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  Saturday, Dec. 9 12:00pm ET
Miami of Ohio tips Notre Dame
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame coach Mike Brey keeps telling the Irish that it should hurt when an opponent gets an offensive rebound. It sure did Saturday against Miami of Ohio.

Notre Dame's Matt Carroll attempts to steal the ball away from Eugene Seals on Saturday.
The RedHawks repeatedly scored off their own misses, grabbing 18 offensive rebounds compared to just eight for the Irish, as Miami handed No. 10 Notre Dame its second straight loss, 73-64.

"If you can defensive rebound, you're going to win that game," Brey said. "Defensive rebounding is a dirty work thing. I think we're still in the mode of hoping they miss."

The RedHawks (4-4) outhustled the Irish throughout, especially on the boards, where they had a 44-26 advantage. Mike Ensminger and Rich Allendorf had six offensive rebounds each. Notre Dame (4-2) had a total of eight.

"Rebounding is all about effort. Offensive rebounding is all about effort and wanting the ball. If you do that, you've got a chance to win the game," Ensminger said.

Engminger finished with 10 rebounds and Allendorf had eight. Miami's guards even did better than Notre Dame on the boards with Jason Grunkemeyer grabbing eight and Matt Jameson pulling down six. Ryan Humphrey led Notre Dame with six.

"We've got to box out," Humphrey said. "I don't care if it's five midgets out there, we've got to box out and we haven't been doing that."

The 64 points was the fewest scored this season by the Irish, who had been averaging 87 points a game. Notre Dame lost to Indiana 86-78 on Tuesday.

"We're out of the Top 25 so fast our heads are spinning. Maybe that's the best thing for us," Brey said. "The preseason expectations are out the window now."

Miami, which upset Temple earlier this season, has held opponents to 68 points or less in every game this season.

Ensminger and Alex Shorts led the RedHawks in scoring with 16 points each.

Notre Dame All-American Troy Murphy, who did not start for the first time ever as part of a punishment for using a fake identification to get into a bar, cut Miami's lead to 60-59 with a basket underneath with 4:45 left.

But Allendorf scored on a rebound off his own miss and Ensminger scored on an inbounds pass from under the basket with five seconds left on the shot clock to give the RedHawks a five-point lead.

Grunkemeyer then made a pair of free throws for the RedHawks and then stole the ball from Martin Ingelsby and scored on a fastbreak layup to make it 68-61. The RedHawks hit four of five free throws in the final 64 seconds to extend the lead.

Grunkemeyer had 12 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals, Julius Jones added 12 points and Allendorf had 10 points and eight rebounds.

Murphy, wearing a brace on his right ankle after spraining it Monday, had 22 points and just four rebounds, Ryan Humphrey had 17 points, David Graves scored 13 and Matt Carroll 12. No one else scored for the Irish.

Brey said he thinks the Irish have tried too hard the past two games.

"We can fall off the radar screen a little bit and try to improve," he said.
 


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