Nov. 6, 2009
Notre Dame Quincy Exhibition Box Score
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Four Irish players scored in double figures and preseason first-team All-American Luke Harangody notched a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds as Notre Dame topped Quincy, 75-54, in exhibition play inside Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center Friday night.
Ben Hansbrough finished with 14 points, five rebounds, and six assists, and Jonathan Peoples also assisted on six scores. Tim Abromaitis finished with seven rebounds, while Tory Jackson finished with 11 points, four rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Tyrone Nash also recorded 11 points while knocking down a game-high five free throws.
Billy Baptist led the Hawks with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Justin Brock narrowly missed out on a double-double, finishing with nine rebounds and 11 points.
Quincy shot just 31.7% for the game (20-for-63) and 23.1% (6-for-26) from behind the arc. Tyler Burke connected on 3-of-8 three-point attempts and Baptist went 2-for-5, but the rest of the team went just 1-for-13.
The Hawks held a two-point lead midway through the first half but failed to score more than four consecutive points the remainder of the game.
Quincy took an early 8-7 lead before Jackson drained a three-pointer to put the Irish up 10-8, at which point both teams went cold from long range. The teams combined to go 1-for-14 from behind the arc over the next two and a half minutes. Baptist ended the drought with a three to put the Hawks up 17-15 with 10:38 left in the first half. That was their final lead of the night.
The Irish then outscored Quincy 13-0 over the next 4:40 to go up by a 28-17 count. Hansbrough fed a streaking Abromaitis for a layup to cap off the run, prompting a timeout from the Quincy bench.
Perhaps the best play all night from the Hawks came when Brock blocked a Harangody shot from behind, but Jackson promptly stole the ball back and fed Harangody for a three-pointer, his second of the game, to put the Irish up by 18 at 38-20. The All-American went 3-for-4 from behind the arc on the night.
The Notre Dame defense held Quincy to just seven points on 3-of-11 shooting over the final half of the first stanza. In fact, the Irish held the Hawks without a field goal attempt and forced five turnovers over a stretch of 3:24 during Notre Dame’s 13-0 run.
Notre Dame opened up a 20-point lead with 16:30 left in the second half when Jackson dribbled behind his back and tossed the ball to Hansbrough at the top of the key and he knocked down the trifecta to put the Irish up 49-29.
Tyrone Nash was perfect through the first 25 minutes of the game, hitting both of his shots from the floor and all five from the stripe. He led all scorers at the half with nine points.
Abromaitis drew a roar from the student section after blocking Burke’s layup attempt with 10:31 left in the game. Burke hit a three-pointer on the Hawks’ next trip down the floor to make it 56-40, but a Harangody free throw and a layup from Nash pushed the lead back to 19.
The Irish lead hovered between 16 and 21 until the 4:12 mark, when Carleton Scott brought the crowd to its feet with a high-flying, one-handed dunk off of an alley-oop pass from Jackson, giving the Irish a 69-47 lead, their largest of the game. Scott finished with eight points and four rebounds in just 16 minutes of action.
The final two minutes of the game saw all four freshmen plus walk-ons Tom Kopko and Tim Andree controlling the floor. Tom Knight and Jack Cooley recorded back-to-back blocks of Quincy shots on one trip down the floor and the Hawks managed just a pair of free throws during that stretch. Cooley banked home a rebound as the buzzer sounded to make the final score 75-54.
Notre Dame collected 49 rebounds and made its first nine free throws of the night. The first Irish miss snapped a streak of 21 consecutive free throws made by the Irish over the two exhibition contests.
The Irish return to the court on Saturday, November 14 to take on the North Florida Ospreys in the regular season opener at Purcell Pavilion. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. (ET). Notre Dame has won 10 consecutive season-openers, including the last three by an average of 37 points.