NC State steals Notre Dame's thunder in closing seconds to avert upset
Less than an hour after a 66-63 Sweet 16 loss to North Carolina State in the Bridgeport (Conn.) Regional Saturday, the big picture came into focus for Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey.
Forget the seven fourth-quarter turnovers the No. 5-seeded Irish had as they squandered a lead that was as large as 12 in the second half.
Forget the key steal and layup Raina Perez made with 14.8 seconds left that finally gave the No. 1-seed Wolfpack (32-3) a one-point lead.
Forget the missed wide-open 3-pointer by Maddy Westbeld with about 2 seconds left that could have been the game-winner.
Ivey made the choice to look ahead to what’s possible for this team.
“It’s really, really hard to go through this,” Ivey said. “But, we’ve gone so far. The growth, the belief, the buy-in. … It’s still going to take a long time to recover from this.”
With two freshmen (Olivia Miles 21 points, 6 assists; and Sonia Citron 8 points) and a sophomore (Westbeld 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals) as the nucleus of the 24-9 Irish, Ivey has every reason to feel good about the future.
“I don’t want this loss to dictate who we are,” said Ivey, whose team was 10-10 and missed the NCAA Tournament in her first season last year. “It doesn’t. I don’t want our players to feel that this is the end of the world. Our future is really bright. I’m excited about who we are.”
“Notre Dame, man, they’re going to be good for a long while,” said Wolfpack coach Wes Moore. “They have so many young players.”
Those young players, who scorched Oklahoma to get to the Sweet 16, took a while to heat up Saturday.
Trailing 16-12 after a quarter, the Irish hit 77% of their second-quarter shots, and 80% of their 3-pointers, to take a 38-30 lead into intermission.
“I told our players I didn’t think they could keep that up the entire game,” said Moore. “When we get our chance, we’d have to take advantage of it.”
Rookie mistakes on a national stage finally began to emerge in the fourth quarter. Midway through the last period, the Irish were still up six, 59-53. That’s when NC State ratcheted up its defense into desperation mode. The full-court pressure gave point guard Miles problems.
“They needed stops and pressured in the full-court,” Miles said. “I hesitated in figuring it out. I was reading what was thrown at me. There were lapses, and I take responsibility for that.”
Kai Crutchfield had three steals and seven of her 14 points in the fourth quarter. The most significant turnover came when Perez took the ball from Dara Mabrey and scored with 14.8 seconds left to put the Wolfpack ahead for the first time since the second quarter.
“(Mabrey) turned her back (near the top of the key) and the ball was still stuck on her hip,” Perez said. “I went for it and got it.”
North Carolina State had a 7-0 run in the final 1:23 of the game to snatch the victory. Center Elissa Cunane had 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the way.
“We talk about stressing that every possession matters,” Ivey said. “It’s so real.”
One other mantra within the program has to do with avoiding the emotional roller coaster.
“We stress: Never get too high with a win; don’t get too low with a loss,” Ivey said. “This one hurts. But, look beyond it to see the amazing transition that happened so fast. People were saying it was going to take a few years.
“I just hope what we did attracts even more talented players to be in this family. I’ve learned so much in these two years. What we’re building is focused on belief, commitment and buy-in.”
Now Ivey has some results to back that up.
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