The Citadel surges in huge second half, downs Notre Dame

Elijah Morgan scored 19 points against his former team and The Citadel used a dominating second-half run to pull off a 65-45 victory over host Notre Dame on Tuesday at South Bend, Ind.

Madison Durr and Quentin Millora-Brown each scored 15 points, while AJ Smith had 13 points as The Citadel (7-5) won for the fourth time in its last five games. The Bulldogs came out on top against an Atlantic Coast Conference team for the first time in three tries this season after losses to NC State and Boston College.

Morgan, who played just 27 games over three seasons as a walk-on at Notre Dame, went 5 of 7 from 3-point range for the Bulldogs. His step-back 3-pointer near the midway point of the second half was part of a 19-2 run for The Citadel, which ultimately took a 51-37 lead with 9:12 remaining.

J.R. Konieczny scored 18 points and Markus Burton added 13 for the Fighting Irish (4-7), who lost their third consecutive game and fell for the fifth time in their last six games.

Notre Dame shot just 26.6 percent from the field and was held to 19.4-percent shooting in the second half when the Fighting Irish were outscored 33-16. They also were 3 of 24 from 3-point range (12.5 percent).

Notre Dame scored the first six points of the second half to take a 35-32 lead before The Citadel took over. Morgan scored five points of an initial 9-0 run by the Bulldogs. Following a Konieczny basket for Notre Dame, The Citadel then pulled off a 10-0 run to take its lead to 51-37.

The Bulldogs maintained a double-digit lead for the final 10:18 of the game.

The Citadel was on top for most of the first half and led 32-29 at halftime by shooting 48.1 percent from the floor. Notre Dame shot 33.3 percent in the first half.

The Citadel held opponents to 66.4 points per game before keeping Notre Dame its lowest point total of the season.

Notre Dame was playing without guards Julian Roper II (foot) and Logan Imes (shoulder).

—Field Level Media