With a little over 90 seconds to play and down six points, Notre Dame junior Maddy Westbeld took a pass near the top of the key from graduate senior Dara Mabrey.
Without a North Carolina defender in her space, Westbeld grabbed the ball and just stumbled, creating a traveling call and turnover No. 18 in the team’s 19-turnover performance.
It was that kind of epically awful Sunday afternoon for the No. 4-ranked team in a 60-50 loss in front of almost 4,000 in Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill, N.C.
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The Tar Heels (10-5, 1-3) came in ranked No. 22, but were mired in a four-game losing streak coming in.
The turnover issue is expanding in seriousness for the 12-2 (3-1 ACC) Irish, who average over 16 a game – 166th in the country.
But they could have overcome the ball-handling and passing blunders, as well as the Tar Heels, were it not for what was basically a total offensive blackout.
Consider these numbers for a team that was averaging 84.1 points a game (ninth in NCAA) and shooting at a 49.8% clip (fifth in NCAA) coming in.
– Notre Dame hit just 3 of its first 17 shots and finished 16-for-57 for 28.1%
– The Irish were 2-for-22 on 3-pointers with Mabry, their most prolific perimeter shooter, going 1-for-11 on threes and 3-for-15 overall.
– Notre Dame averages 19 assists a game and recorded just seven.
– The Irish made less than 50% of their layups (7-for-17).
So many scorers on this ND roster with five players averaging in double figures and only one shot over 50% for the day – Olivia Miles, who led the Irish with 15 points. She was 0-for-4 from the 3-point line, but 5-for-9 from the field. Sonia Citron had 11 points with four coming from the free throw line.
“I think we have great shooters, but the shots just didn't fall tonight,” Irish coach Niele Ivey said. “I thought we had some good looks.
“I thought their zone really slowed us down …”
Ivey was bothered more by the defensive effort.
“Defensively, we didn’t come out with the toughness I wanted … we didn’t play our style of game,” she said.
Overall, the defense held up allowing 35% shooting and forcing 15 turnovers, and it wasn’t until the fourth quarter that things started to unravel.
Paulina Paris, a 5-9 freshman averaging just 5.4 points a game and shooting 34.9%, had five points heading into the fourth quarter. She finished with a team-high 16, going 2-for-2 from the 3-point line over the final 10 minutes. The first one, with eight minutes to go, gave the Tar Heels a five-point lead and the second followed two minutes later for an eight-point edge.
“Yeah, we lost her, especially in transition,” Ivey said. “She came out with a ton of confidence … We just didn't do a good job of containing her and she got whatever she wanted. She got to the rim. She got wide-open looks. She was a really big momentum booster for them.”
The last 10 points for the Tar Heels came from the free throw line (10-for-12).
Down the final 1:13, the Notre Dame offense was completely off its game. Miles missed two threes and Mabry wasn’t even close with her last 3-point attempt of the game at the 1:06 mark.
There were easy shots to be had, especially early in the contest.
The Irish outrebounded UNC, 42-34 and 6-4 Lauren Ebo was active all afternoon in the lane, dragging down a career-high 19 rebounds, including seven on the offensive side.
But those rebounds didn’t lead to many points as Ebo, who got plenty of attention once she touched the ball, could get only two of her 10 shots in the lane to fall.
“I think every shot we took was with confidence,” Ebo said. “It just really wasn't our night offensively. But the more we started up on defense, the more the shots started to fall and the more we relaxed on defense, the more we (struggled to score). I think it was our defense that was really the biggest issue here.
“I rushed my shots, so props to them for their defensive effort, but once again, it's our defense. … We know how to make shots.”
The Irish trailed 13-7 after the first quarter, but it could have been so much worse. The Tar Heels had just one bucket after the 4:59 mark.
Notre Dame finally got on top at 20-17 midway through the second quarter on a 3-pointer by Mabry, but another long drought followed and the best the Irish could do was get to the locker room at halftime with a 25-22 lead.
The lead got to 30-22 – the largest for Notre Dame all day – at the 6:30 mark of the third quarter on a Citron three-point play, but it disappeared less than three minutes later as the offense fell into disarray.
“It’s tough to lose, but obviously the ACC is super tough, so we are trying to focus on preparing for the next one,” Ivey said.
Wake Forest visits Purcell Pavilion on Thursday at 7 p.m. EST.
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