SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame is feeling competent and confident as they head into Thursday’s opening round of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla., where they will face Georgia, a much tougher opponent than they have encountered so far this season.

On Monday night, the Irish demolished Maine 97-72 as Tim Abromaitis broke out of a season-long 3-point shooting slump to score 26 points, including a 4-for-5 effort from beyond the arc. The victory moved Notre Dame to 4-0 this season.

“I didn’t say a word to Tim (during his slump) other than to compliment him on his defense and ball handling,” Irish head coach Mike Brey said. “I made sure none of the assistants said anything as well. Maybe (former Irish head coach and current ESPN analyst) Digger Phelps said something, but I don’t know. But Tim is so even keel that he can deal with riding it out.”

Maine head coach Ted Woodward came away impressed as well.

“We tried to put our best defender on Abromaitis from the start,” he said. “I didn’t look at his slump (4-for-24 from the arc in three games) but instead I looked at his 44 percent throughout the course of the Big East. Unfortunately, we played him on a night when he was making them.”

Abromaitis had lots of help as six players scored in double figures, even though none of the others took more than nine shots.

Scott Martin returned from missing a game with back spasms to score 15 points, and sophomore reserve center Jack Cooley continued to improve while notching 13 points.

Tyrone Nash had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds and Ben Hansbrough tallied 11 with nine assists. Carleton Scott scored 11 points.

Tom Knight of Dixfield and a graduate of Dirigo High School scored two points for the Irish.

“That was an awesome display of offense tonight by Notre Dame,” Woodward said. “They have so much balance and they are so skilled and so big on the perimeter. To play with them, you have to do a great job of locking them up all the way around. Normally if you showed me a night where my team would commit only six turnovers and shoot about 50 percent, I would take it, but not tonight.”

Gerald McLemore led the Black Bears (2-2) with 16 points. Troy Barnies added 15 and Raheem Singleton 12.

“I was very pleased with the way we defended the perimeter early,” Brey said. “We wanted to make sure their guards did not get off early.”

Instead, Notre Dame jumped out in front. Seven minutes into the game, the Irish led 25-9 and Abromaitis and Scott each had nine points. At that point, Notre Dame was shooting at a 78 percent clip and had not missed any of their eight free throws.

Notre Dame pressed on from there with Abromaitis leading the way. They ran off to a 52-31 lead just before halftime and were not challenged from there.

The Irish head into the meatier part of their schedule full of confidence and experience. Brey thinks the dramatic improvement of Cooley will be a key factor as Notre Dame heads into the more physical Big East schedule.

“Jack’s major improvement so far has been in his overall confidence,” Brey said. “He is an underrated ‘feel for the game’ guy. He doesn’t move as smooth as other guys but he is efficient around the basket and our guys will tell you he is a bear to guard in practice. If he can rebound, he will really be a key for us.”

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