SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Losing a couple of starters in midseason is, understandably, expected to derail a team’s direction, and certainly stall its growth — at the very temporarily.
There are shocks and aftershocks, and rebuilding on the fly features its own kind of painful stages as lineups shift and roles are re-defined.
After surviving a middle-of-the-road Syracuse team (16-10, 7-8 Atlantic Coast Conference) at Purcell Pavilion on Sunday, 73-64, Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey likes the way her No. 10-ranked club is adapting to the forced course change.
“I love the way that we're trending,” said the third-year women’s head coach, after the Irish improved to 39-4 all-time against the Orange. “We're trying to become one defensively. Offensively, we're trying to learn how to play as a unit with this group. And you know, it just takes a little bit of time. Normally you work on that early on, but with injuries, it's happening right now. So I thought today was probably our best game of playing together.”
Grad senior guard Dara Mabrey has been out for the season since suffering a torn ACL in the opening moments of a 76-54 win over Virginia on Jan. 22. Sunday was Notre Dame’s fifth straight game without 6-4 grad student center Lauren Ebo, still day-to-day while nursing a lower leg injury.
The Irish, 20-4 and 11-3 in the ACC, have been 3-2 without Ebo, but Sunday was clearly the best they have played with her 10 points, seven rebounds and strong defensive presence sitting on the sidelines.
“With this new lineup and, obviously, the new team that we have, we're still trying to figure out our chemistry,” Ivey said. “I was really proud of the way that we held our composure and that we stayed poised within their run. … I think it's from the last several games.
“They've been tight games down the stretch. So we've learned a lot from those, some of those wins and some of those losses. I think that's what you saw today — great composure — and I think that helped us withstand the run.”
It was a weird game for runs.
Notre Dame, which won at Syracuse on Jan. 15, 72-56, when Mabrey had 15 points, led 19-18 after the first quarter, then held Syracuse to 1-for-16 shooting in the second quarter to move out to a 36-24 halftime lead.
Then the tables turned, and the Orange slapped the Irish with a 30-16 third quarter to go up 54-52 heading into the final quarter.
Back came the Irish, who got serious again defensively — the Orange went 1-for-9 to finish the game and 20-point scorer Dyaisha Fair, a 5-5 senior, was held to three points over the final 10 minutes.
“I challenged them to lock in defensively,” Ivey said of the fourth quarter. “I thought Cass (Prosper) did a great job on Fair. We threw multiple bodies at her. … I thought Cass’ (6-foot-2) length really bothered her and then KK (Bransford) came in, so I was trying to throw multiple players at her to try to wear her down. I thought they did a great job of that.”
Fair still finished with 22 — 10 coming in the third quarter – on 8-for-18 shooting (3-for-6 on 3s), and 11-point scorer Georgia Woolley added 17, hitting 3-of-5 3-pointers.
The offensive swings led to four ties and 12 lead changes, five of those coming early in the final quarter.
Syracuse’s last lead came at 60-59 with 7:20 to play.
After Fair hit one of two free throws with 5:45 to play, Syracuse didn’t score again until less than a minute remained on a free throw by Dariauna Lewis (14 points). The ramped-up Irish pressure produced six Orange turnovers in the final quarter.
It took awhile for the Irish to take advantage.
The bucket that drew the loudest reaction from a crowd of 5,239 was point guard Olivia Miles’ coast-to-coast drive for a layup off of a Woolley miss and Bransford rebound to give the Irish a 66-61 lead with 2:34 to go.
It was just a five-point difference, but the game felt like it was over at that point.
Miles, who averages 15 points a game, struggled with her shot and finished 4-for-12. She had seven rebounds and 13 points, but five – in eight attempts – came at the foul line over the final 1:14 as the Orange had to foul.
The club’s second-leading scorer, Sonia Citron (14.4 points a game), also couldn’t get into an offensive groove, going 3-for-9 from the field for seven points. She played only 26 minutes as she navigated foul trouble.
The best news for the Irish was the break-out game they got from 6-4 junior transfer Kylee Watson.
The former Oregon Duck celebrated her 21st birthday with 15 points (5-for-8 shooting, 5-for-7 from the line) to match her top point total in a Notre Dame uniform. She added seven rebounds to share the team high. Watson also had 15 points against Cal on Nov. 12, but had not hit double figures (10 points) since a Dec. 21 game against Western Michigan, and came in averaging just 5.9 points a game.
“I thought she was fantastic — from the beginning with her energy, her defense, scoring the ball,” Ivey said. “She made some huge free throws, but she just really ignited us today.”
Her day, which featured 10 first-half points, helped produce a 34-20 edge for Notre Dame on points in the lane and a 15-2 edge in second-chance points.
She got help from 6-5 reserve Nat Marshall, who contributed seven points and four rebounds in 14 minutes, and Maddy Westbeld, who struggled early to get some point-blank shots to fall, but wound up with 14 points on 5-for-12 shooting and seven rebounds.
Bransford, added 10 points on 3-for-4 shooting to help the Irish to a 46% clip for the game, right at their season average.
Notre Dame was slowed by a 20-for-30 effort from the free throw line (66.7%), but held a 39-31 edge on the glass.
“I think we're finally kind of getting in the groove of understanding what we do best and really just being one on defense,” Watson said. “That was something we wanted to focus on coming into today's game.”
The game was Notre Dame’s annual “Think Pink Game“ to heighten awareness and encourage donations to fight women’s cancers.
Louisville (19-8, 10-4), a game behind the Irish in the ACC standings, visits Purcell Pavilion on Thursday at 7 p.m. (EST).
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