Notre Dame Rolls To NCAA Tournament Opening Win Over Southern Utah
Notre Dame women’s basketball opened NCAA Tournament play in convincing fashion Friday afternoon. With All-American point guard Olivia Miles sidelined for the rest of the season with a knee injury the Fighting Irish (26-5) jumped out to a 16-0 lead and rolled to an 82-56 win over WAC champion Southern Utah (23-10).
Five different Fighting Irish players took turns scoring the first 10 points of the game before Kylee Watson scored on a fast break rim run to make it 12-0, prompting Thunderbird head coach Tracy Sanders to call timeout. Watson hit all three of her shots in the first quarter and all six in the game to score 12 points.
The Irish hit six of their first seven shots, while Southern Utah missed its first seven attempts from the field before Lizzy Williamson finally connected with 5:21 to play in the first quarter to make it 16-2.
The Irish blistered the net in the first quarter, going 13 for 16 from the field. Maddy Westbeld led the way with eight of her game-high 20 points coming in the game’s first 10 minutes.
Southern Utah entered the game as the No. 15 team in the nation in rebounding margin at +8.0, but the Thunderbirds went most of the first quarter without a rebound as Notre Dame (the No. 9 rebound margin team) held a 12-2 first quarter rebound advantage that swelled to 53-24 by game’s end.
Irish forward Lauren Ebo gobbled up a game-high 10 of those boards while also scoring 14 points for her fourth double-double of the season and her first since Jan. 26 against Florida State.
Notre Dame went up 41-12 midway through the second quarter but went cold down the stretch to help Southern Utah close the half on a 7-0 run. The Irish missed nine of their last 10 shots of the half to lead 43-24 at halftime.
Sonia Citron and KK Bransford took turns running the point for the Irish throughout the afternoon. Citron finished with 14 points and dished out a season-high six assists while Bransford scored nine before fouling out and had a new career-best five of Notre Dame’s 24 assists.
The win is the 70th all-time in NCAA play for Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish will play the winner of Friday night’s No. 6 Creighton vs No. 11 Mississippi State game sometime Sunday. Game times will not be announced until all of Friday’s games are played.
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