Senior forward Elijah Burns scored a career-high 15 points to help lead a balanced attack for Notre Dame in an 89-62 victory over visiting Chicago State on Thursday.

Burns started the second half and the Irish (2-0) opened with a 12-0 run after intermission to increase the lead to 52-35 with 17:03 remaining.

The Irish never trailed and led by as many as 32.

Nate Laszewski added 12 points for the Irish, while D.J. Harvey scored 11 and T.J. Gibbs finished with 10.

Cameron Bowles led the Cougars (0-2) with 15 points, while Anthony Harris and Delshon Strickland added 13 points apiece. Christian Jacob finished with 12 points.

Notre Dame led by as many as 17 in the first half before Chicago State ripped off a 25-7 run to tie it at 35. But the Irish, behind a Burns layup and a Laszewski 3-pointer, closed the half with a 40-35 lead.

Notre Dame moved to 5-0 all time against Chicago State, a team it had beaten by an average of 37 points. Chicago State was a late substitution addition to the Notre Dame schedule.

Chicago State's athletic director is Chris Zorich, a former All-American defensive tackle for the Irish. He was a key piece to the program's last football national championship in 1988.

The Irish wore their traditional road blue uniforms on Thursday because of uniform issues for Chicago State. The Cougars' road uniforms didn't arrive in time for their opener Tuesday at Indiana, so the Cougars wore gray uniforms Tuesday and Thursday.

Thursday was the second of seven straight road games to start for Chicago State, which lost Tuesday in Bloomington to Indiana. Next up for the Cougars is a visit Friday to Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant, Mich.

Thursday was the second of seven straight home games for Notre Dame, which returns to action Wednesday against Radford, a preseason favorite to \win the Big South.

--Field Level Media