No. 5 Notre Dame Breezes To Ninth Straight Win
Had No. 5 Notre Dame’s basketball game at Virginia on Thursday night been a boxing match, it would have been ruled a technical knockout in the first round.
Against a Cavaliers team that was tied for third in the 15-team ACC with a 9-3 record, Notre Dame exploded to leads of 9-0 and 20-2 in the opening minutes and never was threatened en route to its ninth consecutive victory (all by at least 14 points), 83-69.
The typically balanced Fighting Irish (24-2 overall, 12-1 in the ACC) had four players finish with double-digit scoring, led by junior guard Arike Ogunbowale’s 27 points. The Irish output was the most permitted by Virginia (previous high was 77 by Louisville and Florida State), which had allowed only 60 points per game but had already yielded 61 to the Irish with just over four minutes still left in the third quarter.
While finishing the first quarter with a 27-11 cushion, Notre Dame scored 12 points off six turnovers, mostly on the fast break with 10 points in the first quarter coming from there. Ogunbowale and sophomore Jackie Young — the two best Irish players in the open floor — tallied nine points apiece in those initial 10 minutes.
“We want to run and that was important tonight because they want to slow the tempo and play at a deliberate pace and we don’t want to play at that pace,” Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw said. “I thought we won early and then later on in the fourth we tried to use the clock in the fourth quarter and just didn’t look good.”
In the second quarter, the Irish shifted gears and repeatedly fed junior forward Jessica Shepard inside. She converted her first six field-goal attempts and was 7-of-8 in the first half while tallying 14 points as Notre Dame took a 46-27 lead into the locker room at the intermission.
McGraw’s Irish converted 20 of 31 field goals (64.5 percent) in the opening 20 minutes.
When Virginia opened the second half with a zone in an attempt to slow down the onslaught, junior guard Marina Mabrey responded with two three-pointers (she was 4-of-6 beyond the arc) and Ogunbowale a third for the first nine Irish points to help extend the advantage to 59-34, the largest lead of the contest.
Notre Dame plays its final regular season game on the road, at Boston College on Sunday, before closing with Virginia Tech (Feb. 22) and NC State (Feb. 25) next week.
Three-Point Play
1. On The Rebound
The Irish were outrebounded for the second straight contest, 38-32, notably 16-6 on offense. A major reason was Virginia’s 6-9 center Felicia Aiyeotan, the tallest player in women’s college basketball. Seven of her 11 rebounds came on offense, which helped result in a career high 17 points.
While defeating Georgia Tech by a nearly identical score last Sunday (85-69), McGraw expressed consternation about getting beat on the boards for only the fifth time this year. That is likely to be a point of emphasis in the upcoming practices.
2. For The Record?
Ogunbowale’s 27 points raised her ACC-leading scoring average this season to 20.3 points per game. As balanced as this team is, she has a legitimate shot to challenge the school’s single-season scoring record of 20.4 set by Katryna Gaither in 1996-97 when the Irish advanced to their first Final Four. A year earlier, current associate head coach Beth Morgan Cunningham averaged 20.2 to become the first Notre Dame player to average 20 points in a season. This marked Ogunbowale's 17th 20-point performance in 26 games this season.
3. Working Inside-Out
Notre Dame was perceived perhaps in the preseason to be a team that would need to rely more on the three-point shot. However, even though the Irish are first in the ACC in scoring at just over 84 points in the game, they rank 13th out of 15 in three-pointers made per game (4.5), including 5-of-11 at Virginia.
The Irish can shoot it from long distance if needed, but because all five starters can put the ball on the floor and finish off the dribble, and because Shepard is such an appealing low-post presence, Notre Dame has been more effective with working the ball in low or getting points in the paint off their running game.
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