No. 9 Irish transcend turnovers, Eagles to pick up ACC road win
It could have been easier.
Probably should have been.
When the No. 9 team in the country shoots 52 percent from the field, 80 percent from the free-throw line and outrebounds its opponent by 14, you don’t expect a tie game late in the third quarter or a five-point margin with 7:23 to play.
But that’s the kind of hassles Boston College and the Conte Forum have handed the Notre Dame women’s team the past three years.
It took a 14-0 fourth-quarter run by the Irish to overcome a staggering 22 turnovers and end that three-year jinx with a 73-59 victory on Thursday night. And that was against a Boston College team missing leading scorer Dontavia Waggoner (13.1 points and 7.5 rebounds), a 6-foot junior, who was out with an injury.
Against a stronger opponent than 14-11 (4-8 Atlantic Coast Conference) Boston College — like the Irish will face at home Sunday (1 p.m. EST) in fellow ACC first-place team Duke — those turnovers could be game-wrecking. But getting out of Chestnut Hill, Mass., was to be enjoyed, head coach Niele Ivey said, no matter the mistakes.
“It's the first thing I told the team, that this is the first win here since 2019 — it’s such a tough place to play,” Ivey said. “So we're extremely happy that we played a great game and won, but also just played (hard) for 40 minutes.”
The win came without starting 6-4 center Lauren Ebo, (10 points, and seven rebounds a game), who also missed Sunday’s loss at North Carolina State. She was on the sideline, wearing a mid-calf walking boot on her right leg. She reportedly is day-to-day with a “lower-leg injury” and the 18-3 (9-2 ACC) Irish haven’t been quite the same without her presence in the middle, especially against zone defenses.
In fact, it was the three-guard starting lineup Ivey put on the floor that led the way against BC, combining for 55 points. Sonia Citron scored 23, Olivia Miles 22 and KK Bransford 10. Of course, those three can play like bigs at times and accounted for 20 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end. The Irish still had a decisive edge in the paint, 44-32, along with 13 fastbreak points.
Notre Dame won the first meeting in South Bend on Jan. 1, 85-48, with Miles and Bransford scoring 17, and Citron 15. The Irish shot 53.3% from the field, but also had 19 turnovers — BC forces an average of 20 turnovers a game. Ebo had five points and six rebounds in that one.
“We've gotten hit with a lot of adversity with both our seniors out (guard Dara Mabrey, out for the season, and Ebo),” Ivey said. “This group knows that they have to do a little bit more — everybody has to step up and are required to do a little bit more.
“I thought Natalija (Marshall) did a great job of coming in and gave us great minutes (17). Jen Brown came in to give us great minutes (three), and Cass (Prosper) has done a phenomenal job of giving us great minutes (28). Depending on if I'm going with a big lineup or a four-guard lineup, everybody knows that they need to do more. And I'm just really proud of the effort and the contribution from everybody.”
The Irish couldn’t expand on a first-quarter, 11-point lead, and were outscored 20-13 in the second quarter for just a 32-30 halftime lead. They turned the ball over seven times in the third quarter to keep a cold-shooting BC team (36% for the game) hanging around and threatening. Twenty-two of the Eagles’ points came off ND’s turnovers.
The fourth-quarter surge came after the Eagles whittled the margin to five and was completely driven by the sophomore guards, Citron and Miles.
Citron hit a rebound bucket to get it started and Miles followed with a crafty drive and layup. Citron delivered on a wide-open fastbreak 3-pointer, and Miles copied it less than a minute later. A beautiful feed from Miles for a Citron layup followed at the four-minute mark, and a Citron 15-footer — assisted by Miles — finished off the run for a 69-50 bulge at the 3:25 mark before the Eagles finally scored. BC had five of its 18 turnovers in the quarter as the Irish ratcheted up the defensive work that included some full-court pressure.
It’s not the first time Miles and Citron have taken over a game.
“That's my girl,” Miles said of Citron. “That’s the reason we went to college together, to do these things. So we love bouncing off each other, playing off each other. I told Sony I needed two more assists for the double-double (she had 10 assists), and she was like ‘Yeah, I got you.’ That's just kind of our communication on the court and we just really play off each other really well.”
Citron, who came into the game shooting 45% from 3-point range, nailed three of her six attempts, and Miles, shooting 51% from the field for the year, was 8-for-14 and 5-for-6 from the free-throw line.
The bigs never really got going. Maddy Westbeld, a 6-3 junior forward, fouled out after eight points, three rebounds and three turnovers in 25 minutes. And starter Kylee Watson, a 6-4 junior, had four points, six rebounds, three blocks and five turnovers in 26 minutes.
Center Maria Gakdeng led the Eagles with 16 points on a 6-for-8 shooting performance. The club’s second-leading scorer, JoJo Lacey (11.4), was just 3-for-17, including 0-for-6 on 3, as BC went just 3-for-17 from the arc.
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