#8 Notre Dame picked up two more conference wins this week in tough games against Duke and Virginia. They rounded out the week by inducting another new member into the Ring of Honor at Purcell Pavilion.

Thursday: Duke at Notre Dame

Notre Dame’s first game this week came against a fellow ranked opponent in #14 Duke. After missing two games with an ankle injury, Kathryn Westbeld returned to the starting lineup for the Irish. Unfortunately, Mychal Johnson missed the game with a shoulder injury she sustained during practice earlier in the week. She seems likely to miss at least a few weeks with the injury.

Duke came out of the gate ready to play, shooting well and jumping out to a 15-6 lead. Notre Dame struggled to find a way to get the offense going, demonstrated by a scoreless four minutes. However, the team started to chip away at Duke’s lead, and a three-pointer from Erin Boley cut the deficit to two at 17-15. By the end of the first quarter, Duke had stretched their lead back to seven. The second quarter opened with more back and forth play between the two teams, and the Irish managed to tie it up at 31 with less than three minutes left in the half. A flagrant foul called against Duke’s Suggs with 20.1 seconds left to play gave the Irish a chance to change the momentum. Brianna Turner made both free throws for the Irish to tie the game at 35, but the team was unable to score on the subsequent possession to take the lead before halftime.

The teams continued to fight in a close game in the third quarter, trading the lead and seeking some kind of edge. However, Notre Dame took advantage of a Duke turnover to score four quick points to end the quarter. This capped off a 6-0 run that gave the Irish a 50-46 lead going into the fourth. Duke had a little bit of trouble with turnovers in the fourth quarter, and the Irish had some key offensive rebounds, but they still weren’t able to shake off Duke. As the end of the game neared, Notre Dame gave up back to back turnovers and allowed a Duke three to cut the Irish lead to four. Fortunately, Duke was not able to score in the final seconds, and 62-58 held as the final score.

Turner had one of her better games this year, tallying a double-double with 25 points and 12 rebounds. Lindsay Allen also had an impressive 12 assists as the Irish hung on to move to 7-1 in the ACC. During this game, Allen also played her 4,000th minute for the Irish. She joins just three other players who have reached this milestone (Skylar Diggins, Megan Duffy, and Alicia Ratay).

Sunday: Virginia at Notre Dame

The Irish played another home game on Sunday, hosting Virginia. Virginia’s defense has been giving their opponents some serious problems this year, and they were coming off a dominating 76-27 win over a ranked Virginia Tech team. Kathryn Westbeld’s ankle continues to give her problems, so Erin Boley got the start in her place.

Notre Dame, or more specifically, Arike Ogunbowale, didn’t waste any time testing out the Virginia defense. Ogunbowale scored Notre Dame’s first nine points of the game by sinking three three-point shots. Behind a total of five three-point baskets, the Irish jumped out to a 19-10 lead with 5:10 remaining in the first quarter. Already only eight points shy of the total number given up by Virginia in their previous game. However, Notre Dame’s defense was struggling during this stretch too. After the early scoring explosion, the Virginia defense settled in and Notre Dame faced a long scoring drought. Marina Mabrey hit another three with just over 30 seconds left in the quarter, and the Irish had a 22-17 lead to end the first. Echoing the start of the game, Ogunbowale opened the second quarter with another three, making her 4-4 from deep. Westbeld did see some limited action in the second quarter, and later in the game, that combined for nine minutes. The Irish were able to stretch their lead slightly during the second quarter thanks to a 9-0 run, and led 44-36 at the half.

Things got off to a slow start in the third quarter. With 7:02 left in the third, Notre Dame had not yet scored in the quarter and Virginia was able to tie the game at 44. However, the Irish did start to pull away again and went on a nice run featuring a couple of highlight reel plays: back to back alley-oops, one from Mabrey to Turner, and one from Ali Patberg to Jackie Young. Turner hadn’t scored in the first half, as she played limited minutes due to some foul trouble, but got on the board with seven points in the 3rd quarter. The Irish lead stretched to as much as 11 before ending the third quarter up 61-52. Unfortunately, Virginia started the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run of their own. Thanks in part to some turnovers by the Irish, Virginia was able to tie the game again at 63 with 6:57 remaining. At this point, the Irish defense began to come together, holding Virginia scoreless for several minutes while pulling ahead to 72-65. Virginia was able to get back within four, but had to start fouling at that point. Notre Dame held on for an 82-74 final score.

The Irish were led by 26 points from Mabrey and 21 from Ogunbowale. Lindsay Allen recorded a somewhat unusual double-double, as it didn’t include points. She recorded five points, 11 rebounds, and ten assists (her third straight game with ten or more assists). The Irish picked up their 38th straight home conference win. The team has not lost an ACC game at home since joining the conference.

Observations

I’m really still not sure what to make of this team at this point. They have a ton of individual talent, but still struggle with putting those pieces together for extended stretches. They will have streaks where they look great, like a team ready to make a deep tournament run, and then within the same quarter they will have streaks where they can’t score and struggle on defense. Hopefully those good stretches will start to last longer. I’m guessing we’ll see a few more close finishes in the last seven games of the regular season.

Other News

After Sunday’s game against Virginia, assistant coach Beth Morgan Cunningham was inducted into the Ring of Honor at Purcell Pavilion. She joins fellow women’s basketball stars Ruth Riley, Skylar Diggins, and Niele Ivey, who was added in a ceremony earlier this season. Cunningham played for the Irish from 1993-1997. Her freshman year she helped the team to its second-ever NCAA appearance, and her senior year she guided the team to its first Final Four (a pretty impressive leap for four years). According to a Tweet from the team, when she graduated Cunningham held 28 Notre Dame records, 11 of which still stand today. Cunningham was the program’s leading scorer with 2,322 points until Diggins beat that record. Cunningham returned to Notre Dame as an assistant coach in 2012 after serving as the head coach at VCU for nine years.

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.

There were two home games this week, but no updates to the leaderboard since the team didn’t reach 88 points in either outing.

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

Coming Up

Notre Dame will travel to #19 Virginia Tech for a game on Thursday. That will be the only game this week, then the team will host Louisville for another nationally televised game next Monday.