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Oso Ighodaro helps Marquette dominate from the start against Notre Dame
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- Oso Ighodaro helps Marquette dominate from the start against Notre Dame
The Marquette men's basketball team wasn't messing around on Saturday.
The eighth-ranked Golden Eagles stormed out of the gates, scoring the first 17 points and setting the tone for a 78-59 laugher over Notre Dame on Saturday at Fiserv Forum.
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MU's Oso Ighodaro scored 20 points, just missing out on a perfect shooting night by going 6 for 8 from the field and 8 for 8 from the line.
BOX SCORE: Marquette 78, Notre Dame 59
"We came into the game with a good mindset," Ighodaro said. "We were focused and we really just helped each other.
"That first couple minutes was really good for us. And I feel like if we guard like that, we can beat anyone."
Marquette's Oso Ighodaro trieds to find room to operate against the Notre Dame defense on Saturday night.
Marquette defense gets first "dead skunk" of the season
The Golden Eagles (8-2) forced the Fighting Irish (4-5) into a shot-clock violation on their first possession.
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Two more stops became a "kill" for MU. Another three became what MU head coach Shaka Smart has termed a "skunk."
Then for the first time since Smart took over the program, the Golden Eagles stopped an opponent from scoring on nine straight trips. Smart calls that a "dead skunk."
MU made it to 10 straight stops to start. By the time Markus Burton dropped in a layup at the 12:53 mark of the first half for Notre Dame's first points, the game was already out of hand.
"Multiple efforts," Smart said. "Deflections. Helping each other.
"The guys did a nice job of switching when it was necessary. And then when one guy switched onto the ball, another guy rotated to his guy. And then just trying to make shots difficult. Anytime you play a group that's a young team, and they have to come into your place, you have to really set a tone with aggressiveness and defensive violence to get your hands on the basketball."
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Oso Ighodaro dominates and even takes first three-pointer
Ighodaro had a perfect first half, making all three of his shots from the field and going 8 for 8 from the free-throw line as MU took a 52-24 lead into the break.
The 6-foot-11 big man was feeling so good that he attempted his first-ever three-point attempt at MU in the second half. Unfortunately for Ighodaro, it bounced off the rim.
"It felt good," Ighodaro said. "I hesitated a little bit because me and Kam always do that action when he runs behind, but I just shot it anyway."
More impressive was his stroke from the free-throw line. He came into the game 20 for 40 from the charity stripe.
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"It just felt good," Ighodaro said. "I'm a good free-throw shooter. Obviously, the numbers don't support that, unfortunately.
"I work on it every day and I trust it. So hopefully the numbers will start to show that."
Stevie Mitchell sits out with injury and Chase Ross gets the start
MU announced before the game that starting guard Stevie Mitchell would sit out the game with a hamstring injury.
"We found out at shootaround that Stevie wasn't going to be able to go," Smart said. "He hurt his hamstring yesterday in practice.
"Don't really have a timetable on when he'll be back, but hopefully it won't be too long."
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The Golden Eagles had used the same starting lineup for the first nine games this season.
MU sophomore guard Chase Ross took Mitchell's spot in the opening lineup. It is the first start for Ross at MU, and he finished with a college-high eight rebounds.
"He's awesome," Smart said. "I love the guy. I wish we could clone him, because he's the type of guy you can never have enough people like him.
"He's got an unselfishness about him. He's got a toughness about him. Tonight went and grabbed the ball, which is big. It's not like we're overflowing with great rebounders."
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Notre Dame and Marquette meet for 120th time
This was the 120th meeting between the teams, with the Fighting Irish now holding an 81-39 advantage in the series.
The teams renewed a home-and-home series last season. MU won easily , 79-64, in South Bend, Indiana.
Both coaches were asked about keeping the rivalry going.
Fighting Irish head coach Micah Shrewsberry is in his first season at the school and is focused on building the program.
"It's such a great rival and such a historic rival," Shrewsberry said. "I'd love to do it, but not if we're going to get beat by 20 every time."
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Smart is definitely open to renewing the series.
"It takes two to want to do it," Smart said. "I think they definitely want to play Big East teams. But I think they want to mix it around, move it around.
"Maybe it will come back around to us. Any time there is a game that is meaningful to our fans, then it is meaningful to us because our fans do so much to support us. And we love playing people that our fans love to play. But, at the end of the day, as soon as Notre Dame wants to do another, whether it's a two-year series or four-year-series, we'd love to."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette beats Notre Dame 78-59 at Fiserv Forum behind Oso Ighodaro
