Men's Basketball Visits Notre Dame Seeking Tournament Bye

Feb. 23, 2007

MILWAUKEE (AP) -

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The inside track to the fourth and final bye for the Big East tournament is on the line when Notre Dame hosts No. 16 Marquette on Saturday.

The Fighting Irish (21-6, 9-5) and Golden Eagles (22-7, 9-5) are tied for fourth place in the conference, one game behind No. 20 Louisville and one-half game ahead of sixth-place Syracuse. The top four seeds get an extra day of rest before the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden, while teams finishing from fifth to 12th place would have to win four games in four days to claim the title.

"The bye would be great, to go out there and have the one game off," Marquette point guard Dominic James said. "In the style of basketball we play, we can really benefit from that. Right now we are just going to control the things we can control and let the seeding take care of itself."

Notre Dame enters this game with a 17-0 record at home and closes its regular season next Saturday at lowly Rutgers, which will not qualify for the Big East tournament. Marquette, meanwhile, will finish up at home versus No. 10 Pittsburgh.

The Irish have won three straight and are coming off a 78-54 rout of DePaul on Tuesday. Colin Falls hit four 3-pointers and finished with 18 points for the Irish, who had all five starters score in double figures and had little trouble building a 40-22 halftime lead.

"We're undefeated at home, that's impressive," said Falls, who has a team-high 77 3-pointers and is second in scoring at 14.9 points per game. "We now have a chance to do something really impressive. If we can stay undefeated that is just a great emotion booster."

Rob Kurz added 15 points and Tory Jackson had 13, nine rebounds and six assists for Notre Dame, which is averaging 85.1 points at the Joyce Center. The Irish are outscoring opponents by nearly 23 points per game at home, where they are shooting 49.2 percent.

Marquette snapped a three-game losing streak with an 80-67 win over Villanova on Monday. Freshman Lazar Hayward scored a season-high 18 points and James also had 18 for the Golden Eagles, who made all 16 of their free throws down the stretch after poor foul shooting cost them in a loss to Louisville last Saturday.

"We had confidence tonight, just knowing we could go out there and make them," said James, who is from Richmond, Ind., and leads the team with 15.2 points per game. "We had confidence in one another and just went out there and knocked them down."

Golden Eagles center Ousmane Barro, who averages 8.4 points and a team-high 6.9 rebounds, is trying to end a slump that has seen him total just nine points and 17 rebounds in his last three games. The 6-foot-10 junior did match a season high with three blocks in Monday's win.

Marquette goes into its first meeting with Notre Dame this season looking to win four straight in this series for the first time. James scored a total of 29 points in the Golden Eagles' two wins over the Irish last season.

The Irish lead the 88-year-old rivalry 75-32.