SOUTH BEND, Ind. – When the bigs are watching some point-blank shots roll out.
When the 3-point attempts are clanking off the rim.
Notre Dame still has an answer. Always.
It’s the all-around game of point guard Olivia Miles, and when No. 9-ranked Notre Dame was a little clunky out of the gate in its season opener against Northern Illinois, Monday night at Purcell Pavilion, the sophomore preseason All-American was there to slickly sort it all out in an eventual 88-48 rout.
“I felt like Liv came out and her pace was amazing,” said Irish third-year head coach Niele Ivey. “She was electric in transition. She had the crowd going with her passes and finishes.”
That she did.
But first she had to settle the offense down after a 7-for-19 first-quarter showing from the field — many of those misses of the easy variety — in front of a crowd of 2,545.
What did she see early from surveying the Huskies’ defense?
“I actually didn't see much,” the 5-foot-10 Miles said about the start. “From a passing standpoint, I feel like my lanes kind of weren't as open as they usually are. That’s why I was kind of more aggressive to the hoop. I always look for lanes in ways that I can drive within our offense.
“I feel like they just scouted us really well. They intercepted that one cross-court pass that I usually like to make, so I just knew at that point that they kind of knew what I was going to do. So then I just took what they gave me and started shooting more.”
She wound up with a team-high 17 points with six of the points coming from the free throw line. Her offense loosened things up for a lot of fun in the second quarter, when a couple of her drives and dishes led to back-to-back layups for a 32-15 bulge with six minutes to go in the quarter. Her no-look pass to Maddy Westbeld midway through the third quarter ignited another loud burst from the crowd.
She had a team-high six assists, a team-high six steals and a team-high 10 rebounds.
You get the picture. She accomplished a lot in 29 minutes.
Nothing about the first-quarter failures frustrated her.
“It's gonna happen. It's basketball, you know, runs and whatnot,” she said. “But you keep shooting. Keep getting to the basket. If we are not making it from the outside, throw it inside and just work inside-out.”
There will be tests for this team, but Monday wasn’t one of them. Northern Illinois gave up plenty of inches in the paint and it didn’t help when All-Mid-American Conference first-teamer A’Jah Davis, a 6-1 center, sat out eight minutes of the first quarter after taking a blow to the face.
She returned in the second quarter, but was harassed into a 3-for-11 shooting performance by 6-4 Texas transfer Lauren Ebo.
It would have taken a bucket full of 3-pointers for the Huskies to hang close, and that just didn’t happen.
Perimeter defense, which has received plenty of emphasis from Ivey, was solid with Northern Illinois dropping just 5-of-17 from the arc for 29.4%.
For Notre Dame, there was plenty to like about where all this all might lead.
“I was really pleased with our effort, pleased with the way that we started the game and again, having a dominant performance all the way around and great contribution from so many different weapons on our team,” Ivey said. “It was just really fun to be out there.”
The Huskies might not agree. Hampered in the paint by the Irish length, they went 19-for-69 from the field for 27.5%.
“I want to be more aggressive (defensively),” Ivey said. “I want to play man-to-man, and I feel like I have the pieces that we can do that. And then tonight was verification of that. I knew coming in that Northern could shoot from the 3-point line, and that was another emphasis for us, defending the 3-point line. ... Man (defense) is something I'm really focused on right now with this group.”
The Irish shot 50% from the floor in the second half, including 11-for-16 in the third quarter. It was fueled by a couple of Dara Mabrey 3s. The 5-7 graduate senior was 4-for-8 from 3-point range and finished with 16 points. Westbeld added 13 and Ebo 10.
The 6-3 Westbeld was solid, going 6-for-10 from the floor with eight rebounds, four blocks and two steals.
“Maddy, first of all, she's in incredible shape,” Ivey said. “She's extremely confident and playing some of her best basketball right now. She does everything well. I mean, she's really focused and locked in on her defense. She's running the floor. I think, just her comfort level, being a junior, you can just definitely tell.
“She has so many opportunities either to score inside or she could shoot it from the 3, and you know, she's just really worked on her game, so I feel like her overall game just looks really great.”
Nine players got at least eight minutes of playing time, and Ivey got a nice lift from the bench from 6-5 junior Nat Marshall, whose sophomore season was cut short by a knee injury.
In 10 minutes she had a couple of rebounds, a steal and nine points.
Surprisingly, despite the big height advantage, the Irish were outrebounded 45-43.
“Yeah, we talked about the (long rebounds), because they shoot a lot of 3s,” Ivey said. “You know, long shot, long rebounds. I thought we had good position. We just needed to be more aggressive on going to get the ball.There's a lot of times where you see we got the box-out and make contact, but we didn't go get the ball, so it’s something that we're going to work on and fix.”
Notre Dame will travel to the Enterprise Center in St. Louis Saturday for a matchup in the Citi Shamrock Classic against California. Tip is 4 p.m. EST on NBC.
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