Top 25: No. 8 Louisville 73, No. 24 Notre Dame 57

Top 25 basketball » Louisville earned a share of the Big East title.

| The Associated Press

First Published Mar 09 2013 07:15 pm • Last Updated Mar 09 2013 11:42 pm

Louisville, Ky. • Gorgui Dieng had 20 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks to help No. 8 Louisville earn a share of the Big East Conference title with a 73-57 victory over No. 24 Notre Dame on Saturday.

Peyton Siva added 13 points and five assists in his final home game for the Cardinals (26-5, 14-4 Big East), who finished the regular season tied for first place with Georgetown and Marquette. Louisville receives a bye into Thursday’s quarterfinals at the Big East tournament, where coach Rick Pitino’s team will defend its 2012 championship.

When these teams met a month ago at Notre Dame, they played five overtimes before the Fighting Irish won 104-101 in the longest regular-season game in Big East history. In fact, five of the last six and six of the past eight matchups between the schools went to overtime before Louisville took charge Saturday.

Dieng and Siva were honored before the game as part of Louisville’s senior day festivities. Dieng, a junior center from Senegal, is expected to enter the NBA draft after the season.

Garrick Sherman led Notre Dame (23-8, 11-7) with 14 points. The Fighting Irish next will play Wednesday in the conference tournament at Madison Square Garden.

Louisville shot 67 percent (16 of 24) for its best first half of the season. But Notre Dame held the Cardinals without a field goal for nearly six minutes early in the second half to cut the lead to 45-40 on Pat Connaughton’s 3-pointer with 12 minutes, 42 seconds left.

That was as close as the Irish got.

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

About Reader Comments

---

Reader comments on sltrib.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Salt Lake Tribune. We will delete comments containing obscenities, personal attacks and inappropriate or offensive remarks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. If you see an objectionable comment, please alert us by clicking the arrow on the upper right side of the comment and selecting "Flag comment as inappropriate". If you've recently registered with Disqus or aren't seeing your comments immediately, you may need to verify your email address. To do so, visit disqus.com/account.
See more about comments here.