Short-Handed Notre Dame Falls to NC State On The Road
Down two of its regular players, Notre Dame women’s basketball came up short in a 69-65 loss on Sunday at No. 20 North Carolina State (15-5, 6-4 ACC). The Fighting Irish (17-3, 8-2) trailed by as many as 16 points without the services of Dara Mabrey, who is out for the rest of the season with a knee injury, and Lauren Ebo, who missed her first game of the season with a lower leg injury.
After slow starts in recent games, Notre Dame led 20-15 at the end of the first quarter thanks to a 3 for 6 start and seven first quarter points from Maddy Westbeld. The junior forward finished with a team-high 19 points and 13 rebounds for her first double-double since Dec. 29 at Miami.
Notre Dame’s shooting disappeared in the second quarter, though. They hit just 3 of 13 shots overall, including misses on all seven 3-point tries. NC State used at 8-0 run and led 34-29 at halftime. The Irish missed six of their last seven shots of the half.
After the Irish scored the first points of the second half on a bucket from Westbeld, NC State went on a run, highlighted by a three-pointer from Diamond Johnson, to make it 42-31 with 6:08 to play in the third. They would go up by as many as 16 before the Irish made a late push to get back into the game.
Westbeld hit a pair of 3s for the Irish in the third, but Johnson, who scored a game-high 20 points, matched her both times. Westbeld had 17 points and 10 boards by the end of the quarter.
The Irish made a furious fourth quarter comeback. They got their deficit into single digits for the first time since early in the second quarter when Nat Marshall’s free throw made it 62-53 with 5:48 remaining. Back-to-back triples by Cassandre Prosper, who had 11 points scored in double figures for the second time in her nine games in an Irish uniform, made it a 62-39 game to cap an 11-0 run with 4:27 to play.
The Irish got within two points, but could not push any closer. Olivia Miles, who celebrated her 20th birthday Sunday, finished with 13 points, six rebounds and five assists. Sonia Citron also finished in double figures with 11 points.
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