As the games continue to pile up with four key members of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team stuck being bystanders, it seems like only a matter of time before that would catch up to the 13th-ranked Irish.
But that wasn’t at the heart of Notre Dame’s unraveling Sunday afternoon on the road at the JMA Wireless Dome in an 86-81 upset loss to host Syracuse.
Sloppy interior passing, the No. 6 team in the nation getting outhustled on the boards, the Orange (11-1, 1-0 ACC) converting miscues into points more often than the Irish (9-2, 0-1) in a turnover-fest all figured more prominently into Notre Dame’s step backward than its roster math problem. As did Syracuse guard Dyaisha Fair’s fourth-quarter surge.
“We didn’t play well. We didn’t play our game,” Irish head coach Niele Ivey said. “And no matter if we have five people, six people, we didn’t play well. And that’s something we’re going to fix this week.
“It’s our turnovers. It’s our defense. It’s our rebounding — things we can control. We can’t control the numbers on our team, but we can control our defense. That’s something we’re going to fix.”
And as far as sharing a timetable of when any or all of the injured guard quartet of Olivia Miles (knee, 11 games missed this season), Sonia Citron (knee, 8), Cass Prosper (leg, 6) and Emma Risch (hip, 4) and/or deep reserve Jenna Brown (knee, 11)?
“No updates,” Ivey said.
And no answers for Fair in the game’s final quarter, in which the nation’s No. 2 active career scorer behind Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, poured in 14 of her team-high 27 points. Eleven of those came in the final 1:55, including back-to-back 3s after Hannah Hidalgo had pulled the Irish to within two, at 73-71, with 2:01 left.
The 5-6 freshman point guard and nation’s No. 5 scorer finished with a game-high and career-high 32 points. She also contributed five rebounds, six assists and seven steals — the latter giving the nation’s leader in that stat category 67 on the season.
Only former All-American Skylar Diggins (90) had more as a freshman in the history of the program, and that was over the course of an entire season.
Maddy Westbeld added 16 points and 10 rebounds, but was limited to 24 minutes overall, and she was on the bench in some key stretches due to foul trouble. Fordham grad transfer Anna DeWolfe had a strong game on both ends of the court with 15 points, five rebounds and three steals.
She’s now three points shy of the career 2,000 mark.
“I thought she had the most poise today,” Ivey said. “I thought she did a great job of having a great floor game. She always settles us in, and she’s somebody I talk to a lot on the court.
“She feels the game really well. Her experience helps us. She’s one of those glue players for us. I thought she was doing a good job of trying to keep our team together.”
Where the Irish came unglued most often was in the interior, a bugaboo that was exploited in the season-opening loss to now-No. 1 South Carolina in Paris. Westbeld, Kylee Watson and Nat Marshall combined 14 of ND’s 24 turnovers on Sunday. And Syracuse scored 30 points off Irish miscues, though the Orange committed 28 turnovers themselves.
Syracuse outrebounded the Irish, 45-33, and had the edge in offensive boards at 20-14.
“Especially in clutch moments,” Ivey said. “When we finally got a stop and got them to miss, they got an offensive rebound and putback.
"I didn't feel like we came out with a sense of urgency or focus. It took us a while to get going … Defensively, I didn't think we were in sync at all. We had a couple of minutes where I felt like we were on the same page, but not for a full 40 minutes."
The Irish fell behind 7-0 but were able to pull even by the end of the first quarter, 19-19. That was one of 10 ties in the game, that also featured 10 lead changes.
Notre Dame was at its best in the third quarter, ending on a 6-0 run and with a 65-61 lead. But the Orange took the lead for good on a free throw by Saniaa Wilson, at 68-67, with 5:39 left. Fair followed with a 3 to make it 71-67 before she put the Irish away at the 3-point line and free-throw line.
“It’s one of those games where we have to grow and learn from,” Ivey said. “It’s just tough going through it.”
The Irish return to action Thursday night (6 EST, ACC Network) at Pitt. The Panthers (6-8, 0-1) lost at 14th-ranked Virginia Tech by 50 (91-41) on Sunday.
---------------------------------------------------------------
• Talk with Notre Dame fans on The Insider Lounge.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, Podbean or Pocket Casts.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports channel on YouTube.
• Follow us on Twitter: @insideNDsports, @EHansenND, @TJamesND and @cbowles01.
• Like us on Facebook: Inside ND Sports
• Follow us on Instagram: @insideNDsports
