By JEFF FISHER
Niles Daily Star

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – It took till the second half, but the Fighting Irish held off visiting Central Florida Knights, a member of Conference USA, 90-72 in a first ever meeting of the two schools in front of 8,004 in attendance for a high-noon Sunday contest.

“That was a good example of a veteran squad, knew exactly what they had to do as a team. They did a tremendous job of picking up their defense, they played with poise of offense and that is something we try to teach our team. Tim (Abromaitis) came in and gave them a spark,” Knights coach Kirk Speraw said.

The contest was close throughout the first half after the Irish jumped out an 11-4 lead on a Ben Hansbrough 3-pointer.

The Knights would not roll over and die. They responded with 13-2 run, to go up 17-13 on two free-throws by forward Keith Clanton. Clanton led the Knights with 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

With six minutes to go in the half, Abromaitis drained a 3-pointer to narrow the Knights lead to two points, 27-25, teammate Luke Harangody picked up his third foul and sat out the rest of the first half.

Abromaitis’ basket on an assist from Tory Jackson tied the game up 41-41 right at the halftime buzzer. Abromaitis had 17 points at the break.

“They were hard to guard in the first half and they took some shots on us.  I thought our poise to start the second half was good.  We had a little bit of everything happen tonight. “Gody with fouls, Jackson with his injury, but it was good things for us to deal with, evaluate our team. Abromaitis was fabulous,” Irish coach Mike Brey said.

The Irish (8-1) came out firing in the second half. Abromaitis drained another trey, Harangody got in the act with a basket and another bucket followed by a foul shot and suddenly the Irish had a 8-0 run building.

Carleton Scott scored inside to put the Irish up 85-61, and the Knights would never get closer than 17 points.

Tory Jackson left the game with 13 minutes to go on a twisted ankle, but returned to the the Irish bench. He did not see any further action.

Abromaitis scored a career-high 31 points, shot 10-of-17 from the floor, 3-of-7 from downtown and was 8-of-9 from the charity stripe. Harangody added 29 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

Ben Hansbrough added 11 points for the Irish.

There were 17 lead changes and 11 times that the score was tied.

“I am very impressed with them (Central Florida), a good offensive team. They can pass, catch, move the ball, they have drivers, they know who their shooters are. They are going to get better and it will be interesting to follow them the Conference USA. They have potential to get better each week,” Brey added.

Notre Dame hosts IUPUI Wednesday night. Tipoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m.