He glared, he glowered, he gave a little shove. Only then did he walk to the free-throw line. With 4:28 remaining in the first half of Notre Dame’s 73-52 victory over Penn State in a National Invitation Tournament semifinal game Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, Irish forward Troy Murphy was fouled by Gyasi Cline-Heard.
Nothing unusual. Murphy, a consensus All-America and Big East Player of the Year, is used to being blanketed by opposing defenses. But with a look and a tap at his agitator, Murphy jettisoned his usual choirboy countenance.
“Once you get excited and stuff, there’s no controlling that,” Murphy said. “He was playing good defense and I was getting frustrated. And it felt good to get a foul and go to the line.”
Murphy led Notre Dame with 18 points. Matt Carroll added 13. Joe Crispin paced Penn State with 16.
The Irish (22-14) will play Wake Forest (21-14), which beat North Carolina State 62-59 in the other semifinal game, Thursday night at Madison Square Garden for the NIT championship.
“Our goal defensively is to give up contested jump shots, box out and rebound,” said Irish coach Matt Doherty.
They did that, holding the Nittany Lions (18-16) to 33 percent shooting, and out-rebounding them 38-25.
The game began well for Notre Dame. On the opening possession, with the shot clock down to four seconds, guard Jimmy Dillon was forced to put up an off-balance shot. It went in, giving the Irish a 3-0 lead.
“Jimmy’s first shot of the game said it all,” said forward David Graves.
Dillon twisted his left ankle late in the second half, and sat out the final seven minutes.
“I’m concerned about that,” Doherty said.
Notre Dame stretched the lead to 15-2 before Penn State got its offense going. The Nittany Lions got to within four in the final two minutes of the half, but the Irish reeled off 11 straight, and went into the locker room leading 38-23.
They added steadily to that lead in the second half, giving the Irish faithful among the 14,268 in attendance plenty to cheer about.
“I thought we shot the ball extremely poorly,” said Penn State coach Jerry Dunn. “Your offense fuels your defense. When we were struggling to score, we lost a little bit of the surge on defense.”
The other semifinal game went overtime. Although North Carolina State (20-13) hit a scant six shots in the first half, it managed to keep the game close, and was down by only seven at halftime.
The Wolfpack shot better in the second half, and the teams ended regulation tied at 51.
Darius Songalia’s 18 points led Wake Forest. Anthony Grundy had 14 coming off the bench to lead North Carolina State.
