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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – For 20 minutes, the IUPUI basketball team played perennial powerhouse Notre Dame even inside the Joyce Center on a frigid Wednesday night. Unfortunately for the Jaguars, that just so happened to occur after the hosts has blitzed the visitors over the opening 20 minutes, building a 45-22 halftime lead.

By the end of the night, Notre Dame (9-1) had muscled and shot its way to a 93-70 win, extending its best start since 2006 in the process. Ben Hansbrough led the victors with a season-high 22 points on 6-of-8 shooting while senior Robert Glenn led the Jags with 19 points and eight rebounds.

“I didn’t think we came out mentally ready to play tonight,” IUPUI Head Coach Ron Hunter said. “They jumped on us early and that set the tone. Defensively, when you keep seeing the ball go in the basket, it wears you down. After that, it was hard for us to get back up.

“We’re not the biggest team in the world – we like to use our speed, but tonight, they used their size and strength to kind of negate our speed. And, they hit their shots. Credit Notre Dame, they’ve got a good basketball team. We’ve played Auburn, Kansas State and Notre Dame – all BCS schools, and I think this is the best.”

The Irish wasted little time in flexing its interior muscle, reeling off an 11-0 run after the Jags had scored the game’s first two points. IUPUI (7-3) clawed back within four at 14-10, but Notre Dame pushed the pace and quickly extended its edge out to 30-17 capped by a Tim Abromaitis putback dunk and a Jonathan Peoples reverse layup in transition, prompting Hunter to call a timeout with 7:47 left before the break.

The 23-point halftime margin was Notre Dame’s largest of the game at that point as the Jags made just 7-of-27 (25.9 percent) from the floor in the first half. Conversely, the Irish shot 53 percent in the first half and never cooled off, finished at 54 percent for the game.

“Hansbrough and Abromaitis are going to make Harangody’s job a lot easier when they’re shooting like that,” Hunter said. “Those two are both good shooters and they hit their open shots tonight. That’s how you beat our zone, is by hitting shots.”

Abromaitis finished with 18 points including hitting 4-of-8 from three and Harangody pumped in 16 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots.

After a forgettable offensive first half in which they scored a season-low 22 points, the Jags showed life after the break behind Glenn and sophomore Alex Young. The duo combined to score the team’s first 18 points of the second stanza until Billy Pettiford swished an open jumper with 12:54 to play. However, IUPUI got no closer than 16 points of the Irish after intermission.

Glenn hit 8-of-18 shots but was limited to just 27 minutes due to foul trouble. Young added 18 points including three threes and Leroy Nobles tallied 16, fueled by a 3-of-6 shooting night from deep. Pettiford made all seven of his free throw attempts and posted a season-high 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds before fouling out.

IUPUI finished the game shooting 39.3 percent from the floor and hitting 7-of-18 (38.9 percent) from beyond the arc. ND hit 10-of-23 (43.5 percent) from deep and outrebounded the scrappy Jags 41-32.

“Fortunately, we’re not going to see teams with their size in our conference,” Hunter said. “I thought our guys fought hard in there, but we just didn’t match up with them size wise.”

The loss dropped IUPUI to 0-2 all-time against the Irish and 1-8 all-time against schools from the BIG EAST.

IUPUI will continue its non-league schedule on Saturday when it plays host to IU South Bend in The Jungle for a 2:00 pm tipoff. Scott McCauley (play-by-play) and Hall of Famer Jared Lux (analyst) will call the action as the contest can be seen on IUPUI LIVE! or be heard via the website’s free game day audio. Pregame coverage will begin at approximately 1:45.