Cooley, No. 20 Irish end two-game losing streak

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Jack Cooley waited three long days to get back on the court and make up for a miserable outing. What better time to do it than Notre Dame's home finale when the Irish needed a victory to secure a double bye in the Big East Conference tournament.

Cooley had a career-high 27 points and 17 rebounds as the No. 20 Irish built a big second-half lead Friday and held on to beat Providence, 75-69.

Notre Dame (21-10, 13-5 Big East) ended a two-game losing skid that followed a nine-game winning streak and wrapped up the No. 3 seed in next week's tournament in New York.

"It's good to clinch that up. It really is," Cooley said. "We get to wait to play. ... And we get to watch great basketball while sitting in the hotel room."

Cooley's best scoring game followed one of his worst. He scored two points with no rebounds in a Monday loss at Georgetown.

"Monday was just extremely uncharacteristic. I just had a horrible game," Notre Dame's 6-foot-9-inch center said. "I needed to get back out there and have a good game, and I had a pretty good one tonight."

LaDontate Henton had 18 points and 12 rebounds, Vincent Council added 17 points and Gerad Coleman 15 for Providence (15-16, 4-14). But the Friars missed their first 13 3-point attempts and finishing 4-for-20 from behind the arc.

Leading by three at the half, the Irish outscored the Friars 26-5 in the first 10 minutes of the second to seemingly take control.

Providence cut the deficit to eight with a minute left. Gerard Coleman's steal and layup got the Friars to within six with 48 seconds left.

But Notre Dame held on as Jerrian Grant hit two from the line with eight seconds remaining.