SOUTH BEND, Ind. — With six seconds left in Tuesday’s women’s basketball game in Purcell Pavilion, and the Irish up 78 points, Notre Dame’s Sarah Cernugel registered the team’s 21st steal of the game.
Just the way head coach Niele Ivey likes it.
Ignore score, opponent and circumstance and play the last minute as if it was the first.
The No. 17-ranked, 4-1 Irish attacked from the tip and never let up to produce a 113-35 win over 0-6 Chicago State in front of almost 5,000 in Purcell Pavilion.
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It matched a 1989 win over Liberty to tie for second largest margin of victory in ND history.
But it wasn’t hard to see something like this coming.
Chicago State, coming off a 6-22 season, didn’t have a rotational player over 6-foot-1, its first five losses had been by an average of 34 points, it came in averaging just 50 points a game and it was racking up turnovers at a 23-per game pace.
And it didn’t change the Irish gameplan a bit.
“That's just always my messaging, to make sure that we are intense,” said Ivey, who won’t be doing the cooking — she’ll leave that to a chef — but will be hosting her team for Thanksgiving dinner. “Just playing with that level of intensity for 40 minutes is what I want for this group.
“… I love the way that we're playing energy-wise. So just keeping that messaging, we want to be a dominant team. And we want to be a dominant team for 40 minutes. So we have to do that every night.”
The defensive pressure contributed to 32 Cougar turnovers — the most registered by an ND team since 2016.
It helped turn the game into somewhat of a layup drill for a good part of the evening.
The Irish shot 43 of them among their 79 shots, making 32, and shot 57% from the field. There was nothing selfish about their play — they finished with 24 assists on 45 field goals and had a 52-31 edge in rebounding, including 18 on the offensive side.
Ivey had the luxury of getting a longer look at different combinations. A big part of the time, freshmen star and starting point guard Hannah Hidalgo, a 25.5-point scorer coming in, was on the bench. Still, in just 18 minutes she had a team-high 23 points on 11-for-14 shooting — all three misses coming from the 3-point line.
The reigning ACC Freshman and Player of the Week came in leading the country at 6.8 steals a game, but was limited to three with less playing time.
For perspective on the stunning start to her career, it was her fifth straight game with at least 20 points, which has been done by only four other Irish players in school history — Arike Ogunbowale (four times), Charel Allen, Jewell Loyd and Alicia Ratay.
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For other highlights, there were career highs in points for three different players.
Nat Marshall, a 6-5 senior, who came in averaging 3.8 points, in 17 minutes a game, had 20 points on 8-for-10 shooting, in 29 minutes.
Her court time has increased from a year ago, and any help she can provide offensively with starting forward Sonia Citron out with a knee sprain, will be a big plus.
“She's just been getting better and better every game,” Ivey said. “She's super efficient, active on the defensive end and just gives us a huge spark off the bench.”
Marshall, who had a couple steals, credits the improved play to confidence in her game.
“Confidence bleeds into everything,” she said. “And I think that's across the board. Defense, offense, just how I prepare for games mentally, how I attack the day, how I talk to myself in games after a mistake, just having that next-play mentality, so I'll definitely say confidence, for sure.”
The Irish crowd got its first real glimpse of the potential of five-star freshman shooting guard Emma Risch. Used sparingly through the first four games, and averaging three points a game, she broke out Tuesday for a career high 16 points in 26 minutes, including 4-for-6 from the 3-point line.
“I think she showed you guys what I've been talking about,” Ivey said. “The way she can stretch it from three. She's got the prettiest jumper in the country, and I'm excited that she got a chance to get a lot of minutes and just play with a lot of comfort.”
Risch entered the game 1-for-6 on threes and any help from her on the perimeter as the competition ramps up could help fill in for Citron, who shoots plus 40% from the arc.
The third career high came from Cassandre Prosper and her 19 points. She has stepped in as the starter for Citron, primarily because of her defense and it showed with her six steals Tuesday, but it would be a huge boost if she could get going offensively.
The sophomore, who was an early enrollee last year, came in averaging five points and shooting just 22% from the field. Mostly working in the lane against Chicago State, she went 7-for-14, plus 5-for-5 from the line.
There were some other notable numbers like senior Maddy Westbeld’s 16 rebounds, two off her career best, and KK Bransford’s career-high four steals.
Becky Obinma, the grad student transfer from Pepperdine who was averaging six points a game, was “under the weather” Tuesday and didn’t play but should be back soon, per Ivey.
“We're trending in the right direction,” Ivey said. “It's still early, there's still a lot of things that we're trying to accomplish and fix. The dominance is something that I want to see in year four (of her tenure). So I'm super proud of this group. I appreciate their trust — they allow me to coach them.”
The next step for the Irish is Friday’s game at Ball State (4-0) at 5 p.m. EST, before playing at No. 19 Tennessee (3-1) on Nov. 29 (5 p.m.).
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