Ethan Roberts scored 25 of his career-high 36 points in the first half and tied a Notre Dame record with 10 made 3-pointers as the Fighting Irish rolled to a 99-59 victory over South Carolina State on Wednesday night in South Bend, Ind.
Roberts, who began his career at Army and spent the past two seasons at Penn, made all but three of his 13 attempts from beyond the arc to match Matt Farrell’s team record set in 2018.
Overall, Roberts finished 13-of-17 from the field as the Irish went 19-of-33 from beyond the arc – their most made 3-pointers since hitting 20 on Dec. 20, 2018 — en route to starting 4-0 for the second time in three seasons.
Brady Koehler made three 3-pointers and finished with 16 points, while Logan Duncomb had 10 rebounds to go with nine points. Logan Imes and Jonathan Sanderson scored 10 apiece for Notre Dame, which shot 55.9% from the field.
Roberts shot 9-of-10 from the field and set a career high by making seven of his eight 3-point attempts in the first half as Notre Dame took control with a 23-3 run. He made four 3-pointers during that surge, which put the Fighting Irish up 42-19 with 5:21 left before halftime.
Notre Dame went 11-of-17 from 3-point range in the first half. Roberts then hit a 3-pointer out of halftime to give the Irish a 53-28 lead.
Notre Dame made its first five 3-point attempts of the second half, with Roberts hitting three and Koehler connecting on the other two to push the lead to 71-36.
Mitchell Taylor had a team-high nine points for South Carolina State (3-1), which opened the season 3-0 for the first time since 2009-10, but shot 27.0% from the field in the first half and 29.6% overall. The Bulldogs went 5-of-21 overall (23.8%) from 3-point range.