The Irish won the ACC Tournament this week for the fourth consecutive year. Their ACC record now stands at 74-2 since joining the league four years ago, with four regular-season titles and four conference tournament titles. Here’s how it happened.
Friday: #3 Notre Dame vs. Virginia
As Kathryn Westbeld continues to battle a lingering ankle injury, freshman Erin Boley started for her again this game. Notre Dame got off to a bit of a rusty start and Virginia took advantage of the opportunity to keep the game close. The Irish took a 3-2 lead on a three-pointer from Arike Ogunbowale but couldn’t pull away. The Cavaliers tied the game at 11 before a Boley free throw and Mabrey three stretched the lead to 15-11. At the end of the first quarter, ND was up 19-14. In the second quarter, Virginia clearly had trouble guarding Brianna Turner, who was the recipient of several nice passes under the basket. The Irish played a lot of zone defense, trying to avoid foul trouble with their fairly short bench. Virginia still hung in early, and used good defense to go on a run of their own to cut ND’s lead to 23-20 and then tie the game at 23. ND responded with a 7-0 run and looked poised to pull away before Virginia responded with a 7-0 run of their own to tie the game back up at 30. ND went into halftime up 36-32 after a first half that left head coach Muffet McGraw upset with the team’s poor defense and the fact that they were missing easy shots.
After entering the game late in the second quarter, Westbeld started the second half for the Irish. The team seemed to have taken McGraw’s halftime comments to heart, and stretched the lead to 43-34 early. Virginia was able to keep it close every time ND threatened to pull away, but the lead had grown to ten by the end of the third quarter at 57-47. Virginia was no longer able to keep up, and ND was finally able to pull away. Virginia started fouling with about a minute and a half remaining, with the Irish up 72-58, but it was too late for the Cavaliers. The game ended with a 76-59 Irish win. Virginia has an impressive group of talented freshmen, which will be something to watch for the next few years.
Arike Ogunbowale led the team with 19 points in this game, including five made three-pointers. Lindsay Allen added a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists. Entering the game tied with Mary Gavin for the ND career assists record, she claimed the record on her first assist in the game. Not satisfied to stop there, less than two minutes into the third quarter she passed to Mabrey for a three-pointer to break the ACC career assists record at 786.
Saturday: #3 Notre Dame vs. #14 Louisville
Friday’s win set the Irish up for a meeting with #14 Louisville in the tournament semifinal. Westbeld returned to the starting lineup for this game. Both teams started out with some cold shooting, though Louisville did manage to take a 5-0 lead. ND didn’t score until the 7:19 mark on a basket from Brianna Turner that made it a 5-2 Louisville lead. From that point, the Irish were able to keep it close but couldn’t quite catch Louisville until they took their first lead at 15-14. The game was tied up at 17. Lindsay Allen picked up her second foul with 35.2 seconds left in the first quarter and had to go to the bench. The Irish held an 18-17 lead at the end of the quarter. Foul trouble for Lindsay Allen is basically ND’s nightmare scenario, so the second quarter had the potential to be pretty ugly. In fact, things went fairly well and gave some hope for next year’s team without Allen. The entire second quarter was back and forth between the teams, with multiple ties throughout. Marina Mabrey kept the team in the game with 13 points in the first half, and by handling the point guard position while Allen was on the bench. Allen sat the entire quarter until the last 11.2 seconds. Despite her absence, the game went to halftime tied at 33.
The third quarter opened looking like it was going to continue with the back and forth routine, but ND managed a 7-0 run to get a little separation at 44-37. Louisville chipped away at this lead for the rest of the quarter, but ND held the 58-56 lead going into the fourth. With more than seven minutes remaining in the game, Allen picked up her fourth foul. ND extended their lead to 70-63 before Allen went to the bench at the 6:02 mark. Just seconds later, Turner picked up her fourth foul as well. During the last four minutes of the game, the Irish had Allen, Turner, and freshman Jackie Young all playing with four fouls, but they all managed not to foul out. With 49.3 seconds left in the game, ND led 75-69. They were able to stretch this lead from the free throw line, and claimed an 84-73 victory.
Marina Mabrey came up big for the Irish in this game, with her time at the point in the second quarter and her team-high 26 points. Turner and Young each added 16 points and five rebounds. The team scored 19 points off of Louisville turnovers. The game also marked Allen’s 144th career start, tying Skylar Diggins’s record, which she would pass the next day with start 145.
Sunday: #3 Notre Dame vs. #13 Duke
On Sunday the Irish faced Duke with a fourth consecutive ACC tournament title on the line, and they weren’t going to waste this opportunity. The Irish scored on the opening tip and never looked back. They would not trail the entire game. They jumped out to a 7-0 lead in less than two minutes without missing a shot before Duke was forced to take a timeout. The Blue Devils settled in some after this and started scoring, but the Irish still stretched the lead to 18-8. Notre Dame was playing better defense than we have seen from them in some prior games, but Duke was able to hang in and cut the lead to 18-14. However, 64% shooting from the Irish in the first quarter allowed them to stretch the lead back to 27-18. The second quarter opened with some back and forth play, but the Irish lead grew to ten again at 35-25. They continued growing the lead, topping it off with a buzzer beater from Lindsay Allen to take a 43-31 lead into halftime.
Duke came out strong in the third quarter, opening up with a 10-0 run to cut the Irish lead to 43-41. However, their success wouldn’t last. Notre Dame took a timeout, then Ogunbowale hit a three to kick off a 20-2 Irish run. Boley’s three with 1:25 remaining in the third quarter made it a 20 point game at 63-43. Duke was able to get a little closer during the fourth quarter, but never within striking distance. The Irish won the tournament with an 84-61 victory in the game.
Five Irish players scored in double digits, led by Ogunbowale with 21. Allen had another big game, with 11 points, 13 assists, seven rebounds and five steals en route to being named the Tournament MVP. With the 13 assists in this game, she broke the Notre Dame single-season assists record set by Niele Ivey in 2001. Allen now has 252 assists this season. Brianna Turner was named to the all-tournament second team, while Allen, Mabrey, and Ogunbowale were named to the first team.
Observations
This team is playing some classic Irish unselfish basketball at this point in the season. They are racking up assists on clean passing that is fun to watch. The sloppy turnovers have decreased and the defense seems to be improving. There are still some rough patches from game to game, but the overall product is looking good. Hopefully, the team is peaking at the right time for the NCAA Tournament. Of course, as we saw in the Sweet Sixteen last year, anything can happen in the tournament, but at least the Irish’s likely position as a #1 seed means they won’t have to face UConn before the Final Four. Hopefully they will have a good run to that point and have the opportunity for a rematch.
Other News
This week, Allen and Turner were named to the All-ACC First Team. Jackie Young was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team. Erin Boley was named to the ACC Academic All-American team. Turner also repeated as ACC Defensive Player of the Year, and was named one of ten semifinalists for the Naismith Trophy. You know, just another week.
Coming Up
Notre Dame awaits the release of the NCAA Tournament bracket. The women’s bracket will be announced next week on Selection Monday. Current projections have the Irish as the #1 seed in the Lexington region.
We’ll skip the weekly recap next week since there won’t be any action.
All 8 championships in 4 years. Incredible job by Muffet in the ACC, continuing to build on her fantastic career.