Irish knock off No. 9 Maryland, No. 2 Texas to win BB&T Classic
By CHRIS FEDERICO
Sports Editor
It was a sweet homecoming for Danny Miller and a coming out party in the nation's capital for Torin Francis and the Irish as unranked Notre Dame knocked off No. 9 Maryland and No. 2 Texas in the BB&T Classic at the MCI Center in Washington.
The pair of upsets came on the heels of Notre Dame's 92-71 victory over No. 13 Marquette in the Joyce Center Dec. 2.
"We came into Washington off the radar screen," Irish coach Mike Brey told The Associated Press after the game Sunday. "We are going to be all over the radar screen now."
Miller, a transfer from Maryland, had 17 points and seven rebounds against his former Terrapin teammates, as the Irish grabbed a convincing 79-67 victory Saturday over Maryland in the first round of the BB&T Classic in the Terps' own backyard.
The senior Irish forward was booed nearly every time he touched the ball Saturday from the hometown Maryland fans, but he quickly quieted the crowd, scoring Notre Dame's first points of the game with an early three-pointer. Miller finished 5-for-11 from behind the arc.
"Boos and stuff don't bother me," Miller told the AP. "I expected them when I came in. I just shake it off."
But the real star over the weekend for the Irish was the freshman Francis. The Irish forward was 8-for-8 shooting from the field, finishing with 20 points, eight rebounds and three blocks against Maryland.
Sunday, Francis had 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocked shots, falling just two blocks short of his first collegiate triple-double. But more importantly, the freshman finished 7-for-8 from the free-throw line, icing the game for the Irish in the waning minutes of the game to secure Notre Dame's 98-92 win.
"Torin has taken a huge step forward," Brey said.
In Saturday's game, the Terrapins did a better job stopping themselves than the Irish could have hoped to do. Maryland shot a struggling 37 percent from the field and missed its first 11 3-point attempts.
Francis hit a hot streak right before the end of the first half, when he scored 11 of his 14 first half points to lead the Irish on a 16-5 run to close out the period.
The Irish took a 10-point lead into the locker room at halftime, but Maryland returned to the court ready to play and narrowed the Irish lead to 35-30 in the opening minutes of the second half. But that was as close as the Terps would get, as Notre Dame went on an 11-4 run and never looked back.
The Irish had two other players — guards Matt Carroll and Chris Thomas — score in double digits, with 19 and 10 points, respectively.
Sunday's game was a much closer battle between the Irish and Longhorns. In a game that featured two of the top point guards in the nation in sophomores Thomas and Texas' T. J. Ford, it was the young guns who got the ball with the game on the line.
After Texas erased a 13-point second-half deficit and took a five-point lead with three minutes to play, Thomas nailed a key 3-pointer to give the Irish an 85-83 lead they never relinquished through the help of some timely free-throw shooting from Thomas and Francis.
Meanwhile, the superstar Ford, who had 21 points and 12 assists for the Longhorns, stumbled with the game on the line, getting a layup blocked, turning the ball over and missing a 3-pointer that could have narrowed Notre Dame's lead to a point in the game's final seconds.
Along with Francis, the Irish again had four players finish with double digit points as Miller, Carroll and Thomas had 20, 20 and 19 points, respectively.
The pair of victories moved the Irish to 8-1 on the season, as the three consecutive wins against ranked teams ought to move the unranked Irish into the national rankings when they are released today.
"I can't quite digest this week yet," Brey said. "It's been a fabulous stretch. In the three games this week we did a lot of growing up."
Notes:
The last time an unranked team beat ranked teams in three consecutive games was last year when Arizona opened the season with victories over No. 2 Maryland, No. 6 Florida and No. 23 Texas.
Despite Francis' pair of 20-point performances and near triple-double against Texas, the MVP award of the BB&T Classic went to the Longhorns point guard T. J. Ford, who had 20 points and 12 assists against the Irish.
All Sports Stories for Monday, December 9, 2002
