Luke Harangody scored 24 points, Rob Kurz added 21 and No. 17 Notre Dame hung on to beat DePaul 98-91 Sunday to clinch a first-round bye in the Big East tournament. The Fighting Irish shook off a 90-85 loss at Louisville on Thursday that all but dashed their Big East title hopes, building a 47-31 halftime lead and starting the second with a 13-2 run that made it 60-32. Then, things got interesting.

DePaul pulled within seven late in the game, and leading the way was freshman Dar Tucker, who scored a career-high 28 points.

His 3-pointer and two free throws pulled DePaul within 84-76 with 4:37 left, and he answered a layup by Harangody with another 3 that made it 86-79 with 3:34 to go. The Blue Demons' Jabari Currie drove for a layup that made it 90-83 with just over 2 minutes left, but a spinning shot in the lane by Notre Dame's Tory Jackson and two free throws by Kyle McAlarney made it an 11-point game and ended the tension.

Harangody, coming off a 40-point performance against Louisville, had another good game. The Big East's top scorer and second-leading rebounder hit 11 of 18 shots while grabbing nine rebounds.

Kurz went 8-for-14 from the field and hit 4 of 5 3-pointers, while the Fighting Irish (22-6, 12-4) shot 56 percent.

The game was the first of three this week against teams near the bottom of the conference, with a home matchup against St. John's and a trip to South Florida closing out the regular season. With a favorable schedule, Notre Dame has a chance to build some momentum and boost its NCAA seeding.

DePaul (10-18, 5-11) just hopes to make the conference tournament.

Mac Koshwal had 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Blue Demons, who suffered their ninth loss in 10 games and fell into a tie with St. John's for the Big East's 12th and final spot. They finish with games at Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.

Just over a year ago, the Fighting Irish left Allstate Arena with a 67-66 loss and shaky NCAA hopes. This time, there was little drama - until the latter stages.