Notre Dame Women's Basketball Back On The Road To Face Clemson
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Notre Dame Women’s basketball looks to continue its winning ways when they head to Clemson Thursday night. The Fighting Irish have won their last two games and eight of their last nine games overall.
Where: Clemson, SC – Littlejohn Coliseum
When: Thursday, Jan. 19 – 7:00 PM EST
Network: Regional Sports Networks – Evan Lepler and Fallon Stokes
Radio: ND Radio Network, 99.9 FM WQLQ in South Bend – Sean Stires PBP
Let's take a look at today’s matchup:
NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH (14-2, 5-1 ACC)
Head Coach: Niele Ivey (48-21 – 3rd season at Notre Dame)
Notre Dame picked up a hard fought 72-56 win at Syracuse in their latest game on Sunday. The Fighting Irish outscored the Orange 22-11 in the fourth quarter to put away a game that saw six ties and nine lead changes.
Olivia Miles led the way with a season-high 23 points. The sophomore point guard added seven assists and seven rebounds in her third game of 21-plus points this season.
Dara Mabrey broke out of a recent 3-point slump by hitting three 3-pointers to give her 300 long range shots in her career. Her first 3 of the game gave her sisters, Michaela (274) and Marina (228), 800 combined treys in their careers. All 502 of Michaela and Marina’s 3-pointers came in Notre Dame uniforms. The first 155 of Dara’s career came in her two seasons playing at Virginia Tech.
Notre Dame has already played four of its first six ACC games on the road and they have gone 3-1 in those games. The Irish will have back to back home games after Thursday night’s game at Clemson.
Projected Irish Starting Lineup
G Olivia Miles- 5-10, Soph. - 15.5 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 7.1 APG
G Sonia Citron - 6-1, Soph – 13.9 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 2.1 APG
G Dara Mabrey - 5-7, 5th – 10.3 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 2.4 APG
F Maddy Westbeld - 6-3, Jr. – 10.6 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 23 BLK
F Kylee Watson - 6-4, Jr – 6.4 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 17 BLK
CLEMSON TIGERS (12-7, 3-4 ACC)
Head Coach: Amanda Butler (62-78 in 5th season at school, 280-230 in 17th year overall)
Amanda Butler is in her fifth season as Clemson’s head coach. She led Florida to the NCAA Tournament four times in her 10 seasons at Florida, but her only winning record and NCAA berth was in her first season at Clemson in 2019.
The Tigers picked up an impressive 64-59 win over Virginia Tech back on Dec. 29, but they had to snap a three-game losing streak with Sunday’s win over Pittsburgh to improve to 3-4 in ACC play. They are currently tied with three other teams for ninth place in the conference.
Projected Starting Lineup
F Amari Robinson- Stats – 13.1 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 13 BLK
C Hannah Hank - Stats – 5.6 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 19 BLK
G Brie Perpignan - Stats – 8.6 PPG, 1.8 RPG, 2.8 APG
G Daisha Bradford – Stats – 9.8 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 3.0 APG
G Ruby Whitehorn - Stats – 11.7, 5.0 RPG, 1.8 APG
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Clemson’s scoring offense (68 ppg) ranks No. 12 in the ACC and its scoring defense (62.4) is just No. 10 of 15 teams. The Tigers also don’t take particularly good care of the basketball, with a 2.74 turnover margin that is middle of the conference and an assist (268) to turnover (312 committed) that is No. 12. Their 121 3-pointers made rank No. 6 in the conference, but they also have almost twice as many misses and rank No. 11 with a .301 percentage.
They do currently rank No. 2 with 10.26 steals per game, but Notre Dame has already beaten Syracuse, Miami and Boston College, who rank 1, 3 and 4, respectively, in that department. The Tigers are also third to last in rebounding.
Notre Dame continues to be one of the best scoring, defensive and rebounding teams in the conference and ranks No. 2 in assist to turnover ratio, despite being dead last in the ACC in turnover margin.
Bottom line, the Fighting Irish need to play their game, get defensive stops, rebound the ball and score in transition. The 3-pointers started falling at Syracuse and that is something they can continue to improve as well.
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Irish Breakdown Content
2023 Scholarship Chart
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Notre Dame 2023 Scholarship Offers
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2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Offense
2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Defense
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