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Hansbrough, Irish rally past Marquette

Jan 23, 2011 - 4:18 AM South Bend, IN (Sports Network) - Ben Hansbrough scored 28 points on 10- of-15 shooting, and No. 16 Notre Dame earned an 80-75 comeback victory over Marquette to stay perfect at the Joyce Center this season.

Hansbrough added six assists and five rebounds, and Carleton Scott chipped in 11 points and 10 boards for the Fighting Irish (16-4, 5-3 Big East), who overcame a 12-point deficit in the second half and improved to 13-0 at home.

"I thought we were great in the second half," Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey said. "Our fans gave us a great energy lift when we made the run in the second half to help us feel we could do it."

Darius Johnson-Odom led Marquette with 25 points, while Jae Crowder scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds before fouling out with 3 1/2 minutes left.

The Golden Eagles had won two of three coming in, including a 22-point drubbing of the Irish on January 10.

They appeared poised for another lopsided win when Dwight Buycks' three- pointer in the opening minute of the second half resulted in a 48-36 cushion.

Tim Abromaitis was held scoreless in the first 20 minutes but sparked the turnaround. He scored six straight Notre Dame points and started a 13-2 flurry that Hansbrough capped with two free throws to tie the game at 53 with 14:20 left to play.

Hansbrough drained a three-ball near the midway point to give Notre Dame a 60-57 lead, its first since 2-0, and the hosts stayed in front from there.

Two Tyrone Nash free throws gave the Irish a 71-65 edge with under three minutes left before Carleton Scott blocked a driving Jimmy Butler at the other end. Nash then tipped-in an Abromaitis airball for an eight-point margin that was too much for Marquette to overcome.

"We have to come out in the second half the way we started the game," Butler said. "We need to play the entire 40 minutes and rely more on defense instead of offense. If we do that, everything else will start to turn around for us."

Marquette led through most of the first half, going up by double-digits, 33-23, on Crowder's bucket with six minutes left.

The Golden Eagles wound up hitting 62 percent from the field in the first half, including 5-of-7 from three-point range, to go into the break with a 45-36 cushion.

Game Notes

Abromaitis came in averaging 15.3 points per game and ended with just six...Nash and Eric Atkins netted 13 and 12 points, respectively, for Notre Dame, which held the Golden Eagles to 30 percent shooting in the second half...Butler had 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting...Notre Dame had more than twice as many free throw attempts than Marquette, 36-17...Marquette hosts nationally-ranked Connecticut and Syracuse next week, while Notre Dame has a tough road game at Pittsburgh on Monday.