Bulls never win bullfights, but they usually make the contest interesting.  Not so for the South Florida Bulls, not today anyway.

Jack Cooley came off the bench to score a team leading 18 points on 9-10 shooting, all but one of the 10 shots within a couple of feet of the basket.  All five Notre Dame starters joined Cooley with double digits in the points column led by Carleton Scott’s 13.  Scott completed his double-double with 11 rebounds.

USF’s Shaun Noriega parlayed 6 three point baskets into 23 points to lead all scorers.  No other Bulls player had more than 7 points.

“We played the way we practiced yesterday,” Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey said after the game.  “We really came down here focused.  I was really proud of our veterans got us ready to go early.”

They were, indeed, ready.  The Irish opened where they left off in overtime on Wednesday – forcing USF to rush against the shot clock on the defensive end of the floor, moving the ball well on offense, and hitting open shots.  They hit from inside (Tim Abromaitis), Mid-range (Scott), and outside (Scott Martin) en route to a 9-3 lead at the first TV timeout.

Hansbrough was whistled for his second foul five minutes into the half and had to sit.  That would have been cause for concern except that the Irtish kept hitting their shots and the Bulls couldn’t make one.  After USF finally made its second basket of the game at the 10:13  mark, a three by Shaun Noriega, the score was 24-6 in Notre Dame’s favor.

Notre Dame cruised the rest of the half and took a 41-17 lead to the locker room.  Jack Cooley came off the bench to make 5 of 5 shots close to the basket while Scott led with 13 points.  Martin and Abromaitis added 7 points apiece.   Hansbrough and Ty Nash had just 2 points each, Hansbrough because he was busy dishing out 6 assists in the first half and Nash because there are only so many opportunities for a center to grab a rebound, dribble coast-to-coast, and finish with a layup like he did with 6:00 to play in the half.  Eric Atkins also contributed to the assist parade with four.

13 of Notre Dame’s 18 first half baskets were assisted, and the Irish held a 20-12 rebounding advantage at the break.

South Florida came out of halftime looking interested for the first time.  Gilchrist powered to the basket, was fouled, and split a pair of free throws; and Noriega made a pair of threes while Notre Dame scored just a point on a Hansbrough free throw.  But Martin answered with a three on a cross-court assist from Hansbrough before the under 16:00 TV timeout to stop the run, and the Bulls’ chance to make it interesting withered.

The Irish passing show continued until the 4:52 mark when Mike Brey began to empty the bench with a 71-38 lead.  They had 21 assists at that point.

The rest of the game resembled a game at The Rock.  Final score:  Notre Dame 78, South Florida 55.

Noteworthy

• Eric Atkins continued to provide reliable point guard play off the bench with 7 assists and just 1 turnover.  Atkins went into the game with a league leading 3.0 assists/turnover ratio.
• Notre Dame dominated the boards in the first half against the Big East’s #3 rebounding team, but USF closed the gap on the reserves during a 17-2 scoring run.  The final rebounding tally was 37 for each side.
• The Irish have been closing the home-road three point shooting gap over the last three road games.  They have made 42% of their threes during home Big East games compared to 35% on the road.  The road number was 25% after the road game against St. John’s.
• ND has actually shot a little better on the road from two point range, 49% at home and 53% on the road.  Today they made 61% of their two point shots.
• Cooley made his first nine shots giving him 14 consecutive field goals over two games before he missed a 15-footer in the closing minutes.
• John Shumate holds the school record for consecutive field goals made with 20 straight over three NIT games in 1973.  Before you pooh-pooh NIT achievements, those were the days of the 24-team NCAA Tournament that only included conference champions and a few at-large independents.  That left a lot of great teams for the NIT field.  20 in a row against that level of competition was a remarkable achievement that earned Shumate tournament MVP honors.
• The Irish have won three consecutive Big East road games for the first time since the 2000-01 season, Mike Brey’s first at Notre Dame.

Next

Notre Dame has a week off before it has to travel to Morgantown to play West Virginia on Saturday.  Game time is 1:00PM Eastern Time.  CBS will broadcast the game.  We’ll have a preview for you on Friday.