#7/8 Irish fly past #12/7 Cardinals

South Bend, Indiana The fans came out in full force ahead of the highly anticipated between #7/8 Notre Dame (22-3, 10-1 ACC) and #12/7 Louisville (20-6, 7-4 ACC). Jeff Walz’s led Louisville Cardinals were able to take an early lead over Notre Dame. Notre Dame took the lead with 3:56 left in the 1st quarter on a jumper from Kathryn Westbeld and never looked back. The #7/8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish steamrolled the #12/7 Louisville Cardinals 85-66 on Monday night. Lead by Hall of Fame coach Muffet McGraw, the Irish picked up their 22nd win of the season. For McGraw, she picked up career win 842, and her 754th win as the head coach at Notre Dame.

Five members of the Irish (Brianna Turner, Lindsay Allen, Arike Ogunbowale, Kathryn Westbelf, and Jackie Young) scored in double figures throughout the contest. Ogunbowale finished with a team-high 22 points. Lindsay Allen added 15 points and a game-high 8 assists.

With 8:09 remaining in the 2nd quarter, Lindsay Allen found Brianna Turner for a 10-foot jumper. This gave Allen her second assist on the night, and the 747th of her collegiate career. With this assist, Allen passed two-time WNBA All-Star Skylar Diggins and now sits in sole possession of second place in school history. Irish head coach Muffet McGraw had nothing but great things to say about her senior guard’s play after the game. “She is so important to our team and she’s an questioned leader. I was glad she was able to make some shots tonight. She had opportunities and she took advantage of it. But her way to distribute… I mean, she’s got the amazing vision; she’s so strong with the ball. She can do so many things with it. I think she’s going to be a great WNBA player.”

Photography by Chantel Shetler

Asia Durr got off to a hot start for the Cardinals with 8 points before the 1st quarter media timeout. Coach Muffet McGraw and the Irish made defensive changes and ended up holding Durr to just 2 points for the rest of the half. Durr exploded in the 2nd half to wind up with her 3rd 30+ point performance of the season. Durr finished with 31 points and 2 assists while playing 39 of the 40 minutes. Durr even drew some attention from former Irish legend Skylar Diggins on Twitter.

From 2:58 left in the 1st quarter to 6:56 left in the 2nd quarter, Notre Dame took control of the game and went on a 17-2 run. The defining stat from the first twenty minutes of basketball was the 9 offensive rebounds that Notre Dame pulled down.

The Irish played phenomenal team basketball and took care of the ball on offense. As a team, they only committed 3 turnovers; tying the school record for fewest turnovers in a game.

Preseason player of the year Myisha Hines-Allen only logged one minute on the court for Louisville. Hines-Allen missed Louisville’s last game against NC State due to injury.

The Cardinals will return to action on Thursday night in a road contest against Virginia Tech. The Irish are off until February 12th when they take on Georgia Tech at home. When asked about the plans for the long break, McGraw said, “We’re going to take 2 days off to rest up and get healthy.” McGraw added, “We’re going to look at trapping and some zone. We are going to look at adding another zone and working on the presses a little bit.”

Jon Opiela, @jonopiela24