What we learned about Notre Dame women’s basketball in loss to No. 2 UConn
The moment might've just been a bit too big.
No. 24 Notre Dame hung around with No. 2 UConn through three quarters on Sunday afternoon, but in the end, the Huskies proved they're still in the elite tier of women's college basketball teams. The Irish showed they have improving to do to get back there.
UConn beat Notre Dame 73-54 at a rowdy and raucous Gampell Pavilion in Storrs, Conn. Notre Dame (7-2) only trailed by seven through 30 minutes. But the fourth quarter is winning time, and UConn (5-1) took control when it mattered most and left Notre Dame in the dust. The Huskies outscored the Irish 22-10 in the final frame. It took Notre Dame over four minutes to score in the quarter.
“I thought we lost our composure,” head coach Niele Ivey said. “They made their run, and we didn’t counteract. I felt like when they made their run in the first half, we combatted and came back. But we kind of fell apart.”
BOX SCORE: UCONN 73, NOTRE DAME 54
Freshman combo guard Sonia Citron followed up her 29-point performance against Michigan State last week with a team-high 19 points for the Irish. She was aggressive offensively, but she wasn’t on the same level as UConn sophomore Paige Bueckers who scored 22 points for the Huskies.
Bueckers dominated in all facets, as she normally does. She recorded five steals, four rebounds and four assists. The reigning national player of the year, though, was injured in the final minute of the game. She was helped off the court by team trainers in tears. Ivey shared emotional words with Bueckers after the game.
“I’m just praying it was nothing serious because it looked like she tweaked something on her own, one of those freak accidents,” Ivey said. “I was just telling her i was going to pray that everything was OK.”
UConn might have had trouble putting Notre Dame away if not for Bueckers. The Huskies turned the ball over a staggering 21 times. The Irish turned those takeaways into 22 points, but they turned the ball over 16 times themselves for 14 UConn points.
Notre Dame had two main downfalls that inhibited Ivey's team from truly threatening to upset the No. 2 team in the country on the road. The Irish only connected on 18 of 58 shots from the floor (31.0 percent), and they were out-rebounded 45-32.
UConn had 18 second-chance points to Notre Dame's four. The Huskies outscored the Irish 28-16 in the paint. UConn’s two 6-5 post players were too much for Irish forward Maddy Westbeld and center Maya Dodson who both stand at 6-3.
Freshman point guard Olivia Miles came close to a triple-double yet again with eight points, eight assists and eight rebounds. Backcourt mate Dara Mabrey made three 3-pointers to finish with nine points. Outside of Citron, though, Notre Dame did not have a consistent second option offensively.
Notre Dame needs to be able to lean on a secondary scorer to compete with the game's elite. It also has to be able to compete for rebounds even when there is a size disadvantage. Miles — again, the point guard — led the team in rebounding. That's never a recipe for success. Ivey said so herself.
“We have so many bigger guards and posts that have to do more,” Ivey said. “We have to compete harder. We have to do more. I’m probably going to be working on a lot of rebounding the next couple weeks because we have to do a better job of making contact and really being better in that category. I thought we got exposed there.”
The Irish are back in action Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET to take on Valparaiso (0-6) on a short road trip.
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