No. 1 Notre Dame Beats Iowa, 73-58
A week before its No. 1-versus-No. 2 showdown versus four-time reigning national champ Connecticut, top-ranked Notre Dame improved to 7-0 with a 73-58 victory at Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
After bolting to a 21-7 lead in the opening seven minutes, the Fighting Irish found themselves in a battle the rest of the evening, with the Hawkeyes narrowing their deficit to 50-48 with 2:35 left in the third quarter. Freshman forward Erin Boley then converted a 15-foot jumper on a kick-out pass underneath from junior forward Brianna Turner, followed by freshman guard Jackie Young taking a fast-break feed from senior point guard Lindsay Allen and converting it into a basket-and-one off the foul. Allen then made a steal on the other end and drove for the layup to build a 57-48 cushion.
In the fourth quarter, Iowa could never come closer than eight points while the Irish gradually extended their lead.
Turner — who eclipsed the career 1,000-scoring mark in the opening minutes — led the Irish with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field, but it was Allen who stuffed the stat sheet again, finishing with 11 points, eight assists (compared to one turnover in 37 minutes), six rebounds and five steals. Sophomore guard Arike Ogunbowale had 14 points, while sophomore guard Marina Mabrey, who matched Allen’s five steals, scored all nine of her points in the opening four minutes. Ogunbowale’s brother, Dare, is the second-leading rusher at Wisconsin, who will play Penn State for the Big Ten title on Saturday.
Aiding the Irish was poor free throw shooting by Iowa, which converted only 6 of 16 (37.5 percent) from the charity stripe. Notre Dame’s perimeter defense also tightened up. Iowa made 4 of 10 threes in the first half when it converted 56.0 percent of its overall field goals, but it was 0 of 9 beyond the arc in the second half. Iowa also had 23 turnovers (15 in the first half).
“I was disappointed in the upperclassmen that they didn’t come out ready,” Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw said afterwards of the team’s initial true road game. “We got out to an early lead, and I think we relaxed.
“We didn’t play as I wanted to, but I thought we did enough good things at the end to win.”
Notre Dame returns to action this Sunday (Dec. 4) with a 1 p.m. EST tipoff versus Valparaiso at home.
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