made outside shots on the way to a career-high 37 points as Notre Dame beat the Scarlet Knights 87-80 Saturday night.

The biggest play for Murphy was the one he didn’t shoot.

With less than two minutes left and Rutgers having cut Notre Dame’s lead to 80-77 on a 3-pointer by Todd Billet, Murphy got the ball down low and was immediately double-teamed by Sean Axani and Kareem Wright.

Rather than attempt to fight through the double-team, Murphy passed it outside to Matt Carroll, who hit a 3-pointer.

“That was huge. He throws it out and it was a deep 3,” Rutgers coach Kevin Bannon said. “That was a tough shot. That was a backbreaker right there.”

Murphy made two more free throws to finish 8-for-8 from the line. The Irish (9-3, 1-1 Big East), who entered the game shooting 63.5 percent from the line, made 17 of 20 to hold off the Scarlet Knights, who trailed by 16 with 12 minutes left.

Notre Dame’s 87 points were the most allowed by the Scarlet Knights (8-5, 0-2) this season. Rutgers, which had yielded an average of 59.1 points, hadn’t allowed an opponent to break 80 before Saturday. The 60.8 percent shooting by the Irish was also a season high against Rutgers.

“We fought real hard to get back in this game and they made the plays down the stretch,” Bannon said. “That’s basically the difference.”

Ryan Humphrey scored 17 points, David Graves added 16 and Martin Ingelsby had a career-high 13 assists for the Irish.

Jeff Greer led Rutgers with 26 points. Billet shot 4-for-8 from 3-point range and had 20 points, and Mike Sherrod added 15. Rashod Kent, who led the Knights with eight rebounds, fouled out with 5:39 left.

Rutgers had held Murphy to 18 and 23 points in regular-season games last season.

“Tonight the shots fell. Last year he was taking tough shots and he was missing tough shots,” Kent said of Murphy.

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey was impressed.

“He was more poised in the low post than he’s been in a couple of weeks,” Brey said. “He was spinning, turning, maybe that’s because he had one guy on him and he had some room to work.”

Murphy said he didn’t think the Knights played him any differently than anyone else.

“I just went into my move a little bit quicker,” he said.