Notre Dame Women's Basketball Notebook: Breaking Down The Win Over No. 6 Virginia Tech

Niele Ivey’s Notre Dame women’s basketball team continues to pass big tests. As if final exams last week weren’t enough, Ivey’s Irish opened ACC play on Sunday on the road against No. 6 Virginia Tech. Notre Dame got off to a sluggish start to the game, shooting just 3 for 15 (20%) in the first quarter, but they eventually came out of their post-finals malaise to beat the Hokies 63-52 for Ivey’s first career road win over a top-10 opponent.

Notre Dame found itself tied 22-22 at halftime after falling behind by nine points early in the second quarter. The Irish had 17 defensive rebounds in the first half, while the Hokies were able to grab seven offensive rebounds. Notre Dame swung that in the second half when they grabbed 17 more defensive boards, while holding Virginia Tech to a mere three offensive rebounds.

Fighting Irish assistant coach Michaela Mabrey was in charge of the scouting report for the game.

"That was the biggest thing at halftime, we talked about was we have to box out,” Mabrey told the Notre Dame Radio Network after the victory. "We gave them way too many second shots (in the first half). I think a lot of their points that they got in the first half were off second shots. I think we got them to miss and then we didn’t get the rebound. So, halftime we cleaned up a few things where we were switching on some more things that we tried to take away from them and then we had to box out.”

Corralling Kitley

Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley is the reigning ACC Player of the Year. She entered the game averaging a double-double and had nine points and 13 rebounds by halftime. She finished with her 9th double-double of the season with 16 points and 20 rebounds, but the Irish defense forced her outside the paint more in the second half, forcing her to try to score from 15 feet and farther from the basket.

"She was key to our game plan,” Mabrey said. 'I mean she’s such a good player. She’s so good. She really played well tonight. She was 6 for 12. She played 40 minutes. I mean she’s a great player. We just tried to limit her touches as much as we could. She got open, of course, they run a lot of plays for her, we know she’s going to get her touches, but we wanted her to get 'tough 2s.' We wanted to give her tough 2s as much as we could. I thought we did the best job on her, despite all the foul trouble we had. I thought we did a good enough job to win the game.”

On Lauren Ebo

Notre Dame missed its first seven shots of the game before Lauren Ebo came off the bench to hit the team’s first field goal of the game. The 6-4 senior hit her first six shots before missing. She hit three of Notre Dame’s nine first-half field goals and finished with 15 points and five rebounds. She also had a +/- rating of +14 for the game.

“We were going inside today,” Mabrey commented. “We knew we could get the ball to Ebo and she could score it. That was our plan. That and attack them with the ball screen. We were going to put them in a lot of ball screens and throw the ball inside. First half, I thought we got our looks, we just missed a ton of layups. We missed a ton of layups and I thought second half we settled in a little bit and we started making those shots.”

On Maddy Westbeld

Maddy Westbeld just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. She was just 1 for 5 from the field in the first half, but hit 4 of her 6 second-half attempts and also blocked two shots to give her eight blocks in the last three games.

"I thought Maddy especially was great on the boards in the second half,” Mabrey said. "I mean whoever she was guarding was not getting the rebound. I thought we cleaned up some things and we were more locked in on the defensive end, I thought, in the second half. And then, obviously, our offense picked up in the second half. It’s hard to play here. They’re a great team and I think we kind of settled into the second half and kind of saw where we were going to get our shots.”

Defensive Dara

Michaela Mabrey’s younger sister, Dara Mabrey, was returning to Virginia Tech for the first time since she transferred to Notre Dame at the start of the 2020-2021 season. She played her first two seasons for the Hokies and averaged more than 11.0 points per game each season. She had a +/- score of just +3 in the first half but finished with a game-best +17 in 36 minutes of action.

"She was great,” Michaela Mabrey said of her sister. "She’s still friends with people on this team. So there’s no bad blood. She doesn’t feel any type of way. It’s another game to her and I’m just happy for her. She played a great game. She was locked in on the defensive end. She started it for us and I’m really happy for her. I’m really proud of her."

Getting It Done When It Counts

Notre Dame came through again in the fourth against a quality opponent. The Fighting Irish outscored the Hokies 23-9 in the pivotal 4th quarter and shot 9 for 15 from the field while holding Virginia Tech to 4 of 17 shots (23%) in the quarter, including 0 for 5 from 3-point range. It’s even more impressive considering it all happened in a hostile road environment.

"I think playing in these environments, I mean all the top teams in the ACC are going to be on the road and I think it’s just going to prepare us for later on,” Mabrey said. "To come out in December and win a game like this, it just speaks to where we are toughness wise. We challenged them at the beginning of the year in this area. I thought they came out and really showed a lot of poise and a lot of toughness against a great team.”

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