Luke Harangody led Notre Dame in scoring and rebounds with 29 and 12.

Tory Jackson was the team’s second leading scorer with 13, while Ben Hansbrough and Tim Abromaitis added 11. Rounding out the offense, Jonathan Peoples added 10 points.

Although Notre Dame won by 20, the first half was a quick-paced, back-and-forth 20 minutes of basketball that the program feels will be similar to conference play set to start in January.

“It was kind of like a Big East game in the first half,” Harangody said. “They were hitting shots in the lane. In the second half, we came out knowing we were the better team and when we needed to put them up, we did.”

For the 49ers, the majority of the offense came from Larry Anderson, who had 16 points in the first period. Additionally, Long Beach State coach Dan Monson went to a full-court press early in the contest. At first, the added pressure frustrated Notre Dame, while creating a series of turnovers that led to 49er points.

In the first half, Long Beach State had 11 points off seven Irish turnovers.

After a Harangody-assisted three pointer by Jackson gave Notre Dame a 13-6 lead, Long Beach State’s press created some offense on the other end. Anderson hit a 12-foot jump shot to close the gap to five. On the following possession, a Peoples turnover off an inbounds pass led to Anderson taking the ball on a fast break and converting on an up and under layup in addition to an Abromaitis foul. After Anderson hit the free throw, Long Beach State was within two points, with the score at 13-11.

However, on the next Irish series, Coach Mike Brey figured out a way to solve the 49er press and had Abromaitis inbounds the ball to Hansbrough, who then led a two-on-one advantage, eventually lofting a perfectly-placed pass to Harangody who finished with an alley oop lay in to put the score at 15-11.

After an Abromaitis three-pointer put the score at 18-12, Anderson continued his hot streak, making back-to-back layups with the second coming off a steal to close the gap to 18-16 in favor of the Irish.

With Anderson receiving much of Notre Dame’s defensive attention, the sophomore slashed through the paint and once the defense collapsed, the guard found Greg Plater for a wide open three-pointer to give Long Beach State the 19-18 lead.

Plater later hit another shot beyond the arc to put the 49ers up four with just over 10 minutes to play in the half.

Then the Irish offense built some momentum, while the defense clamped down and forced some stops. With the score at 24-20 in Long Beach State’s favor, Abromaitis soared through the air on a missed shot, coming down with the board and put back the attempt with a lay in.

After a stop, the Irish fed Harangody the ball in the low post, allowing him to make a quick spin move to the basket for the reverse layup to tie the game.

Following an Irish stop, Jackson drove through the paint, passing three defenders and finished with a smooth finger roll to give Notre Dame the 26-24 lead.

To end the half, both teams traded baskets for the last eight minutes, with the Irish taking a 37-35 lead into halftime.

Long Beach State out rebounded the Irish by a margin of 19-17, but it was thanks to forward Eugene Phelps, who notched 11 boards in the first period. At the end of the game, Phelps had 18 boards to go with his nine points.

With Notre Dame holding only a two-point lead to start the second half, the frame did not get off to an optimal start. As Jackson slowly pushed the ball up the court in the team’s first possession, the 49ers acted as if they would drop into their zone. However, once Jackson crossed half court, the two Long Beach State guards at the top of key put half-court pressure on the point guard, forcing him to call a timeout just seconds into the half.

After the game, Jackson spoke about what was said in that timeout, which was basically an extension of the halftime speech.

“We started talking in half time,” Jackson said. “‘This is a Big East mentality. Don’t let them make us go faster than what we need to be. Just play our game and come out in the second half, execute on offense and on defense just trust each other more.’”

However, in the opening minutes of the half, that was just about the only thing that went wrong for the Irish, as Notre Dame exploded for a 13-2 run. To start the spurt, Hansbrough saw an opening in the middle of the lane and drove straight through, converting an uncontested layup. After the senior stole a Phelps pass, he fed the ball to Harangody in the low post, making a layup through the Long Beach State double team to rip off two quick baskets and take a six point lead.

On the next Notre Dame possession, Harangody was fouled, but made both free throws to put the score at 43-35.

Long Beach State finally got its first points in the second half after nearly two minutes had elapsed on the game clock when T.J. Robinson drained a left-handed hook in the paint.

However, the Irish scored on their next three possessions. Peoples kept the run going with a 10-foot jump shot. Then Hansbrough continued to stay involved in the offense, first dishing a no-look pass to Tyrone Nash, who finished with a dunk. Moments later, Nash repaid the favor, as the forward stole a pass and then looked up court to Hansbrough, who hit a three-pointer in transition to give Notre Dame a 50-37 lead.

“I’m disappointed,” Coach Monson said of the second half start. “I’m not shocked, but I’m disappointed in how we responded at halftime. Letting them take control of the game that easily was probably the most disappointing thing. We are a young team, but they’re not.”

Throughout the rest of the half, Notre Dame continued to light up the scoreboard, netting 45 in the period, while only allowing Long Beach State to pick up 27 in the second frame. In fact, the Irish shot 64.3-percent from the field in the second period, while the 49ers were only 11-of-29 for a 37.9 clip.

Another factor that helped Notre Dame prevail was its low-post scoring, as the Irish had 50 points in the paint in the contest.

Hansbrough was instrumental in sparking the second-half run, using his drive to create opportunities for himself and his teammates. The senior finished with a game-high seven assists and has become one of the team’s better passers.

“I told him in halftime, he wasn’t in much of a rhythm, I said, ‘We’re going to run the first set for you,’” Brey said. “‘I want you to curl it and get to the basket right away.’ We just wanted to see if we could get him going. Luckily, he gets in there and gets a bucket and started to be a part of it. His drives are really important for us. It’s an important thing in our offense now.”

With the Irish having two more games before the squad heads to the UIC Pavilion for the Chicago Classic, Brey feels that the program is building some momentum for the tournament starting in just over a week.

“The teams we play next do not have the talent level of a Long Beach State,” he said. “But can we be mature enough to understand that we have things we need to get better at before we play Northwestern and whoever else over there? So we need to get some rest tomorrow and get our legs under us and tune it up Saturday. But this has been good to have the uniforms on almost every other day and really evaluate who we are and who guys are and try to develop some identity.”

However, throughout its first three games, this Notre Dame team may have already done so.