Dec. 9, 1999
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – It was the tale of two halves.
In one half, Valparaiso looked solid and in the other half, Notre Dame did.
In the end, it was the Irish who prevailed when sophomore Troy Murphy scored 17 points in the second half to lead his team to a 65-42 win. Valpo held the super sophomore to just two points in the first half.
“The toughest thing for Troy was being patient,” Irish head coach Matt Doherty said. “He was patient and got rewarded for it, not only with the win but he had a great second half.”
The 10,382 fans present witnessed an unbelievable turnaround by the Irish. Notre Dame led by four at half but Doherty did not seem satisfied with his team’s play. Murphy had only two points in the first half, made off of two free-throws. Valpo’s Lubos Barton seemed to be open all the time in the first half as he tallied up 12 points.
“I wish we could have given Notre Dame a better game,” Valparaiso head coach Homer Drew said. “I thought that the first half we were able to control the ball a little bit. We were in a position to be in the game at halftime. I think that you really have to compliment Notre Dame. At halftime, they came out an increased the defensive pressure on our perimeter people and we ended up with 17 turnovers. We turned the ball over too much to get back into the ball game.”
All things changed when the Irish emerged from the locker rooms ready for the second half. On the first Irish possession, Murphy took the ball in down low and hit a turnaround jumpshot. Crusader Raitis Grafs fouled Murphy who then sunk the bonus. The very next possession, Murphy hit a cutting Harold Swanagan who announced that the Irish came ready to play, as he slam-dunked it.
“We felt that we should have had a bigger lead at halftime,” Murphy said. “Coach reminded us that we have to play defense. We went out there and really made a commitment to defending these guys. I thought we really buckled down.”
Just two minutes into the second half, Valpo found itself down by nine and Drew called a timeout. The Irish would not look back as they coasted to 23-point win over the Crusaders.
“The first ten minutes we did a very nice job in controlling that aspect of the game,” Drew said about stopping Murphy. “Then you have to compliment Graves and Carroll and them for hitting the outside shot. That then took us out of the zone and opened things up for Murphy.”
The other top performers for the Irish included sophomore David Graves. The forward contributed 11 points and three steals. “I was pumped about the fans and the crowd that was there,” Graves said. “It was just fun, a lot of fun. It was a great atmosphere and that is what college basketball is all about.”
Notre Dame has just two days to prepare for Saturday’s matchup against Miami of Ohio. As usual, the Irish will celebrate until midnight and then start focusing first thing Thursday on Miami.