South Bend, Ind.—No. 20 Notre Dame's superior size and
efficiency wore down visiting UMBC and the Irish defeated the
Retrievers, 93-53, at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center.
Junior guard Chris De La
Rosa (Washington Heights, N.Y./All Hallows/Siena) scored
11 of his team-high 15 points in the first half. Freshman Jamar
Wertz (Suffolk, Va./King's Fork) added 11 points off the
bench.
UMBC struggled mightily from behind the arc, misfiring on 15 of
19 attempts.
After Justin Fry hit
a short baseline jumper to tie the score at 8-8, the Irish went on
a 14-4 run to take a 22-12 advantage at the 11:12 mark. The Irish
would hit six of their seven treys in the first half in the final
11:43 of the stanza and built the margin to 48-29 at intermission.
Notre Dame hit 17 of 29 shots (58.6 percent) from the floor in the
first 20 minutes and outrebounded the smaller Retrievers,
20-10.
Notre Dame opened the second half on 21-6 run to put the game
out of reach.
Tim Abromitis led all scorers with 21 points and added 11
rebounds.
UMBC has some time off before hosting Niagara on Dec. 30 at the
RAC Arena
