The Notre Dame women’s basketball team was sluggish early.
And it came back to cost the Irish late in a 57-54 loss to Miami in the semifinal round of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C., on Saturday.
The Hurricanes (20-11), the No. 7 seed, are riding a wave that no one outside of the program saw coming. They’ve defeated No. 10 seed Duke, No. 2 seed Louisville and No. 3 seed Notre Dame on consecutive days.
Miami, in the ACC final for the first time ever, can finish the run if it beats No. 1 seed North Carolina State on Sunday in the championship.
For the Irish (22-8), the beginning of the end started with a poor first quarter.
Notre Dame didn’t make its first bucket until Maddy Westbeld converted on a putback. By then, the Irish trailed 9-2 with 3:05 left in the quarter. The Hurricanes led 12-4 going into the second quarter.
Notre Dame did come back, but it never led by more than two points.
Anytime the Irish looked it might make a run, someone from Miami, usually Kelsey Marshall, had an answer. Marshall, a 5-foot-9 senior guard, finished with 18 points.
The Irish, beat Miami by 16 during the regular season, on Feb. 10.
Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said that the end result wasn’t a surprise.
“You can’t start off flat like that in a semifinal game in March Madness,” she said. “Credit to Miami. It’s something we are going to learn from. We’ll take a lot from this game. We’re excited for what’s going on in the future and in the next couple of weeks.”
Despite the offensive sputtering for most of the game, Notre Dame still had a chance to tie it on the last possession.
A Marshall free throw with 1:25 left gave Miami a 56-51 lead. Notre Dame cut the lead to two points on a 3-pointer by Dara Mabrey with 36 seconds left. Miami’s Mykea Gray made a free-throw with 24 seconds left that gave the Hurricanes a 57-54 lead.
Notre Dame called timeout and got the ball to Mabrey in the corner. Mabrey’s 3-pointer bounced off the rim.
“I thought it was an incredible look,” Ivey said of Mabrey’s final shot.
Notre Dame looked like it could break away from Miami when Westbeld, who finished with a team-high 14 points, made a 3-pointer with 2:51 left that gave the Irish a 51-50 lead.
Miami, though, was the team with more energy. It answered with a 6-0 run.
Maya Dodson, who finished with 10 points, said foul trouble also cost the Irish. She picked up two quick fouls and had to sit out the last six minutes of the first quarter.
The Irish picked it up in the second quarter with Dodson back in the game. They outscored Miami, 22-14, in the second quarter to tie it at 26-26 going into halftime.
“In the beginning, we were sluggish and then I got those two fouls,” Dodson said. “That totally changed the trajectory of the game, because I’m usually the one in the center calling things out. We found a way to figure it out and fix it.”
There won’t be much time for the Notre Dame women’s basketball team to wallow.
The likelihood of getting a No.4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and home court in the first two rounds probably vanished with the loss. Selection Sunday is March 13.
Ivey said it’s time to refocus.
“We just reset and look toward the NCAA Tournament,” she said. “We’re going to have a lot of time to get rest. We only have seven healthy bodies. It’s a time for us to recover, and just work on things until we figure out what the road looks like for us.”
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