Notre Dame Women's Basketball Notebook After An Irish Upset Of No. 3 UConn
A win over UConn is always a special win in the world of women’s basketball. Geno Auriemma’s Huskies had only lost 17 times since 2014 heading into Sunday’s matchup with No. 7 Notre Dame Sunday afternoon.
They lost for the 18th time in that span with Notre Dame’s convincing 74-60 victory at Purcell Pavilion. The first such home win for the Irish against their rival since March 4, 2013 when current Fighting Irish assistant coach Michaela Mabrey was a freshman playing for Muffet McGraw.
Mabrey had the scouting report to prepare Niele Ivey’s team for Sunday’s matchup.
"I don't think some of (our team) even realize the rivalry and everything that's gone on with them,” Mabrey told the Notre Dame Radio Network after the victory. "But I think now they do and I'm really excited for them. They all played so well. They came out with just an amazing energy about them on the offensive and defensive end. I'm super happy for our program, super happy for Niele and I really hope that this win shows our team that we can play with the best in the country if we if we do the things that we that they do.”
The Olivia Miles Factor
Point guard Olivia Miles was the best player on the floor in her second career game against UConn. The sophomore point guard started the scoring with a drive to the basket and finished with a game-high-tying 21 points on 10 for 18 shooting to go with eight rebounds and four assists. She tallied 13 of her points in the tone-setting first quarter.
"She was she was cooking early,” Mabrey said of Miles. "When she has that confidence early, we went to we went to her first play and it was just to get her going let her have confidence in herself. We know that she can create by herself and get to the rim, and I thought she did a great job of that today. We've talked to her like sometimes you have to be a straight scorer. You know you got to look for your shot more so that the paths will open up then instead of them knowing you're going to pass the ball al the time. I thought she was she was great today.”
Doing It With Defense
The Fighting Irish held the Huskies to 37% shooting from the field. They swarmed the Huskies early, limiting the No. 3 ranked team in the country to just five for 18 (27%) from the field in the first quarter. The Irish closed the quarter on a 7-0 run to lead 18-13 after the first 10 minutes. They stretched that to a 10-0 run in the second quarter and ultimately a 41-24 halftime advantage.
"That was our biggest thing coming in,” Mabrey said of the Irish defense. "We knew that we had to defend them. We told them, I had a motto the whole week of you can't breathe (in) this game. (You) cannot breathe, because once you breathe, you're relaxed, that's when they get their shots. I mean, (UConn leading scorer) Azzi (Fudd), they're great players and they score within their system. So we really harped on, you're going to have to play defense for 35 seconds and you're going to have to not relax on anything because that's when they strike. So I think they had great intensity (in practice) the last two days,” Mabrey continued. “We had a very strategic game plan who we were guarding, (who) we were not guarding, and they executed it to a tee. We didn't make it perfect, but overall, their effort was so much better than I've seen the whole year.
"If you look at our team, we're gifted offensively,” Mabrey continued. "We know we can score but if we can perform that way on the defensive end on every given night. We can play with anybody in the country.”
Dominating The Paint
Perhaps the most telling stat of the game was the 46-16 scoring advantage the Irish had in the paint. It started as a 22-4 advantage in the first half and never subsided.
Junior forward Maddy Westbeld had her best game of the season with 17 points. Nine of them came on 3-pointers, but she also had nine rebounds, while grad transfer Lauren Ebo was 6 for 10 around the rim to add 12 points. Ebo was coming off an 0 for 5 game against Maryland last Thursday.
"We talked about the whole week,” Mabrey said of the focus near the basket. "We knew that we'd be able to score inside. It helps when Maddy played the way she played today. I thought to start the season she was a little frustrated with herself and I'm so happy that she came out today and had a great game. She was super confident you could tell.
“It helps when Ebo makes her layups,” Mabrey continued. “I mean she made all her layups today was great. I thought everybody played as well as they really could. I thought everybody played solid today for our team.”
The Halftime Talk
Notre Dame was up by 17 points at halftime, but Ivey, Mabrey and the rest of the staff knew they could not relent against the relentless Huskies.
"We told them the game is 0-0,” Mabrey recalled. "It's 0-0 at half, and I thought, you know third quarter we were a little lax. They went on a big run in the beginning, and I thought we were falling a lot. They had a lot of foul calls, and they were getting a lot of free throws. The game was a little bit slower. But the message at halftime was, we tweaked a couple of different things, told them it'd be ready for them to go zone maybe. We talked to him about what the adjustments were for us and what they were for them. Then we just said the score is 0-0, you got to keep the same energy, the same exact energy on the defensive end. I thought overall, that's what they did.”
Withstanding The UConn Run
The UConn run did come in the third quarter. The used a 10-0 scoring advantage, aided by seven fouls on the Fighting Irish, to get back in the game. Lou Lopez Senechal hit two free throws after Miles was whistled for an intentional foul against Nika Muhl to bring the Huskies to within five points of the Irish late in the third. Notre Dame was able to withstand the barrage.
"I was waiting for that moment,” said Mabrey. "Because I was waiting to see how our team was going to respond. Because we all knew they were... us coaching staff, we knew they were going to go on a run. They're that good. They always go on runs. So I was waiting to see, alright, how are we going to respond on the defensive end. I know we can score how are we going to defend on the defensive end? I thought they responded really well. They adjusted. We kind of switched up our defenses all the time, depending on what lineups they had in, because we knew we couldn't sit in the same thing the whole game. But they were listening. They were on top of things. They knew exactly what the game plan was.”
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