SOUTH BEND – Pity Wake Forest.
Following 11 losses the past two years, Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team bounced back each time.
The 12th chance came Tuesday night and Wake was in the way.
It didn’t stand a chance.
Sharpening all the areas of their game that went stunningly dull in the 10-point loss at No. 22 North Carolina last Sunday, the Irish pounced on the Demon Deacons from the start and never let up in an 86-47 rout.
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Notre Dame, which had dropped from No. 4 in the national rankings to No. 7 after the loss, pushed its record to 13-2 and 4-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Offensively challenged Wake Forest (11-7, 2-5 ACC) – averaging 63 points and shooting at a 40.6% clip coming in – was stymied from the start with ND’s switching man-to-man and opportune double teams.
And head coach Niele Ivey said she challenged “their individual pride.”
The intensity showed.
The Demon Deacons shot just 31% for the night, including 23.5% from the 3-point line. Jewel Spear, the team’s only double-digit scorer at 16 points a game, was held to five in 26 minutes of play.
“(We learned from the loss) that we need to rely on our defense when our offense isn't necessarily going for us, and everything wasn't really going our way against UNC,” said Notre Dame point guard Olivia Miles. “So we had to patch the holes in our defense, and I think we did that during practice, and I'm really proud of the team and how they came out and responded during practice.”
That defensive emphasis carried over to an awakening on the offensive end. There were 22 Irish points off 14 Wake turnovers and 13 fastbreak points, but the big key from Sunday was much more movement offensively that produced 38 points from the lane and 18 layups.
The Irish, 11-0 all time against Wake, shot 54% from the field, and that’s after struggling to a 4-for-16 (25%) effort from the 3-point line. Two of those long shots came from early enrollee Cass Prosper (12 points on 4-for-9 shooting) and produced some of the loudest responses from the announced crowd of 4,319.
The overall picture was a huge turnaround from the 28% shooting issues at North Carolina.
But Ivey zeroed in on the defensive side.
“I think just collectively I felt like we were on the same page defensively,” she said. “We talked about not having been on the same page, and I feel like we were better today.”
The early star was junior Maddy Westbeld, who was coming off a 4-point, 2-for-10 showing at Chapel Hill.
By halftime she had 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting (2-for-4 on 3-pointers), six rebounds and four assists.
She finished with 25 points (10-for-15 from field), matching her career high, also reached against Wake Forest a couple years ago, eight rebounds and a couple steals.
“I think we had to set the tone on both ends of the floor after what happened on Sunday,” Westbeld said. “So that's what I was just trying to do, be aggressive for my team on the defensive end, and then let that flow to offense.”
Wake shot a miserable 17% in the first quarter as the Irish ran out to a 21-8 advantage. It was 44-25 by halftime and by the end of the game, Ivey had used all of her bench with 10 players getting at least 10 minutes of playing time.
“I think the first thing is that we've found ways to learn from our losses,” Ivey said. “I think when you lose, it gives you an opportunity to figure out what you need to do better. And so I feel like this group, we do a great job of just kind of reconnecting and figuring out how we can be better. And they do a great job of responding. Especially when we're at home.”
The night was special for Ivey with son Jaden Ivey in the audience, watching her as a head coach in-person for the first time. His basketball schedule is busy now with his rookie spot on the Detroit Pistons (40 starts, 15.1 points and four assists per game), and Purdue previous to that. He was in the audience with another former Mishawaka Marian star, Demetrius Jackson.
“He told me a couple weeks ago that he was going to try to get to this game,” Niele Ivey said of Jaden. “He's always been that person, my support system in you know, for the last 15 years here and I know what his schedule is. It’s really hard for him to get here. So the fact that he made it to support me and the program, I was really, really happy.”
She was also happy to see her bench deliver 32 points and her team take command of the boards 49-27 (14 offensive) where they had a decided advantage.
Miles wound up with 13 points and four assists, and Lauren Ebo had 10 points and five rebounds in 19 minutes.
There were 18 assists on the 32 field goals, a big step up from Sunday, and their season average.
But the turnovers keep coming, another 15 Tuesday, to equal the season average and the percentage from 3-point range keeps sliding.
The Irish were 4-for-16 as Dara Mabrey’s slump continued. She was 0-for-5 on threes after going 1-for-11 against North Carolina. She entered the day at 33% from long range. Sonia Citron had just eight points, six under her average, but took only four shots from the field.
The Irish next play at Syracuse on Sunday at 2 p.m. EST (ACCN).
“All these experiences are going to help us for the rest of conference play,” Ivey said. “You know, to be in a hostile environment at Virginia Tech and at UNC is going to help us at Syracuse and at Clemson. But you have to learn from your losses. So I know that (UNC game) was an experience we learned from, and it's going to help us down the road.”
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