#7 Notre Dame advanced to 15-2 this week with wins over Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, and Miami. After dropping their ACC opener to North Carolina State, this moves the Irish to 3-1 in conference play.

Game Summaries & Observations

The Irish started this week needing to bounce back from a surprising loss to North Carolina State in their first ACC game of the year, and had to do it on the road. In their sixth away game in a row, Notre Dame played Georgia Tech on Monday. I had hoped they would come out with a lot of energy wanting to prove themselves after the loss, but the game got off to something of a sluggish start. The team gave up a lot of offensive rebounds, particularly early on, leading to a final 11-5 Georgia Tech edge in second chance points. Despite this slow start, the defense played well enough to get the job done. Notre Dame never trailed, and stepped up to go on a big run at the end of the first and early second quarters to pull away. Arike Ogunbowale led the Irish with 18 points in Notre Dame’s 55-38 win. While it wasn’t exactly a glorious comeback, it was good to get the win.

On Thursday, for the first time in a month, Notre Dame finally had a home game. They welcomed Wake Forest, but weren’t very hospitable. The Irish looked glad to be home, and played with some of the energy they had been lacking during the long road stretch. By halftime of this game, the Irish had scored as many points as in the entire Georgia Tech game on Monday. Following a phenomenal second quarter, they went into halftime with a 55-32 lead. The offense looked much more comfortable, with five players scoring in double digits, a 48-16 edge over Wake Forest in the paint, and an impressive 10 of 16 made three-pointers. Once again, Ogunbowale scored the game-high 22 points as the Irish defeated Wake Forest 92-72.

The team closed out the week with a trip to #14 Miami on Sunday, two years to the day after Miami handed them their first ACC loss. Fortunately, that bit of history did not repeat itself. While a strong Miami team gave Notre Dame a close game through three quarters, the Irish were able to pull away in the fourth. The team was challenged early in this game when Lindsay Allen picked up two fouls and had to sit for the end of the first and the entire second quarter, playing for only 29 minutes in the game. The Irish tend to struggle without Allen. Nobody else has really looked comfortable filling in at point guard when she has been off the court for short stretches in earlier games. As expected, the Irish struggled with their offense without Allen; however, Ali Patberg provided a solid performance in this game. Playing 11 minutes, including the entire second quarter, she didn’t do anything outstanding, but she held things together fairly well. Hopefully she continues to improve as she returns to full health and gets more playing time. With Allen out, Notre Dame clung on to hold a one point lead at halftime. The offense improved in the second half, and the team went on an 8-0 run to open the fourth quarter. In a 67-55 win, Marina Mabrey was the team’s leading scorer with 15 points. She added five rebounds, four assists, and four steals, despite being flattened by a screen in the first half and having to take a brief trip to the locker room. It was a nice performance with her older sister and former teammate Michaela Mabrey watching from the Miami bench, where she now serves as a graduate assistant.

Other WBB News

Sunday’s game at Miami marked senior Lindsay Allen’s 129th consecutive start for the Irish. She holds the school record for consecutive starts, and her total number of starts trails only Skylar Diggins, who started 144 games at Notre Dame. I’ve looked ahead on the schedule, and if she should stay healthy and continue to start every game (which we all really hope is the case), she will match Diggins’s record in the second postseason game (presumably in the ACC Tournament). Just something to keep an eye on.

This week’s surprising news was Lili Thompson’s announcement that she will play for the Irish next year. Thompson played point guard for Stanford for three years, starting 96 games and receiving All Pac-12 honors twice. Irish fans may remember her from the team’s Sweet Sixteen loss to Stanford last year. However, she chose to sit out her senior season at Stanford this year, meaning that she will be eligible to transfer and play right away at Notre Dame next season. Muffet McGraw must be breathing a huge sigh of relief at this point. With Allen’s graduation and Patberg’s relative inexperience, the point guard position was looking like a potential problem next year. Thompson’s experience and talent should be a huge plus for this team, and will give Patberg a lower pressure situation than being thrust into the starting role. I’m not sure of the reasons Thompson chose not to finish out her career with the Cardinal, but I’m glad she has chosen Notre Dame for her last season.

 

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.

In their lone home game of the week, Notre Dame did hit the 88-point mark on a 3-pointer from Erin Boley. She moves into a tie with fellow freshman Jackie Young.

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

Coming Up

Notre Dame will return home to play Pittsburgh on Thursday. That will be the lone game this week, followed by a trip to Tennessee next Monday.