No. 3 Michigan State dominates No. 5 Notre Dame

Just four days after holding the North Carolina Tar Heels’ top-20 offense to 0.62 points per possession at the PK80, Michigan State dominated another one of the country’s most efficient scoring teams in East Lansing. “Second half we knew we had a run in us”, Brey said.

Miles Bridges added 14 points, six rebounds and four assists and Nick Ward finished with 12 points and five boards for the Spartans. An ongoing series with Michigan State simply wouldn’t make sense within the confines of his teams’s schedule.

The Irish indeed made a comeback, coming as close as seven points down, but couldn’t overcome the early deficit.

The Mountaineers then outscored NJIT (4-3) 31-14 to close out the first half and opened the second half with a 15-2 run to cruise to victory. Notre Dame came within seven after a Farrell jumper cut the Spartan lead to 53-46 with 13:07 left, but Michigan State continued to answer everything the Irish threw at them. Colson had two of his first shots of the game blocked and didn’t score his first point until Notre Dame already trailed by 18. The Irish bench was also shutout in the half while the Spartans got 11 points from its reserves.

#4 Louisville 72, IN 59: Myisha Hines-Allen had 25 points and 12 rebounds to help the visiting Cardinals (7-0) defeat the Hoosiers (4-3).

Notre Dame came out of the intermission firing.

West Virginia (7-1) started the game sluggish, allowing NJIT to lead throughout the first 10 minutes of the game. Gibbs connected on his fourth basket to give him a team-high 11 points to cut the lead to 46-26 heading into the break.

(2) TEXAS 88, LOUISIANA TECH 54: Brooke McCarty had 15 points, five assists and five steals to lead host Texas (6-0) past Louisiana Tech (4-3). The sophomore entered Thursday’s contest averaging 21.2 points per 40 minutes, up from 13.2 last season, and on a almost identical true shooting percentage. The sophomore shooting guard hit a layup off a Winston dish to spark a 13-3 run, in which Langford hit four straight jumpers from four different spots on the court.

MSU picked up its second marquee win of the season, defeating No. 5 Notre Dame as a part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge Thursday night at the Breslin Center 81-63 to improve to 5-1 on the season.

The more Notre Dame relies on jump shots, the more they can get in trouble.

(4) LOUISVILLE 72, INDIANA 59: Myisha Hines-Allen had 25 points and 12 rebounds to help the Cardinals (7-0) use a big third quarter to beat Indiana (4-3) in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at Bloomington, Indiana.

Winston and Joshua Langford each scored 17 points to lead the Spartans (6-1), with Winston netting five 3-pointers while adding seven assists.

Whitfield was 7-of-9 shooting and Burk made 8 of 13 field goals, including three 3-pointers. Most importantly, Michigan State held the Irish’s leading scorer and post threat Bonzie Colson to 17 points on an inefficient 6-of-19 shooting.

A Michigan State team that had played well for stretches in all facets of the game throughout the season put everything together as it jumped on an undefeated Irish team early.