Notre Dame played their most recent games against Toledo and Michigan State, with just one day to rest in between. Fortunately, that didn’t seem to bother the team and will be good experience for postseason play. Since these were the only two games in a two week stretch, I’m combining them into this single post.

Game Summaries & Observations

The Irish turned in two fairly solid performances to close out this stretch of the season before the holidays. Saturday’s game against the Toledo Rockets started with a 5-0 Toledo run, but Notre Dame took over from there. ND shot 53.3% for the game, with four players in double figures. Most notably, Brianna Turner finally had the kind of game I have been waiting to see. It seems silly to complain when a player has scored in double figures for 30 consecutive games, was a preseason All-American, is on multiple national award watchlists, and has already received ACC Player of the Week honors once this year. Nevertheless, it just didn’t seem like Turner had been playing her best basketball so far this season as she missed layups and looked a little uncomfortable. However, against Toledo on Saturday Turner had a fantastic day, scoring 26 points on 11 of 13 shooting to go along with eight rebounds and two blocks. Marina Mabrey, Lindsay Allen, and freshman Erin Boley rounded out the list of double-figure scorers for the Irish. Jackie Young, who is still nursing an ankle injury suffered against UConn, did not play. Ali Patberg finally returned to the Irish lineup after missing several games with walking pneumonia, securing one rebound in her three minutes of action. Notre Dame won 85-68.

The momentum carried over into Tuesday’s game at Michigan State. This game brought the team face to face with former teammate Taya Reimer, who transferred to MSU this year after a somewhat mysterious midseason departure from the team last year. Muffet McGraw made a change to the starting lineup for this game, giving junior Mychal Johnson her second career start in place of Arike Ogunbowale. Johnson has proven herself to be one of the team’s top defenders, so a desire to have her guarding Spartan star Tori Jankoska to start the game may have been behind the decision. Despite a challenge from a talented Michigan State team, Notre Dame never trailed in this game and were able to get all eleven players into the game for the first time this year during the 79-61 win. Lingering ankle pain kept Jackie Young from playing more than two minutes, and a still-recovering Patberg played only one minute, but all players saw the court at least briefly. The Irish dominated inside, outscoring MSU in the paint 48-26 behind 19 points from Turner and 12 from Kathryn Westbeld (part of a double-double with her 11 rebounds). Marina Mabrey added 19 points for the second game in a row. The team also kept Irish alum Reimer from having much of an impact for the Spartans – Reimer played only 16 minutes, during which she had four points and four fouls.

Overall, I’m encouraged with the way the team is looking. They have shown improvement in several areas and it has been fun to see different players starting to step up. Westbeld continues to impress, and Lindsay Allen remains the steady leader of the team. Mychal Johnson’s defense is impressive, and her toughness and determination are a welcome addition when she is on the floor. The sophomores continue to show improvement as well, with both Mabrey and Ogunbowale making big scoring contributions. Hopefully this progress will continue and Young and Patberg will be able to contribute at full health sooner rather than later. The ACC presents a challenging conference schedule for the team, and it will be interesting to see how they respond.

In other WBB news…

On December 12th, Brianna Turner was named ACC Player of the Week. She had double-doubles against both UConn and DePaul during the previous week to earn the recognition.

Other than that, it’s been a pretty quiet stretch between final exams and the upcoming holiday.

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.

The team has been on the road, so there are no changes this week. Jackie Young keeps the lead for now.

Jackie Young – 2
Erin Boley – 1
Arike Ogunbowale – 1

Coming Up

Notre Dame will take a break for Christmas before visiting Chattanooga on Tuesday and opening ACC play at North Carolina State on Thursday. I will have your next recap on January 2nd, so in the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!