We continue our weekly looks at the #1 women’s basketball team. After picking up two more wins this week, the Irish advanced to 6-0. They hold the top spot in both the AP and Coaches Polls by a narrow margin over perennial powerhouse UConn.

Game Summaries

The Irish’s first win this week came in a bit of an unusual game. The team traveled to take on Louisiana-Lafayette at Houston’s Campbell Center. The venue and opponent would have made it an unusual game to begin with. Traditionally, head coach Muffet McGraw tries to give each player a chance to play in their home city or state in front of their family and friends at some point in their time at Notre Dame. The team even traveled to Toronto for this purpose during Natalie Achonwa’s senior year. However, Notre Dame was not able to find a Texas opponent willing to play them in Houston for junior Brianna Turner’s homecoming game. Fortunately, the Ragin’ Cajuns were willing to take on the Irish, and the Campbell Center was available as the venue. However, with just 2:38 remaining in the second quarter, the arena was hit by a power outage (make your own joke about shooting the lights out here). Notre Dame had taken a comfortable 38-17 lead by this point after a 17-0 run. After a while it became clear that the game would not be resumed at the Campbell Center. Following the completion of their own game, the Rice women’s basketball team offered their arena for the completion of this game. The teams and staffs hopped on the buses, drove across town, and were able to resume the game after a delay of more than two-and-a-half hours. The delay didn’t slow the Irish down, however, as they pulled away for a 91-51 victory. Marina Mabrey scored a career-high 27 points in the win, and Turner added a double-double in front of her home fans.

The second game of the week was much less dramatic. No power outages or venue changes interfered with the Irish’s matchup with TCU on Saturday. The team opened the game with mediocre shooting, only hitting 39% in the first half. With shooting troubles and early foul trouble forcing Brianna Turner to the bench, TCU was able to keep the game close. Notre Dame led by three at the half. However, they broke the game open late in the third and carried the momentum through the fourth. Shooting improved to 52.6% in the second half as Turner scored 16 second-half points. The game ended with a 92-59 Irish victory. Six Notre Dame players scored in double digits, led once again by sophomore Arike Ogunbowale with 19, and senior Lindsay Allen reached a career-high 12 assists. Among the players to score in double figures were both freshmen, Jackie Young and Erin Boley, who are starting to find their rhythm on the team.

Other Observations

It was a tough week for sophomore Ali Patberg. A virus not only kept her off the court, but led to her missing the trip to Houston and being quarantined from the team for a time. However, she was seated on the bench for the TCU game, so she appears to be on the mend. Hopefully we will get to see her back in the rotation this week.

I had planned to write here about my slight frustration with the team’s slow starts in some games this year. There have been a couple of instances, the game against TCU being the most recent one, where the team appeared to struggle early and stay in a close game with a team they eventually ended up blowing out. I would like to see them playing better early in games so that they don’t leave all of that work for the fourth quarter. However, in reading the official recap of the TCU game, one fact stood out to me and reminded me that we have perhaps been a little spoiled by this team’s success in recent years. According to that recap, when TCU scored to go up 7-5 in Saturday’s game, that was the largest deficit Notre Dame has faced so far this season. They have reached 6-0 while never trailing by more than two points. In fact, through their exhibition game and four WNIT games, the Irish never trailed at all. That’s tough to criticize. I think McGraw would be the first to say there is always room for improvement, but for the moment I’m just going to enjoy 6-0.

In other WBB news…

In the win over TCU, Lindsay Allen reached another benchmark: on a pass to Jackie Young, she recorded her 600th career assist. After recording her 1000th career point last week, Allen continues to show us why she will be greatly missed when she graduates.

On Monday, November 21st, Arike Ogunbowale was named espnW’s National Player of the Week, recognizing her MVP performance in the Preseason WNIT Tournament.

Burger Basket Leaderboard

At Notre Dame home games where the Irish score 88 points or more, the fans in attendance receive coupons for a free burger. We’re tracking which player is responsible for feeding the fans the most often over the course of the season.

We have a three-way tie now, with the addition of Erin Boley to the list following a 3-pointer to hit the 88 mark against TCU.

Erin Boley – 1
Arike Ogunbowale – 1
Jackie Young – 1

Coming Up

Notre Dame will play at Iowa on Wednesday, then return home for a matchup with Valparaiso on Sunday. These are their last two tests before they face UConn on December 7th.