Notre Dame outscored St. John's 44-14 in the second half Tuesday night to cruise past the Red Storm 66-40 on Senior Night at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend. The win, however, was overshadowed by freshman Cameron Biedscheid's fight and subsequent ejection late in the game with St. John's Sir'Dominic Pointer. Biedscheid's indiscretion now means he must miss the Irish's season finale at Louisville because of a suspension.
In spite of the fight, the Irish turned it on in the second half after trailing 26-22 at halftime. Jerian Grant led the way with 21 points to go with three rebounds, eight assists, and three steals. Eric Atkins chipped in 15 points and seven assists and Jack Cooley recorded another double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
It was a slow start for both teams as neither club could score until Grant made a jumper a minute and a half into the game. It stayed low-scoring throughout as ND didn't crack double digits until with 9:48 mark of the first half while the Red Storm didn't hit 10 until 9:21 to go. Finally, St. John's was able to get something going as they eventually led by as much as 7 before the Irish sliced the deficit to four at the break.
The second half belonged to Notre Dame as the Irish defense forced St. John's into bad shot after bad shot and after Pat Connaughton lifted ND to the lead with 13:49 remaining, the Irish never trailed again pulling away until the end.
Notre Dame improves to 23-7 overall and 11-6 in the Big East and will wrap up the regular season Saturday afternoon at Louisville.
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