It's halftime at Purcell Pavilion, where Notre Dame leads Loyola Marymount 45-44 in a fast-paced game, the second of the day here. (The Irish women's team trounced Valparaiso 88-47 earlier in the day.)
The Irish bolted to leads of 7-0 and 16-6, but LMU came back to take a 24-20 lead, its largest of the game so far. The teams were tied at 33-33 when Luke Harangody was called for a foul he disagreed with on the defensive end of the floor and then came back to throw down a one-handed slam on the other with 4:23 left in the half to give the Irish the lead, and they haven't given it up since. The Lions closed within one point on a floater in the lane by Vernon Teel that just beat the buzzer.
Harangody has 17 points and Tim Abromaitis 10 for the Irish, who are shooting 53 percent. Ashley Hamilton has 10 off the bench for the Lions, who are shooting 52 percent. LMU is out-rebounding Notre Dame 19-13.
A couple other notes:
• One of LMU's three wins this season came over Academy of Art University.
Check out their cool logo — what you'd expect from a school with a design program.
• And our halftime entertainment tonight was a
66-year old man shooting 3-pointers. He made 39 out of 50 (!), including nine of his last 10.