Jerian Grant scored 20 points and Notre Dame held West Virginia to just 16 2nd half points as the Irish won their school record 9th-straight Big East game 71-44 Wednesday night at Purcell Pavilion.

The Irish have now reached 20 wins on the season, in a year where most fans would have settled for a trip to the NIT. Instead, the Irish have turned it around so much that it students were chanting "NIT" in the final minutes of the game. Not at the Irish players, but at West Virginia.

"To have 20 wins with this team, you know we were picked 11th or something in the Big East so just for this team, it's really special for us," said Grant, whose highlight dunks helped spark the Notre Dame offense.

"They really wanted that record," said head coach Mike Brey about the nine-game conference streak. "It's really special for this group to do it. I think it will be a great story in the history of our basketball program. When they come back to reunions it's something they'll reminisce about. We certainly want to see if we can keep riding it past nine."

The 16 points scored by West Virginia in the 2nd half ties the lowest a Big East opponent has ever scored against Notre Dame in a single half.

Notre Dame trailed 15-11 in the 1st half, when Brey was whistled for at technical. Brey didn't calm down, instead getting on his players in the team huddle. Captain Scott Martin joked after the game he could not repeat what Brey was venting out. It was a sign of the confidence level of this team. Two months ago, the Irish probably didn't have the maturity to handle a tongue lashing from their coach like that. Now, they can.

Notre Dame responded out of the timeout, took the lead and never looked back.

The Irish led 30-28 at halftime, but quickly put the game out of a reach with 13-0 run early in the 2nd half.

Martin scored 15 points, Eric Atkins and Jack Cooley each added 13 as the Irish shot 61% from the field, making 9 of their 16 three pointers.

Notre Dame, now 20-8 overall and 12-3 in the Big East, remained in a 2nd place tie in the conference standings with Marquette. The Irish look to add to thier conference win streak record on the road against St. John's at Madison Square Garden Saturday at Noon.