NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame (2-0) turned in an impressive second-half performance in an 89-62 blowout win over Chicago State (0-2) on Tuesday evening inside Purcell Pavilion. The Irish outscored the Cougars 49-27 in the final 20 minutes to give Notre Dame the win.
For the second straight outing the Irish were very balanced on the offensive end of the floor, as four players finished in double figures. Senior Elijah Burns led the Irish with 15 points, while freshman Nate Laszewski scored 12, sophomore D.J. Harvey finished with 11 and junior T.J. Gibbs added 10.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish offense wasted no time getting things going on Thursday evening, connecting on nine of its first 12 shots from the floor, including four from beyond the arc to open a 22-8 lead in the first seven minutes. Chicago State’s offense came to life and the Cougars managed to fight back and cut the Irish lead to five at 40-35 heading into the halftime break.
Notre Dame put the clamps on the Chicago State offense in the second half, allowing just seven points in the first 10 minutes of the second stanza. Over that stretch the Irish took complete control of the game, building a 22-point lead (64-22). Notre Dame pushed its lead to as many as 32 points with four minutes to play with the score 83-51. From there the Irish cruised to the 89-62 win.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Burns played the best game of his Irish career on Thursday, scoring a career-high 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field in just 17 minutes of play. The senior more than doubled his previous career high of seven points. Burns also pulled down five rebounds and added an assist.
NOTRE DAME STAT OF THE GAME
The Irish bench outscored the Chicago State bench 44-3 in the win. Burns and Laszewski each finished in double figures in the points column as reserves.
NOTES OF THE GAME
- Notre Dame improves to 6-0 against Chicago State in the all-time series, winning each game by at least 20 points.
- Notre Dame outrebounded Chicago State 41-29 and have now outrebounded each of its first two opponents by double figures.
- The Irish finished 14-of-19 from the free-throw line and are now 50-of-57 on the season.
- Notre Dame took great care of the ball, finishing the game with just six turnovers.
- Burns scored a career-high 15 points against the Cougars, marking the first double-digit point performance of his career.
- Harvey has finished each of the first two games in double figures after scoring 11 points against Chicago State and has notched six double-digit scoring performances in his career.
- Laszewski finished in double figures for the second straight game, finishing with 12 points.
- Gibbs scored 10 points in the victory and has now recorded 10-plus points 35 times in his career.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame continues its season-opening home stand with a game against Radford at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Nov. 14 at Purcell Pavilion as part of the Gotham Classic. The game will air live on ACC Network Extra via the WatchESPN app.
To purchase tickets visit UND.com/BuyTickets.
— ND —