No. 13 Notre Dame gets tune-up vs. Chicago State (Nov 16, 2017)
Notre Dame has one more tune-up before heading off to Hawaii.
The No. 13 Fighting Irish (2-0) host Chicago State (1-2) on Thursday at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Ind.
Notre Dame is coming off an easy 88-62 win over Mount St. Mary's on Tuesday.
Junior guard Rex Pflueger, who has been known for his defense, had his first career double-double with 13 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.
"As long as I affect the game in every way possible, I'm happy with my performance," Pflueger said, according to the South Bend Tribune. "You can't get down on your previous performance and you can't get too high on your previous performance. You've got to move on to the next game.
"I just take every game as a new game and a new opportunity to perform."
Double-doubles are nothing new for Notre Dame's Bonzie Colson.
Colson recorded the 25th of his career with 27 points and 11 rebounds in the win.
The Irish led by just seven at halftime, but scored the first 14 points of the second half to blow it open.
"When we come in at half, we settle down; everybody's talking; everybody's communicating, really focused," Colson said. "We want to focus on getting stops."
"First halves are overrated," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "Sometimes you play the first half to get to the second half. As long as you're not down 20. I love that both games we really got going."
Chicago State has suffered two blowout losses to Big Ten foes, but the cash-strapped university had bigger problems off the court.
"Before last year, they were talking about closing the university," head coach Tracy Dildy said, according to Fox Sports. "That affected us big time in recruiting -- bringing in the players that could help us. Now that we have security, we are able to bring in a more talented student-athlete. We have better players."
The Cougars' losses to Iowa and Purdue were sandwiched around a 101-51 thrashing of Silver Lake College, an NAIA school.
Purdue outscored Chicago State 52-14 in the second half of the Boilermakers' 111-42 destruction of the Cougars on Sunday.
Dildy's team was 2-for-21 from 3-point range and outrebounded 55-26, but the coach put the losses in perspective.
"I don't think it will give us a true indication of where we are at," Dildy said. "You are talking about two of the best teams on our schedule. We aren't going to see two teams like this. I don't want to put too much into it if things don't go too well.
"We have a whole season, and we talk about just Iowa and Purdue, nobody in our conference looks like that. We don't want to get too discouraged. We want to keep our mind on the big picture, which is to go to the postseason. Our guys have been working their tails off."
Notre Dame begins play in the Maui Invitational on Monday against Chaminade, with a match-up with LSU or Michigan looming on Tuesday.
Chicago State plays at Northern Iowa on Saturday.
