Box Score SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- The Notre Dame Falcons scored another victory at home on Saturday afternoon, in a 79-64 victory over Wheeling Jesuit at Murphy Gymnasium.
The Falcons (6-2, 3-1 MEC) are unbeaten at home this season, as they've now won four in a row at Murphy Gymnasium, while the loss for the Cardinals (4-2, 1-2 MEC) was their second straight on the road.
The Falcons got out to a great start, hitting on four of their first seven shots, and found themselves ahead, 9-2, in the first five minutes of the contest. The two sides went back and forth for the remainder of the opening half. While Notre Dame never trailed at any point in the opening 20 minutes, the Cardinals never allowed NDC to take a decisive advantage.
Notre Dame led by as many as nine on multiple occasions, and took a 32-23 advantage after
Tyree Gaiter's 3-pointer at the 3:27-mark.
Kyauta Taylor buried a jumper with 1:39 remaining to give the Falcons a 34-26 lead, before the Cardinals got two baskets from Eric Seifert over the final 90 seconds of the opening stanza to trim their deficit to four (34-30) at the half.
The opening half saw the Falcons force 11 Cardinal turnovers, and scored 11 points off those turnovers. NDC came away with seven points on second chance opportunities. Notre Dame shot 41.9-percent (13-for-31) from the floor in the opening half, and shot 37.5-percent (3-for-8) from beyond the arc.
Lawrence DeArmond caught fire early on in the second half, as he ran off the first five points of the half for the Falcons, and NDC developed a double digit lead (42-32) at the 18:09-mark after Taylor's 3-pointer.
However, as they did in the first half, the Cardinals wouldn't let NDC get too comfortable, as they went on a 9-2 run over the next two and a half minutes, and trimmed the deficit to three (44-41) after a Pat Moseh layup at the 15:27-mark.
The Cardinals continued to battle back, and they eventually tied the game at 50-50 with 11:21 remaining on a Kyle Ritz jumper, before the Falcons put the clamps on defensively, and went on an 8-0 to take a the lead again.
Over the next four-and-a-half minutes, the Cardinals went 0-for-4 from the floor, while the Falcons used four free throws and a pair of layups to take a 58-50 lead.
The Notre Dame lead continued to grow, and eventually reached double digits at the 2:38-mark, when DeArmond hammered home a dunk to give the Falcons a 68-48 advantage, and they maintained a double digit lead the rest of the way to secure the victory.
DeArmond paced the Falcons offensively with 31 points, and turned in a double-double with 11 rebounds. Gaiter wasn't far behind, with 29 points, and did a lot of his damage at the free throw line again, where he buried 13-of-14 (92.8-percent) shots and added five steals.
Will Vorhees added nine points and seven rebounds.
The Falcons are in action again next Friday, Dec. 12, when the hit the road for a non-conference tilt and square off against Mercyhurst, in Erie, Pa. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
