Irish keep winning without Harangody

SOUTH BEND | Tory Jackson scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half and Notre Dame held Connecticut to 35 percent shooting, beating the Huskies 58-50 on Wednesday night.

The Fighting Irish, who trailed by as many as 10 twice in the first half, took control with a 23-6 run that started when Carleton Scott, who scored 12, hit a 3-pointer late in the first half to cut the Huskies' lead to 20-17. Jackson capped the spree with a 3-pointer midway through the second half that gave Notre Dame a 37-26 lead.

The Irish (20-10, 9-8 Big East) clinched at least a .500 conference record as they won their third straight, all without injured leading scorer and Andrean grad Luke Harangody, to keep alive their hopes for an NCAA tournament berth. Connecticut (17-13, 7-10) is assured of a sub-.500 finish in the conference.

The Notre Dame student section mocked the Huskies at the end of the game, chanting "NIT, NIT!"

Jackson took the microphone after the game and thanked the sellout crowd of 9,149.

"We had our ups and downs, but we're rolling now," he said.

The victory gave the Irish their fourth straight 20-win season, the first time Notre Dame has accomplished that since the school had six straight from 1983-88.

Both teams struggled offensively throughout. The Irish, who entered the game fourth in the nation in 3-point field-goal percentage at 41.3 percent, missed their first eight 3-pointers against the Huskies and finished 3-of-15. The Irish shot 36.5 percent from the floor, their second-worst shooting game this season.

The only way the Huskies avoided their worst shooting game of the season and matching their lowest scoring game of the season was an uncontested layup by Kemba Walker with 5 seconds left. Walker led the Huskies with 15 points and Jerome Dyson and Gavin Edwards had 10 points each for UConn.

Tim Abromaitis, whose father played at UConn, added 10 points for the Irish. Notre Dame outscored the Huskies 26-18 in the paint. UConn was ranked No. 10 in the country on Jan. 2 when they beat Notre Dame 82-70 in Hartford, outscoring them in the paint 50-28 in that game even though the Irish had Harangody, the No. 2 scorer in the nation, for that game.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Notre Dame 58, Connecticut 50

The Irish have won three straight Big East games for the first time since 2008.