No. 23 Irish win 80-62, behind Harangody's 29
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Luke Harangody had 29 points and 15 rebounds to help No. 23 Notre Dame beat Kennesaw State 80-62 in the Chicago Invitational Challenge on Tuesday night.
Harangody had a double-double in the first half with 16 points and 11 rebounds and Tim Abromaitis added 14 points. The Irish (5-0), have scored at least 80 points in each game in getting off to their best start since going 7-0 to open the 2001-02 season.
Harangody was 7-of-8 from the free-throw line while the Irish were 20-of-33 overall. Kennesaw State was 5-of-9. Harangody picked up his 1,000th career rebound in the second half, becoming just the fifth Irish player to pass that mark.
After trailing 33-24 at halftime, the Owls (2-2) closed to 35-32 on an alley-oop dunk by Markeith Cummings on a pass by Kelvin McConnell. The Owls had a chance to get closer, but Cummings blew a layup.
Harangody got the Irish going again, driving the baseline in traffic for a basket. Tory Jackson then drove inside for a layup and was fouled. He missed the basket, but Carleton Scott got the rebound and Tim Abromaitis scored inside to give the Irish a 42-32 lead.
Woods, who scored 18 points, scored on a fastbreak basket as the Owls cut the lead to 45-39. But an 8-0 run by the Irish pushed the lead back up to 53-39 when Abromaitis hit a 3 with 10:16 left. The Owls never got closer than 10.
Cummings added 12 points for the Owls and Matt Haramb had 10 points. Scott added 11 rebounds for the Irish.