Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Marquette Golden Eagles, Bradley Center, Milwaukee, WI
Monday, January 10, 2011, 7:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN2
Opening Line: Marquette -3
Current Line: Marquette -3
Opening Total: 146
Current Total: 147
Money Line: Marquette -155 / Notre Dame +135
The 14th-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (14-2, 3-1 Big East) will try to win their third straight conference game and first on the road when they visit the Marquette Golden Eagles (11-5, 2-1) on Monday. Notre Dame won at Marquette (-3) in overtime last year 63-60, which is the only game the Fighting Irish have covered in the past five meetings between the teams.
The Golden Eagles had won the previous two meetings, including a 71-64 victory at Notre Dame last January 26. They dropped to 0-4 against Top 25 teams with an 89-81 loss at #5 Pitt on Saturday and will need to play much better defensively in order to pull off a win here. The Panthers shot 60 percent from the field, becoming just the second opponent in nine years to accomplish that feat against them.
Despite the loss, Marquette’s Darius Johnson-Odom scored 20 points and is one of two Big East players to total 20 or more in every league game so far. Johnson-Odom and the Golden Eagles should be able to rebound back at home, where they have limited opponents to just 64.4 points per game and 39.7 shooting this season.
The Fighting Irish are still dealing with the loss of forward Carleton Scott, who leads the team with 25 blocked shots but has missed the last two games with a partial tear of his left hamstring. The 6-foot-8, 218-pounder also averages 11.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, although Notre Dame has found a way to win two straight without him. However, both of those games were at home. The Irish lost their only conference road game 70-58 at Syracuse on January 1.
Ben Hansbrough has stepped up in Scott’s absence, averaging 23.5 points in the last two games. Hansbrough scored a career-high 26 points in a 76-61 rout of St. John’s on Saturday, making 8 of 15 shots from the field, including 4 of 9 from 3-point range. He totaled only five points in the last meeting with Marquette, missing all five of his 3-point attempts. Notre Dame as a team made just 3 of 21 shots from beyond the 3-point arc but still found a way to pull off the win.
The Golden Eagles are 2-6 against the spread in their last eight home games, and the OVER is 10-3 in their last 13 games overall. The Irish are 10-2 ATS in their last 12 conference games and 7-2 ATS in their last nine away from home.
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