Victory! Notre Dame Women Defeat Miami, 76-53, To End Drought
When a dam breaks, an enormous splash or flood could ensue.
That’s what finally occurred for the Notre Dame women’s basketball program on Sunday afternoon during a rousing 76-53 victory versus Miami at Purcell Pavilion.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak and five straight defeats at home, most recently the 90-56 debacle a week ago to North Carolina State that became one of head coach Muffet McGraw’s more emotionally difficult moments in her 33 years at Notre Dame.
The Irish improved to 7-12 overall and 2-5 in the ACC, while Miami now is 10-8 and the same 2-5 in league play.
Freshman forward Sam Brunelle tallied 25 points while graduate student guard Destinee Walker added 21 points in the triumph, highlighted by a combined 7 of 10 from three-point range.
“I forgot what this feels like,” said a relieved McGraw. “It feels really good.”
“It’s amazing,” said a joyous Brunelle. “We’ve worked so hard. We are a team that has so much potential and capability to do this any game. To finally actually do it, it feels amazing. I’m proud of everybody.”
With the score tied at 32 early in the third quarter, Notre Dame exploded on a 20-0 run — 10 by Brunelle and eight by Walker — to take control, out-scoring the Hurricanes 24-7 during that decisive 10-minute stretch. Miami shot 2 of 15 from the floor in that span against Notre Dame’s active defense and was held scoreless for 7:55. The 20-0 run eclipsed the previous best this year of 17-0 in the Nov. 5 opener at Fordham.
“Recently a lot of the games we’ve played — third quarters are kind of downhill, and I think we’re done with that,” Brunelle said.
“Sam looked like an All-American in the second half,” said McGraw of the 9 of 11 shooting effort Brunelle had for 20 second-half points.
Offensively, it was the most efficient game of the season with 23 assists on 30 made field goals. Notre Dame shot 50.0 percent (30-of-60) from the field and outrebounded Miami 42-33.
“This is finally the game we can feel good about the way we played,” McGraw said. “…Shots just started to drop. When shots drop, our confidence grows and we play better defensively. The biggest thing now is just them having the confidence to go into every game — at least the next game — and just knowing this is how we can play.
“We’ve never seen this. We’ve never seen what we can be. We’ve seen glimpses, very small … this is finally the game where we can feel good about the way we played, the way we executed, the way we defended, really the way we did everything.
“We all kind of feel like a weight is off our shoulders and finally — finally! — a win.”
THREE POINT PLAY
1. Iron Five
Former walk-on guard Kate Cole, who played extensively during the decisive third quarter and about 23 minutes overall, is Notre Dame's bench option with freshman Anaya Peoples (12.6 points and a team high 8.1 rebounds per game) sidelined the rest of the year, in addition to sophomore guard Abby Prohaska.
Walker is recovering from an ankle injury and point guard Marta Sniezek — we've never seen a Notre Dame player take so many violent falls in a season, including a single season record 22 charges taken already — needs some time to mend while pacing the ACC in minutes played.
The bye week is upon the Irish, as they will have Thursday night off before heading to Virginia on Sunday, Jan. 26. Tip against the Cavaliers is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on ACCNX.
2. Big Addition
Junior center Mikki Vaughn (16 points and eight rebounds) teamed well with Sniezek while cutting to the basket on the pick-and-roll, and also made several sharp passes on her own while playing mainly in the high post.
Vaughn notched her fourth game in double-figures since returning from her knee injury on Dec. 29, and was 7-of-8 shooting from the floor. In all four games, Vaughn has scored at least 16 points. She is 26 of 36 from the field (67 percent) the past five games.
3. Baby Steps
To avoid missing the NCAA Tournament this year for the first time since 1995, the Irish have to win the ACC Tournament in March.
With the remaining 11 league contests, the objective is two-fold: Build on improving every day to the point of finishing at least .500 in the league, and stay healthy with what is left, in order to put itself in the position to play Cinderella when the Irish travel to Greensboro, N.C. for the March 4-8 league tourney.
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_MikeSinger, @CoachDeDario and @AndrewMentock.
• Like us on Facebook.