Dec. 6, 2003

Recap?|? Box Score

• Notre Dame now is 52-17 vs. Mid-American Conference teams, with wins in two of the last three meetings (wins vs. Miami in 2001-02 and Northern Illinois this season) ND now has won two of three games vs. CMU.

• The Irish now are 15-6 in December during the four-year Mike Brey era, including 6-2 during the past two seasons.

• Prior to tonight’s loss, ND had been 18-2 in its previous 20 games at the Joyce Center (losses late in ’02-’03 vs. UConn and Syracuse).

• Junior G Chris Thomas reached 20-plus points (24) for the 26th time in 71 career games with the Irish while also reaching double-digit points for the 59th time (ND is just 6-6 when he fails to score 10-plus, 42-13 when he hits double digits) Thomas had scored 10-plus in 24 straight games (since scoring five in a loss at Pittsburgh) and has scored in double-digits in 34 of the last 36.

• Sophomore F Torin Francis (10 points, 12 rebounds) posted his 12th career double-double in 38 career games with the Irish (it is his fifth double-double in the last 10 games) he also scored double-digits for the 23rd time and grabbed 10-plus rebounds for the 14th time in his ND career Francis (5) pushed his career block total to 72, still 8th in the ND record book and now three behind Tracy Jackson the five blocks matched the second-highest total of Francis’ career at ND (he had eight blocks vs. Texas as a freshman and has two other 5-block games, including the NIU game this season).

• Notre Dame now has made at least one three-point basket in 151 consecutive games, dating back to a game vs. UConn on Jan, 12, 1999 (at the Hartford Civic Center).

• The Irish shot 54.3 pct. from the floor in their previous home game (vs. Mount St. Mary’s) but shot just 31.1 vs. Marquette and 35.8 tonight vs. CMU ND has averaged 15.7 turnovers in the last three games (20-14-13).

• Sophomore G Chris Quinn (13) posted the fifth double-digit scoring game of his career.

• Freshman swingman Colin Falls made the most of his first career start (subbing for senior Torrian Jones, who was sidelined with illness) Falls scored 11 points in 33 minutes of action, after totaling just five points in 50 minutes over the course of the first three games.

RECORD-BOOK UPDATE

• Junior G Chris Thomas scored 24 points tonight to move into 27th on the Notre Dame career scoring list with 1,227 points, edging past F/C Dave Batton (1,205; ’74-’78) and tying center and former ND athletic director Dick Rosenthal (1,227; ’51-’54) next up on the list is G Rich Branning (1,232) Thomas also ranks 10th all-time in scoring among ND guards, with Rich Branning 9th on that list (Ryan Hoover is 8th, at 1,269) Thomas posted three assists to push his career total closer to 507 (still 5th in ND history and now nine behind Elmer Bennett) he also drained one 3-point basket to extend that career total to 167, tying current coordinator of basketball operations Martin Ingelsby (167) for 4th on that list (behind Matt Carroll’s 301, David Graves’ 259 and Ryan Hoover’s 248).