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Late Night Snacks: Pluck of the Irish

Pat Connaughton,Russ Smith

Louisville guard Russ Smith, left, drives the lane as Notre Dame guard Pat Connaughton defends during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame won 104-101 in five overtimes. (AP Photo/Joe Raymond)

AP

Game of the Night

No. 25 Notre Dame 104, N0. 11 Louisville 101: Of the 205 points scored in this game, 85 came in extra time. Louisville lost four players to fouls, and Notre Dame lost three. The night’s Iron Man award goes to Eric Atkins, who played 60 minutes, scored 14 points and somehow had only three fouls. The takeaway from all this madness? The dissolution of the Big East sucks.

Meaningful Results

N0. 13 Kansas State 79, Iowa State 70: K-State became sole owners of the Big 12 lead with this win over a consistently dangerous Iowa State squad. They’ll take the mojo on the road Monday to face in-state rival Kansas for a chance to extend the Jayhawks’ misery.

N0. 12 Michigan State 78, Purdue 65: Don’t look now, Sparty is standing atop the B1G all by his lonesome. Pretty impressive feat in the Big Ten meat grinder.

No. 6 Gonzaga 74, Loyola Marymount 55: I mention this only because it’s very easy to forget about the Zags during conference play, when they tend to disappear off TV screens in most of the country. The Bulldogs are 10-0 in their league, where they appear to be safe from the upset-itis hitting the rest of the top ten.

UNLV 64, N0. 15 New Mexico 55: The Mountain West continues to be an exemplar of parity. Just when New Mexico seemed poised to pull away, the Rebs dragged them back a step. Colorado State is just 1/2 game behind the Lobos, and hosts San Diego State on Wednesday.

No. 19 Oregon 73, Utah 64: The Ducks trailed for much of this game, but turned on the jets to break a three-game losing streak. That they did it against one of the Pac-12’s worst teams is something we’ll just have to accept.

Illinois State 75, No. 16 Creighton 72: The MVC is getting to be as unpredictable as the Mountain West. Plenty of good teams, but nobody seems to want to seize the day and become the undisputed best team in the league. Creighton should be that team, by pure dint of talent and star power, but they aren’t. Puzzling.

Starred

Jerian Grant, Notre Dame: Down five with less than a minute left in the game and star Jack Cooley fouled out, some Fighting Irish fans filed out of the Joyce Center to beat the traffic. They missed Jerian Grant’s personal crusade to force OT, best described by Blue Ribbon’s Chris Dortch:

Jerian Grant scores 12 in 47 seconds? That’s more than a bunch of teams could muster in a half lately.

— Chris Dortch (@cdortch) February 10, 2013


The Summit Show: There were no national TV cameras there, but South Dakota State vs. Oakland was likely one of the best individual matchups of the year. Jackrabbit star Nate Wolters had a slight edge, putting up a line of 36 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists, but his opposite number Travis Bader finished with 31 points, 3 assists, 3 steals and one big W for the Golden Grizzlies. Duke Mondy’s 26 off the bench didn’t hurt.

La Salle shooters: Sam Mills broke out of a slump in a big way against Fordham, hitting seven of eight from behind the arc. The bounty from deep wasn’t limited to Mills alone, however. Ramon Galloway was 5-7 and Tyreek Duren 4-4 from three point range. As a team, the Explorers tied the program record for made treys, hitting 18 to match a mark set against Oregon in 1991.

Struggled

Elijah Johnson: The embattled KU point guard has become the focal point for much of the heat surrounding the team’s three-game losing streak. Johnson was 3-11 from the field against Oklahoma, and was ineffective leading the offense as well. The only thing saving his starting job? Backup Naadir Tharpe is so clearly not ready for prime time either.

Lobo Shooters: New Mexico’s starting perimeter players were terribly ineffective. They failed to score over UNLV’s guards, hitting just 7-26 from the floor, and precious few of those from deep. On the other end of the floor, they played matador defense, allowing the Rebs to top 40 percent from behind the arc.

Eric Angevine is the editor of Storming the Floor. He tweets @stfhoops.