The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Great Scott!

Marquette waited a year for the chance to take back the humiliating loss to Notre Dame last season at the Joyce Center in South Bend, Ind. With the 71-58 win over Notre Dame last night, the Golden Eagles know what vengeance tastes like, and it mixed with a bit of ‘Irish’ cream.

The friendly rivalry between the two nationally-ranked Catholic schools continued with the second game of a new series which Marquette tied 1-1. Senior Scott Merritt finished with a double double with 18 points and 12 rebounds in one of his finest performances over a nationally ranked team. A Merritt rarely seen at the Bradley Center, revving up the crowd and showing a cocky grin after scoring over the defense, showed consistency and contributed greatly to his team’s early lead over Notre Dame in the first half.

Junior point guard Chris Thomas, who dropped 32 points and 10 assists on Marquette last year on his home court, only finished with 11 points on 4-of-21 shooting.

“Chris tried to force some shots to get things going for us,” Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey said. “He made those shots last year.”

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In the much anticipated battle of the guards in Travis Diener and Thomas, Diener finished with 12 points and seven assists. With fearless penetration against the Notre Dame defense he was able to find his teammates on the perimeter. Diener found Novak a couple of times behind the three-point line, as Novak shot 5-for-7 from the arc, and 4-for-5 from the free-throw line to lead his team with 21 points.

“This is a great step for our team and our veterans to see what it takes for this type of game against a team like Notre Dame,” head coach Tom Crean said.

After Marquette headed into the second half with a 41-26 lead, the Fighting Irish were able to feed off a 15-7 run at the end of the first half to close in to as much as 10 points when the score was 57-47 with 7:45 left in the second half. Torin Francis muscled his way into the lane and caused trouble for Terry Sanders and Marcus Jackson, who both finished with four fouls. Novak made to back-to-back three pointers to give Marquette some breathing room that Notre Dame could never close in on and along with Diener, scored Marquette’s last points at the free-throw line to seal the win.

“This (rivalry) was a big deal to Al McGuire and it’s a rivalry that makes a lot of sense,” Crean said. “I have a lot of respect for Mike Brey and what he’s doing with his program and I’m sure it’s mutual.”

The luck of the Irish was nowhere to be seen in the first half, shooting 24 percent from the floor and their two top scorers in Thomas and Francis shooting a combined 2-of-15. Merritt and Novak led their team with 13 and 8 points, respectively. Torrian Jones led Notre Dame with 10 points.

“I have to give credit to their defense,” Brey said. “We could not get into any rhythm offensively.”

Brey said he is looking forward to playing Marquette in the Big East Conference in the future.

“We both jumped on each other in our home gyms and I think it will be interesting when we’re going to play each other in the same league.”

Crean agreed.

“It will be great to have a schedule like this in the next couple of years,” he said.

Marquette collected 36 rebounds to Notre Dame’s 35, and posted a 19-13 edge in offensive boards. Merritt led Marquette with seven offensive rebounds. The Golden Eagles shot 49 percent from the field and 65 percent from the free-throw line compared to Notre Dame’s 31 percent from the floor and 75 percent from the free-throw line.

Marquette’s next game will be at 8 p.m. Friday against Grambling at the Bradley Center.