The No. 25 Notre Dame Fighting Irish are surging at the right time, and on Wednesday against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, ND picked up its seventh straight win. Notre Dame led only by five at halftime but dominated after the intermission to escape with a 71-53 home win over Rutgers. The victory improves the Fighting Irish to 18-8 (10-3 Big East), while Rutgers drops to 12-14, 4-9.
Big man Jack Cooley was again the leading man for Notre Dame. Cooley scored 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting and grabbed 18 rebounds, eight of them on the offensive end. Jerian Grant chipped in 11 points in the win. Pat Connaughton and Eric Atkins each had 10 points for Notre Dame.
Rutgers was led by Dane Miller, who scored a team-high 11 points. Teammate Eli Carter had 10 points in the loss.
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