Notre Dame slipps past Wichita State in Maui Championship game

The Fighting Irish have outscored their first five opponents by an average of 29 points but will be tested by a deep Wichita State team averaging 90.5 points per game.

Notre Dame is coming off a dominant 92-53 win over LSU last night to improve to 5-0 on the season.

UND’s T.J. Gibbs banked in a 3 to keep his team around, and Colson followed with a wing trey to make it a three-point game with six minutes left.

Geben finished the game with 12 points, making all five of his shots from the field and both of his free throw attempts.

Wichita State senior reserve guard Rashard Kelly, when asked what a Maui Invitational title would mean to him, turned to Marshall on the interview podium and asked: “You have a championship here yet?” Gregg Marshall’s bunch held a 15-8 advantage at the halfway point of the half thanks to a 4-of-13 effort by the Irish from the floor to open the game. The Shockers are 2-1 against the spread so far. “Somebody’s just got to fall in love with doing the dirty work”.

The Golden Eagles built a double-digit lead with a 10-0 run midway through the second half. A consensus preseason All-American, Colson recorded a career-high five steals against the Tigers and is averaging 19 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks.

Marquette shot its way into the semifinals behind Rowsey and Howard, who combined for 42 points a 94-83 win over VCU.

Tremont Waters scored a season-high 39 points – the most by a Tigers player in two seasons.

Tip-off tonight for Notre Dame’s showdown with the Shockers is 10:00 PM ET and the game will be broadcast by ESPN 2. He was 5 for 5 at one point and finished the half 5 for 6.

I have tremendous respect for Notre Dame, but I love the guys in my locker room. The Wolverines lost 77 to 75 in a game that came down to the last second and ended on a missed buzzer beater opportunity.

What a wild final seven minutes it would be. We couldn’t guard them man-to-man.

In a hard-fought battle that came down to the final seconds, LSU left it all on the floor and topped MI, 77-75. He quickly dished the ball off to Colson who cut the lead to only 1. Then Reaves was fouled and missed the front-end of the one-and-one free throw. Geben was fouled by Shaquille Morris on the inbounds play and his first free throw appeared to be headed out of the rim before bouncing back in.

The Lithuanian calmly converted both free throws to give the Irish their first lead at 67-66 since the early minutes of the game.

After Notre Dame’s Bonzie Colson made a layup with eight seconds remaining, Matt Farrell, the tournament MVP, stole the ball, but his layup attempt was blocked by Zach Brown.

Wichita State’s Landry Shamet goes up for a first-half shot. The Fighting Irish defense must shut down Nick Ward and Miles Bridges to come out with a win against a tough Michigan State team.

The Irish shot 14-of-24 (58.3 percent) from the field in the second half after going just about 40 percent in the first.

WSU is now 4-1 going into Tuesday night’s home game against Savannah State.

Erik Schieve led the SIlverswords with 17 points and Austin Pope had 11 as they were the only two players in double figures for the Division II school, who fell to 7-79 all-time in the event. Along with his 10 points, Shamet also added seven assists to his stats.