There’s hardly ever much to take away from a Power Five program like Notre Dame blowing out a Division II school like Emporia State in a preseason exhibition game, but Monday night at Purcell Pavilion felt a little different for a few reasons.
Notre Dame didn’t have the luxury of exhibition games last year, for instance. Niele Ivey was tossed right into the regular season fire in her first year as head coach, and it was a flame her team couldn't extinguish in an 86-85 season-opening road loss to Ohio.
The Fighting Irish should feel much more prepared for the Ohio Bobcats a year later when they get them in South Bend for the season opener on Nov. 9. Monday’s performance against Emporia State indicated as much, anyway. So too did the fans inside the arena — another luxury Ivey didn’t have in Year 1.
The Irish whizzed past the Lady Hornets, 104-46. The size advantage was clear cut. The athleticism differential didn’t make for much of a match. Notre Dame exploited both advantages from the opening tip and cruised to a comfortable get the gears going type of victory.
“The game plan was winning the rebound battle because I want to run,” Ivey said. “I want to push pace and establish our inside presence. That was a goal. I knew we had a size advantage, and that's something we'd been working on.”
Nobody made use of the size advantage as well as 6-3 graduate transfer Maya Dodson. She opened the scoring 12 seconds into her Notre Dame debut. Any preseason questions of who the Irish’s go-to post presence would be this season were answered early and often by Dodson.
She scored 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting and added eight rebounds. She epitomized Ivey’s game plan; go hard on the glass and even harder in transition. She ran as well as anyone in a Notre Dame uniform for her size.
“It was great just to see where I stack up against another team,” Dodson said. “I had a great game today. There are a lot of things I can learn from because we're going to have some hard competition coming forward.
“So it really happened me figure out what I’m doing and what I need to work on. But overall I think it was a great matchup for me, and I’m happy I was able to play today.”
Dodson wasn’t the only player who made her Notre Dame debut in the exhibition. Freshman guard Sonia Citron was the first player off the bench. She scored 15 points on five shot attempts. She made 6 of 7 free throw attempts.
The 6-1 combo guard played the wing most of the night. She snagged six rebounds and seemed to have a knack for asserting her presence on both ends of the floor. She picked up two first half fouls and only scored two points as a result. She bounced back to play a clean, effective second half. Ivey was pleased to see that from a first-year player in her first competitive collegiate action.
“She’s a Swiss army knife,” Ivey said. “She has so many tools in her bag. She’s a great rebounder. She’s a great defender. She can score. She’s very efficient. She brings a ton of energy and has great size. Very versatile. I’m looking forward to her bringing us that spark off the bench.”
Sophomore Nat Marshall played the first nine minutes of her career, too. She sat out the entire 2020-21 season rehabbing a knee injury. She scored eight points and secured six rebounds in just nine minutes. Ivey said Marshall should keep growing with each game.
Perhaps it was a good sign for Notre Dame’s offense that last year’s leading scorer, sophomore forward Maddy Westbeld, didn’t score her first points until the second quarter. The Irish had already put 33 points on the board before Westbeld chipped in with her first two. She finished with eight points and nine rebounds.
Notre Dame’s backcourt duo of freshman Olivia Miles and senior Dara Mabrey were exactly what a coach is looking for in a pair of guards. Mabrey led the team with 10 assists. Miles had six. They only combined to turn the ball over five times. Miles scored 13 points. Mabrey had 12, all of which came on 4 of 6 shooting from three-point range. They combined for 12 rebounds.
Mabrey played the point before Miles arrived as an early-enrollee last January, so Ivey has two skilled ball handlers and distributors to work with this season.
“She had the whole year to learn the offense and learn the dynamic of our team and the ins and outs of our team,” Ivey said. “It was kind of hard putting her in that role, but she's a team player. She wanted to do whatever I needed.”
That's the theme going into the season opener against Ohio Nov. 9. Asked about the identity of Notre Dame this season, Dodson said it's not so much based on personnel but rather the way players like Mabrey sacrifice for the betterment of the program.
“We love playing with each other,” Dodson said. “We have a lot of heart. We want this season to be great. I wasn't here last year, but I was watching. And I think we're even better than last year. We're going to be a great team this year.”
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