Vasturia Leads Irish In Rout Of Mount St. Mary's
SOUTH BEND (AP) — Steve Vasturia scored a career-high 19 points and Zach Auguste had 19 points and eight rebounds Tuesday to lead No. 25 Notre Dame to a 93-67 win over Mount St. Mary's.
Vasturia was perfect on the night, hitting 7-of-7 from the floor, including three 3-pointers, and both his free throws. Jerian Grant, Notre Dame's leading scorer, hit his average of 19 points.
Back in the Top 25 for the first time in over the year, the Irish (9-1) used a 30-4 first half run to turn a four-point contest into a blowout before halftime.
Chris Martin hit 5-of-9 3-pointers and finished with 19 points for the Mountaineers (2-5).
Notre Dame, the national leader in field goal percentage, shot 59 percent from the field (36-of-61).
Not much would go down in the second half for Mount St. Mary's, which missed two tip-ins and followed with a failed dunk attempt by Byron Ashe on consecutive trips down the floor as the Mountaineers hit just 2 of 12 from the floor to open the second half. Notre Dame's lead ballooned to 34 points in that stretch after a Vasturia 3-pointer and Grant's pull up jumper.
The Irish started the game 5-of-5 and had an 11-point lead less than three minutes in.
After a Martin 3-pointer cut that lead to 22-18 with 11:29 left in the half, the Irish roll began. Grant knocked down a long jumper and Vasturia hit consecutive 3-pointers to spark Notre Dame's big run over the next 10 minutes, effectively ending any thought of an upset by the Mountaineers.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.