Notre Dame easily handles No. 20 Michigan State

Cormac Ryan scored 23 points to lead Notre Dame to a 70-52 home win over No. 20 Michigan State on Wednesday.

Ryan went 8-of-11 overall and 6-of-7 from 3-point range for the Fighting Irish (6-1).

J.J. Starling scored 14 points and Dane Goodwin added 12 points to flank Ryan for Notre Dame.

A.J. Hoggard scored 15 points and Tyson Walker had 12 points in defeat for Michigan State (5-3).

Notre Dame jumped on Michigan State from the beginning, taking a 13-4 lead with 12:54 left in the first half.

It would only get worse for the Spartans.

The Fighting Irish took a 21-8 lead with 10:26 remaining in the first half, and then went up 26-11 with 8:32 until halftime.

Ryan then scored eight straight points in a span of 50 seconds to give the Fighting Irish a 39-16 lead with 4:36 left in the first half.

At that point, Ryan had more points by himself (19) than the entire Spartans team.

The Fighting Irish made 8 of their first 12 shots from 3-point range.

Michigan State did end the first half with a minor flurry, outscoring Notre Dame 8-3 over the final 4:36 of the half to cut Notre Dame’s lead to 42-24 at intermission.

In the first half, Notre Dame made 16 of 29 shots overall and 8 of 13 attempts from 3-point range.

Despite getting more stops defensively to start the second half, Michigan State couldn’t put a dent in Notre Dame’s lead, as the Fighting Irish held a 54-36 lead with 11:45 remaining.

Michigan State cut Notre Dame’s lead to 54-40 with 9:22 remaining, but Notre Dame quelled any hopes of a comeback for the Spartans, going on a 9-0 run to take a 63-40 lead with 6:03 left and essentially put the game out of reach.

–Field Level Media