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Saturday, Jan. 6 7:30pm ET
Murphy scores 37 for Fighting Irish RECAP | BOX SCORE
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SOUTH BEND, 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 (No. 25 ESPN/USA Today, No. 21 Associated Press) 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.
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ALSO SEE Men's College Basketball Scoreboard
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