SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Marty Bell knows the Quincy University men's basketball team is far from a finished product, but what he saw in Friday night's 75-54 exhibition loss to the University of Notre Dame was encouraging.

"I thought our effort was consistent from tip to final buzzer," the QU coach told WGEM Radio. "We competed every possession."

In fact, the Hawks hung with the Irish the first 10 minutes.

Playing at the Purcell Pavillon, the teams traded the lead six times before Notre Dame's Tyrone Nash converted a three-point play to put the Irish up 20-17 with 9:53 to go in the first half.

QU never led again.

The Hawks committed turnovers on four consectutive possessions, leading to a 3-pointer by Ben Hansbrough and layups by Jonathan Peoples and Tim Abromaitis as the Irish pushed the lead to 28-17 in less than two minutes.

QU scored only seven points the final 10:18 of the half and trailed 40-24 at halftime.

"Second chances hurt us," said Bell, whose team allowed 10 offensive rebounds in the first half.

Not so much in the second half as Notre Dame only outscored QU 35-30 in the second half.

"We did a better job in the second half of attacking the basket," Bell said.

Billy Baptist led QU with 14 points, while Justin Brock had 11 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Luke Harangody, the reigning Big East Conference Player of the Year, had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Irish.

Harangody had just seven points at halftime after being whistled for two charging fouls.

"We were taking a first-team All-American out of the game," Bell said.

QU continues the exhibition season at the University of Illinois at 4 p.m. Sunday.

-- sports@whig.com/221-3365