Ben Hansbrough led Notre Dame back from an 11 point halftime deficit to defeat Marquette 80-75 in South Bend Saturday night.  It’s rare that a stat line showing 28 points, 10-15 from the field, 6-6 from the line, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and no turnovers doesn’t come close to telling how well a young man played; but anyone who was there knows how physical the game was.  Hansbrough controlled the offensive tempo, made the biggest shots of the game, and inflicted as much as he took in an extraordinarily physical game.

The Irish victory avenged a blowout loss just 12 days earlier in Milwaukee, but it looked like it was going to be more of the same in the first half.  Like they were in the first game, the Warriors were uncanny from three point range hitting 5 of 7 attempts, often from well beyond the arc.  Meanwhile, the Irish missed free throws that would have kept them close including two front ends of one and one opportunities.  The game smelled familiar, and it wasn’t a fresh scent.

Then Notre Dame played its best half of basketball all season.

Mike Brey switched the Irish into an aggressive 2-3 zone with the guards contesting the shooters at the top of the offensive set no matter how far behind the arc they were.  Marquette started to miss, and Notre Dame owned the boards to the tune of a 32-25 advantage for the game.  Carleton Scott led ND’s rebounding effort with 10 including a spectacular put-back of a Scott Martin miss during the ND’s second half run back into the game.

After shooting 61.5% from the field in the first half, Marquette made just 30% of its shots against the Irish zone in the second half; and when the Warriors tried to take the ball to the basket, weak side help was there to contest every inside shot.”It was no different than the Wisconsin or Georgia game where we’re down double digits,” said Brey. “We really don’t have any answers in man to man, so let’s try to change their rhythm a little bit. Their shots came up but in a little different rhythm.

“Then, we were able to rebound out of zone,” Brey added. “We weren’t able to rebound in man to man. We weren’t even jumping off of the floor like we can. They were just so much faster than us.”

Four of Hansbrough’s teammates joined him with double figures in the scoring column – Tyrone Nash (13), Eric Atkins (12), Scott (11), and Martin (10).  All of Atkins’ points came in the first half when the Irish were struggling to score.

“Eric was fabulous in the first half because we were dying to find something,” Brey said. He scored some shots for us and kept us believing we could win. He was keeping us alive. Eric gave us great minutes.”

The Irish took their first lead since 2-0 on a Hansbrough three against the shot clock at the 10:28 mark of the second half, and they never trailed again.

“(Senior walk-on) Tom Kopko helped me out on that play,” said Hansbrough after the game.  “I knew it was the end of the shot clock because as soon as I caught it he said, ‘shoot it.’ I just turned around, let it fly and I got lucky and it went in.”

Hansbrough’s dunk on ND’s next trip down the floor couldn’t be called lucky.  Scott rebounded Hansbrough’s missed three point shot, and the Irish reset the offense.  When Darius Johnson-Odom overplayed the middle, he drove the baseline for a thundering dunk that had the crowd on its feet screaming and Buzz Williams calling timeout.

There was never a doubt from that point through the end of the game.

Noteworthy

• Hansbrough’s 28 points were his career high.
• Notre Dame has won 15 straight games at home, 13 this season.
• After struggling from the line in the first half, the Irish converted 19 of 22 attempts in the second half.
• ND had 13 assists and just 7 turnovers.