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Technical puts fight in Irish

— A self professed “raving lunatic” while watching his team score just three points over the first 13:54 of the game, Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey wasn’t considering the potential consequences when he gave referee John Gaffney an earful.

“I was just so frustrated,” Brey said. “... He probably could have thrown me out because I stayed after him and he looked away, so I thank him for that.”

The No. 25 Irish might want to thank Brey for the resulting dramatic swing of momentum after an atrocious shooting start.

Jerian Grant and Jack Cooley scored 13 points each and Irish rallied from 16 down to beat No. 20 Pittsburgh 51-42 on Monday night.

The Irish missed 18 of their first 19 shots and trailed 19-3 after two free throws by Tray Woodall - resulting from Brey’s technical.

But Notre Dame closed out the first half on a 16-3 run and continued to ride the momentum in the second half to win going away.

“I don’t know, how much is it premeditated? I thought on some of our drives, we were getting bumped a little bit,” Brey said of drawing the technical. “Sometimes, that does change the vibe.”

Eric Atkins added 10 points and seven assists for Notre Dame (21-6, 9-5 Big East), which has won five in a row over Pittsburgh (20-7, 8-6) and snapped a tie with the Panthers for fourth place in the conference. The top four teams get a double-bye in next month’s league tournament.

Woodall had 11 points to lead the Panthers, who lost for the second time in three days since winning seven of eight.

They appeared to be cruising - especially defensively - until the entire game swung following Brey’s technical.

“I definitely think so - there were seven or eight straight fouls called after that,” Woodall said. “I’m not sure if the refs eased up or put on binoculars or I don’t know, but after that, the game just changed.

“We should have kept our composure and still played our same style, but I guess when you hear the whistle a couple times, you tend to back off a little bit. But that’s just the way the game goes.”

The Irish missed their first 12 shots and did not have a field goal until 9:14 had elapsed in the game and they were trailing 11-1.

Their spurt began five minutes later with Pat Connaughton’s three-pointer from the left corner with 6:06 left in the first half. Thirty-five seconds later on the Irish’s next possession, Connaughton hit another three, drawing a timeout from Pitt Coach Jamie Dixon and an enthusiastic fist pump from Brey as he sprinted onto the court.

Notre Dame made five of its final eight shots of the first half to trim the deficit to 22-19.

NO. 13 KANSAS STATE 71, WEST VIRGINIA 61

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Will Spradling scored 19 points and No. 14 Kansas State used a big first-half run to beat West Virginia, ruining the return of Mountaineers Coach Bob Huggins to the school he helped rebuild.

Nino Williams had 13 points, and Angel Rodriguez added 11 points and seven assists for the Wildcats (21-5, 10-3). They slipped into first place in the Big 12 by a half game over ninth-ranked Kansas and No. 14 Oklahoma State.

Deniz Kilicli had 14 points for the Mountaineers (13-13, 6-7), but the rest of their starters had a combined 13 points, with two of them getting shut out.

Huggins received a warm reception in his first trip back to Bramlage Coliseum, where he went 23-12 as coach of the Wildcats during the 2006-2007 season. Huggins led the program to the NIT, its first postseason appearance in eight years.

SWAC MEN ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 76, PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 47

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas - Mitchell Anderson had 24 points and eight rebounds Monday night to lead Arkansas-Pine Bluff to a victory over Prairie View A&M.

Terrell Kennedy added 12 points and Marcel Mosley scored 10 for the Golden Lions (13-14, 12-3 Southwestern Athletic Conference). Pine Bluff led 36-25 at halftime and then opened it up by shooting 64 percent in the second half, leading by as many as 31 points.

Jules Montgomery and Ryan Gesiakowski each had nine points for the Panthers (11-16, 6-8).

The Golden Lions finished at 54 percent from the floor, while Prairie View A&M shot 28 percent.

Sports, Pages 21 on 02/19/2013

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