#2 Irish On The Road Tuesday At Syracuse

Feb. 6, 2012

Full Notes Package in PDF Format

2011-12 ND Women’s Basketball: Game 25

#2/2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (23-1 / 10-0 BIG EAST) vs. Syracuse Orange (15-9 / 4-6 BIG EAST)

DATE: February 7, 2012
TIME: 7:00 p.m. ET
AT: Syracuse, N.Y. – Carrier Dome (34,616)
SERIES: ND leads 24-2
1ST MTG: ND 81-64 (1/16/88)
LAST MTG: ND 71-48 (2/1/11)
WEBCAST: suathletics.com (PPV-live)
RADIO: Pulse FM (96.9/92.1) / UND.com (live) (Bob Nagle, p-b-p)
LIVE STATS: UND.com
TWITTER: @ndwbbsid
TICKETS: (888) 366-3849

Storylines

• Notre Dame is 51-5 (.911) all-time against New York schools following its 71-56 win at St. John’s last month.
• Tuesday marks the seventh time this season the Fighting Irish will be playing for the second time in 48 hours (Notre Dame is 6-0 on the back half of these tight turnarounds, winning by an average of 43.3 points per game).

No. 2 Fighting Irish On The Road Tuesday At Syracuse
For the second time in 10 days, No. 2 Notre Dame visits the state of New York as the Fighting Irish head to Syracuse on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. (ET) BIG EAST Conference matchup with the Orange at the Carrier Dome. Not only does it mark a return trip to the Empire State for Notre Dame, but it also is the third road game in the last four outings for the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame (23-1, 10-0) collected its 20th consecutive victory, and its eighth in a row by at least 15 points with a 90-70 win over No. RV/23 DePaul on Sunday afternoon at Purcell Pavilion. The Fighting Irish scorched the nets in the first half to the tune of a .719 field goal percentage, hitting on 22 of 24 shots during a stretch of 16:36 that crossed into the second half.

Senior guard Natalie Novosel led five Notre Dame players in double figures with 21 points, while junior guard Skylar Diggins chalked up her third double-double of the season with 11 points and a game-high 10 assists.

Rankings

• Notre Dame is No. 2 in this week’s Associated Press poll and was No. 2 in last week’s ESPN/USA Today poll.
• Syracuse is not ranked.

Quick Hitters

• Notre Dame appears in the top 15 of 11 different NCAA statistical categories, including nine top-eight appearances. The Fighting Irish lead the nation in scoring offense (83.6 ppg.) and field goal percentage (.490), rank second in steals (14.0 spg.), assists (19.9 apg.) and scoring margin (+33.2 ppg.), while placing fifth in turnover margin (+7.83), sixth in scoring defense (50.4 ppg.), eighth in rebounding margin (+10.9 rpg.) and assist/turnover ratio (1.22), 14th in free throw percentage (.763) and 15th in field goal percentage defense (.342).
• Notre Dame’s current 20-game winning streak is tied for the second-longest in school history and is its longest since a school-record 23-game run to open the 2000-01 season.
• The Fighting Irish have matched the best record after 24 games in school history (23-1), also set in 2000-01 and 2009-10.
• Notre Dame has reached the 20-win mark for the 18th time in 19 seasons and 22nd time in the 25-year tenure of head coach Muffet McGraw. What’s more, the Fighting Irish reached that total quicker than any team in school history, doing so eight days faster than the 2000-01 squad.
• The Fighting Irish have opened BIG EAST play with a 10-0 record for the first time in 11 seasons (2000-01), and the fourth time since joining the conference in 1995-96.
• Notre Dame is 8-1 against Top 25 opponents this season (4-1 away from home), including four victories in five outings against teams in the top 10.
• This marks the third time in school history Notre Dame has posted four top-10 wins (AP poll) in the regular season, having also done so in 2000-01 and 2004-05.
• Notre Dame is just the second school ever to defeat both Connecticut and Tennessee in consecutive seasons, matching the feat first pulled off by North Carolina in 2005-06 and 2006-07.
• Five of the eight Fighting Irish victories against Top 25 opponents this season have been by 20 points or more, including a 30-point win at No. 13/14 Rutgers on Jan. 31 (Notre Dame’s largest margin of victory ever on the road at a ranked opponent) and a 28-point win over No. 7/9 Tennessee on Jan. 23 (the largest margin of victory ever and fewest points ever allowed by Notre Dame against a top-10 team).
• Of the 23 Fighting Irish wins, 19 have come by 20+ points, and 11 by at least 30 points. In 20 victories this year, Notre Dame has held its opponent to 61 points or fewer, with a school-record 15 when the opponent had 50 points or fewer (and a school-record six of 40 or fewer).
• The Fighting Irish have scored at least 100 points twice this year, while going over 90 points a school-record nine times (including a school-record four in a row from Dec. 18-30) and topping the 80-point mark 13 times.
• Notre Dame was ranked No. 2 in last week’s Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today polls, marking the 13th consecutive week the Fighting Irish appeared in the top five of both major national polls. That’s the second-longest uninterrupted streak of consensus top-five poll appearances in school history behind only the final 18 weeks of the 2000-01 season (Notre Dame was ranked sixth in the preseason AP poll that year).
• With this week’s No. 2 ranking in the AP poll, Notre Dame has appeared in the media rankings for 91 consecutive weeks, extending a program record that dates back to the 2007-08 preseason poll. In fact, every current Fighting Irish player has competed for a ranked Notre Dame squad throughout her career, with more than half that time (53 weeks) spent in the AP Top 10.
• With 579 victories in 25 seasons at Notre Dame, head coach Muffet McGraw is tied for second on the Fighting Irish athletics all-time coaching wins list (across all sports), trailing only men’s/women’s fencing coach Michael DeCicco (774-80 from 1962-95) and tied with men’s tennis/wrestling coach Tom Fallon (579-268-4 from 1957-87).
• McGraw is just the ninth Fighting Irish coach in the 125-year history of Notre Dame athletics to lead her team for 25 seasons, and the first to solely coach a women’s sport (Joe Piane is in his 37th year as men’s/women’s track & field coach, while Michael DeCicco guided both Fighting Irish fencing teams during his 34-year career). Four of the nine members of this Silver Anniversary coaching club currently are active at Notre Dame — Piane (37 years), Tim Welsh (28th year with men’s swimming & diving), McGraw and Bob Bayliss (25th year with men’s tennis).

Other Notre Dame Notables

• Notre Dame is among the nation’s winningest programs during the past 16 seasons (1996-97 to present), ranking fourth with 397 victories.
• Notre Dame has ranked among the top 20 in the nation in attendance each of the past 11 seasons. The Fighting Irish currently are averaging 8,780 fans per home game (good for fourth in the nation) after the program finished fifth in the NCAA attendance rankings with a school-record 8,553 fans a night. The Fighting Irish also have drawn 5,000-or-more fans to 171 of their last 173 home games, logging 23 Purcell Pavilion sellouts, including 17 in the past three seasons alone, and a school record-tying six this year (most recently on Feb. 5 vs. DePaul).
• The Fighting Irish have become a regular fixture in the WNBA Draft in recent years, as seven Notre Dame players have been selected in the past 11 seasons. Charel Allen was the most recent Fighting Irish player to be chosen, going to the Sacramento Monarchs in the third round (43rd overall pick) of the 2008 WNBA Draft. Ruth Riley (San Antonio) was active in the league during the ’11 season, helping the Silver Stars return to the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season. Three of Notre Dame’s eight WNBA alums have won a total of four league championships — Riley won a pair of crowns with the Detroit Shock (2003 Finals MVP, 2006), Coquese Washington toiled for the 2000 Houston Comets, while Jacqueline Batteast was Riley’s teammate on the 2006 title-winning squad in Detroit.
• For the fifth year in a row, the Fighting Irish posted a perfect 100-percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR), according to figures released by the NCAA in October. What’s more, since Muffet McGraw became head coach in 1987, every Notre Dame women’s basketball player who has completed her athletic and academic eligibility at the University has earned her bachelor’s degree (a 64-for-64 success rate). The Fighting Irish also are one of only four schools in the past four years to record a 100-percent GSR and play for a national championship in the same season.

A Quick Look At Syracuse
Behind a core group of experienced leaders that includes 10 returning letterwinners and three returning starters, Syracuse is aiming to take the next step in its resurgence by getting back to the NCAA Championship following a 25-win season and berth in the WNIT quarterfinals last year.

The Orange (15-9, 4-6) looked sharp during nonconference play, then hit a rough patch during the early part of the BIG EAST slate, but they appear to have righted the ship in the past week with convincing victories at Providence (80-54) and at home against USF (76-61). Senior forward Iasia Hemingway locked up BIG EAST Player of the Week honors by scoring 24 points in each game and connecting on 67 percent of her shots (18-of-27) during the two victories.

Hemingway currently leads Syracuse in scoring (16.5 ppg.) while adding 6.6 rebounds per game and a .485 field goal percentage. Junior center Kayla Alexander gives the Orange a strong 1-2 punch in the post, averaging 15.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and a conference-leading 2.6 blocks per game, while junior guard Carmen Tyson-Thomas chips in 10.9 points and a team-high 7.6 rebounds per game, helping pace SU’s conference-best rebounding average (47.7 rpg.).

Head coach Quentin Hillsman is in his sixth season at Syracuse with a 113-74 (.604) record, including an 0-5 mark against Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame-Syracuse Series
Notre Dame and Syracuse will square off for the 27th time on Tuesday night, with the Fighting Irish holding a 24-2 edge in the series with the Orange, including an active 11-game winning streak. Notre Dame also is 20-0 all-time against Syracuse since joining the BIG EAST Conference in 1995-96.

The Fighting Irish are 11-1 on the road all-time against the Orange, and 3-0 since SU began playing regularly at the Carrier Dome in 2005-06.

The Last Time Notre Dame And Syracuse Met
Becca Bruszewski became the 27th player in Notre Dame history to score 1,000 points and Devereaux Peters had 15 points and 11 rebounds as the eighth-ranked Fighting Irish beat No. RV/25 Syracuse 71-48 on Feb. 1, 2011, at Purcell Pavilion.

The Fighting Irish dominated in the paint, outscoring the Orange, 36-16 inside. Notre Dame also outrebounded Syracuse, 44-34.

Syracuse struggled offensively all night, shooting 25.5 percent from the field and turning the ball over 24 times. From behind the arc, the Orange were 2 for 14.

Elashier Hall, Syracuse’s leading scorer, was scoreless on 0 for 3 from the field.

Kayla Alexander led the Orange with 19 points and five rebounds.

Natalie Achonwa had 13 points off the bench for the Fighting Irish.

Skylar Diggins did a little bit of everything for the Fighting Irish, scoring eight points and adding seven rebounds, five assists and five steals for good measure.

The Last Time Notre Dame And Syracuse Met At The Carrier Dome
Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw winced when Ashley Barlow launched from beyond the arc in the final minute and the third-ranked Fighting Irish trailed Syracuse by a basket.

But Barlow, who had missed her previous four three-point attempts, was true from the right wing with 34.2 seconds left and Notre Dame escaped with a 74-73 victory on Jan. 30, 2010, at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.

Juanita Ward’s three-point play had given the Orange a 73-71 lead with a minute left, but Barlow got open on the wing and saved Notre Dame.

After the Fighting Irish’s Lindsay Schrader missed the front end of a 1-and-1, a held ball gave Syracuse one final possession with less than a second left. Tasha Harris’ inbounds pass to Kayla Alexander in the lane was deflected away.

Skylar Diggins led all scorers with 21 points for Notre Dame, while Barlow added 19 and Brittany Mallory came off the bench to score 11 points.

Ward led Syracuse with 16 points, Erica Morrow had 14, Vionca Murray 12 and Nicole Michael 11 before fouling out in the final minute.

Other Notre Dame-Syracuse Series Tidbits

• After dropping their first-ever game at Syracuse, the Fighting Irish have won their last 11 series games in central New York, including their three prior visits to the Carrier Dome.
• Notre Dame has scored at least 70 points in 21 of the 26 series games with Syracuse (including seven of the past eight), while the Orange have topped that mark four times in the series.
• The 74-73 Fighting Irish win in 2010 was the closest victory for Notre Dame in the 26-game series and the second single-digit margin among its 24 series wins (71-66 on Dec. 8, 1990, at Purcell Pavilion).
• Syracuse is one of four programs against which the Fighting Irish have at least 24 series victories, along with Marquette (31), Georgetown (25) and Valparaiso (24).
• In six of the past eight games vs. Syracuse, Notre Dame has had at least one player set (at the time) a new career scoring high — Breona Gray (17 on Jan. 5, 2005), Charel Allen (17 on Jan. 19, 2005), Lindsay Schrader (24 on Jan. 31, 2006), Melissa Lechlitner (18 on Jan. 20, 2007), Becca Bruszewski (20 on Feb. 24, 2009) and Skylar Diggins (21 on Jan. 30, 2010). Each player eclipsed those point totals later in their careers.
• Notre Dame sophomore forward Natalie Achonwa and Syracuse junior center Kayla Alexander are two of the rising young stars in the Canada Basketball program. Achonwa and Alexander were teammates (and the top two scorers) on Canada’s 2009 Junior National Team that posted the best finish in their nation’s history (fourth) at the FIBA U19 World Championships in Thailand (a tournament won by the United States, piloted by head coach/current Notre Dame associate coach Carol Owens and team co-captain/current Notre Dame junior guard Skylar Diggins). Alexander led Canada in scoring (11.3 ppg.) and rebounding (11.3 rpg.), while Achonwa was second in scoring (10.3 ppg.), third in rebounding (6.1 rpg.) and tops in steals (1.4 spg.).

New York State Of Mind
Notre Dame is 51-5 (.911) all-time against New York-based teams, including a 19-4 (.826) record on the road. The Fighting Irish are facing the second of two New York schools this season, having earned a 71-56 victory at St. John’s on Jan. 28.

Coincidentally, St. John’s and Syracuse account for all five New York wins over Notre Dame (three for the Red Storm, two for the Orange — four road, one neutral site).

Peaking When It Counts
When the regular season enters its stretch run in the month of February, Notre Dame historically seems to raise its level of play. Since joining the BIG EAST Conference in 1995-96, the Fighting Irish are 94-27 (.777) in February games, including a 54-5 (.915) mark at home.

In the 25-year Muffet McGraw era (1987-present), the Fighting Irish are 142-42 (.772) in the month of February, including a 76-11 (.874) home record. In that time, Notre Dame has not had a losing February (including this year’s 6-1 record), and only once did the Fighting Irish end the month at .500 (4-4 in 1988-89, McGraw’s second season in South Bend).

48 Hours
Since the start of the 2008-09 season, Notre Dame has played 29 times when it has had a short one-day break (or less) between games, including two games in three days on the opening weekend of this season (Nov. 11 & 13 in first two rounds of the Preseason WNIT vs. Akron and Indiana State) and games on consecutive days at the Junkanoo Jam in the Bahamas (Nov. 25-26 vs. USC and No. 7/6 Duke).

When faced with such a tight turnaround, the Fighting Irish have risen to the occasion in recent seasons, going 22-7 (.759) on the back half of these two-game (or more) blitzes, including a 6-0 record this year (wins over Indiana State, No. 7/6 Duke, Creighton, UCF, Mercer and No. 7/9 Tennessee).

Start Me Up
For the third time in school history (and second in three seasons), Notre Dame has opened with a 23-1 record.

In their 2000-01 national championship season, the Fighting Irish opened with a school-record 23-game winning streak before losing in the 24th game (54-53 at Rutgers on Feb. 17, 2001). Notre Dame then would win its next five in a row before losing at Connecticut, 78-76 in the BIG EAST Championship title game, the only other time the Fighting Irish would fall during their 34-2 run to the national championship.

In 2009-10, Notre Dame won its first 15 games, lost in its 16th contest, then won eight in a row before suffering its only back-to-back defeats of the season at St. John’s and Georgetown (when All-America guard Lindsay Schrader was sidelined with an ankle injury).

Beyond The Midpoint
Notre Dame is off to a 10-0 start in BIG EAST Conference play for the first time in 11 seasons and the fourth time since the program joined the BIG EAST in 1995-96.

The last time the Fighting Irish opened the conference season with 10 consecutive wins (or had any sort of 10-game league winning streak) was 2000-01 when they began the BIG EAST slate with a 12-0 record on the way to earning a share of their first regular season conference title with a 15-1 record.

The school record for the best start to a BIG EAST season is 15-0, set back in 1999-2000.

Streak Stats
Notre Dame’s current 20-game winning streak is tied for the second-longest success string in program history, and it’s the longest since the Fighting Irish opened their 2000-01 national championship season on a school-record 23-game winning streak.

Conference Call
For the 16th time in its 17-year membership in the BIG EAST Conference, Notre Dame has posted double-digit league wins. With the exception of 2005-06 (when they went 8-8), the Fighting Irish have never posted fewer than 10 BIG EAST wins in a season, finishing among the top four in the conference 13 times in their first 16 seasons in the league.

Taking it a step further, Notre Dame now has registered double-digit conference wins in 22 of head coach Muffet McGraw’s 25 seasons under the Golden Dome, with the only other exceptions coming in 1987-88 (her first season when the Fighting Irish went 7-3 in the now-defunct North Star Conference) and 1991-92 (when Notre Dame went 8-4 in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference/Horizon League, then won three in a row at the conference tournament to earn the program’s first-ever NCAA Championship berth, despite a losing overall record of 14-16, becoming the first school ever to pull off that feat).

Twenty Questions
Notre Dame reached the 20-win mark for the 18th time in the past 19 seasons with its 72-44 victory over No. 7/9 Tennessee on Jan. 23 at Purcell Pavilion. It was the earliest (in terms of the calendar) that the Fighting Irish have ever earned their 20th win, eight days faster than the 2000-01 club, which did so on Jan. 31 with a 64-44 victory over Providence, also at Purcell Pavilion.

Notre Dame now has registered 20-or-more wins 22 times in the 25-year Muffet McGraw era and 26 times in the program’s 35-year history.

McGraw herself has coached 24 20-win seasons (adding in two during her five-year tenure at Lehigh from 1982-87), placing her ninth all-time among NCAA Division I coaches.

Fighting Irish Scoring Early TKOs
Part of Notre Dame’s success this season can be traced to its penchant for jumping out to huge early leads and then keep its foot on the gas the rest of the way.

In 12 games this year, the Fighting Irish have charged to a 20-point lead inside the opening 13 minutes of the game, going on to win all 12 of those contests by an average of 50.9 points per game.

Overall, Notre Dame is outscoring its opponents in the first half this season by nearly a 2-to-1 margin (1,056-558), with an average halftime score of 44-23.

Born To Run
In the latest NCAA statistics report, Notre Dame leads the nation in scoring offense, averaging 83.6 points per game this season. That’s just one of six NCAA offensive categories in which the Fighting Irish rank among the top 15, along with field goal percentage (first at .490), scoring margin (second at +33.2 ppg.), assists (second at 19.9 apg.) and assist/turnover ratio (eighth at 1.22) and free throw percentage (14th at .763).

Notre Dame also has topped the 100-point mark twice (first time since 1998-99, second time in school history), and has scored at least 90 points in a game eight times this year, tying the school record set last season.

What’s more, Notre Dame has done an excellent job of putting teams away, recording 19 20-point wins, and 11 victories by at least 30 points (second-most in school history behind the 12 30-point wins last year).

Century City
Twice this season, Notre Dame has gone “over the top”, scoring 100 points in a game during victories at Mercer (128-42 on Dec. 30) and at home against BIG EAST Conference rival Pittsburgh (120-44 on Jan. 17).

Prior to this season, the Fighting Irish had never scored more than 113 points in a game (113-35 win over Liberty on Nov. 24, 1989, at the UCF Rotary Classic in Orlando, Fla.), and had scored in triple digits just 13 times in the program’s first 34 seasons.

What’s more, this marks just the second time Notre Dame has ever posted multiple 100-point games in the same season — in 1998-99, the Fighting Irish defeated No. 25/23 Illinois, 101-93, on Nov. 24 at Purcell Pavilion, before defeating West Virginia, 111-90, on Jan. 7, also at home.

As one might expect, Notre Dame’s two offensive explosions rank as the top two single-game point totals in the nation in 2011-12. Oklahoma is third with a 117-point night against visiting Sacramento State on Nov. 13.

Lock It Up
Notre Dame ranks among the top 15 in the nation in five NCAA defensive statistical categories — steals (second at 14.0 spg.), turnover margin (fifth at +7.83), scoring defense (sixth at 50.4 ppg.), rebound margin (eighth at +10.9 rpg.) and field goal percentage defense (15th at .342).

The Fighting Irish have held 20 of their 24 opponents to 61 points or fewer, with a school record 15 failing to score more than 50 points against Notre Dame — last year’s Fighting Irish squad had 14 games in which it allowed 50 points or fewer.

Notre Dame’s defensive effort has extended to smaller increments as well. In their last 37 halves of basketball (dating back to the second half against No. 7/6 Duke on Nov. 26), the Fighting Irish have held their opponents to 25 points or fewer 24 times, including 15 halves when the opposition didn’t crack 20 points.

‘Tis The Season For Taking
Fueled by its aggressive defense, Notre Dame has been in the taking mood this year, forcing its opponents into at least 20 turnovers in 16 games thus far, with Fighting Irish foes averaging 24.1 giveaways per game, and Notre Dame chalking up a +7.83 turnover margin that is fifth-best in the nation.

The Fighting Irish wasted little time in setting the tone for their opponents this season, forcing a combined 112 turnovers in their first three games, an average of 37.3 per night, and converting those into 142 points (47.3 ppg.). That run was highlighted by an opponent season-high 46 turnovers against Akron on Nov. 11 at Purcell Pavilion, the third-most takeaways in school history, and second-most in the program’s Division I era (49 vs. New Hampshire on Nov. 12, 2010).

The Fighting Irish have been especially hard on opponents in their 13 home games this season, forcing 27.8 turnovers per game and collecting at least 19 in each Purcell Pavilion contest thus far.

The Five-Finger Discount
Notre Dame comes into Tuesday’s game ranked second in the nation in steals with 14.0 thefts per game. The Fighting Irish also have recorded double-digit steals in 18 games this season, including three contests with 20-plus steals.

Highlighting this year’s takeaway brigade for Notre Dame was a season-high 29-steal performance in the opening night victory against Akron on Nov. 11 at Purcell Pavilion. The Fighting Irish followed that up two days later with 25 thefts in a win over Indiana State, and nabbed 26 steals in a Dec. 28 win over Longwood.

Prior to last season, Notre Dame had posted 23 steals in a game just seven times in the first 33 years (and 991 games) of the Fighting Irish women’s basketball program, and only three games with 25-plus steals in that time, none since a then-record tying 29 steals at Saint Louis on Jan. 31, 1991. What’s more, Notre Dame had not earned a conference steals title since 1989-90, when it led the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now the Horizon League) with 10.9 spg.

Yet, in the past two years (63 games), the Fighting Irish have had eight 23-steal games, with five outings of at least 25 thefts, and they claimed last year’s BIG EAST steals crown with 11.8 steals per game during regular-season league play.

Individually, Notre Dame has 10 different players with double-digit steals this season (including three with at least 50 thefts), led by junior guard Skylar Diggins, who is fourth in the conference at 2.5 steals per game, and fifth-year senior guard Brittany Mallory, who is sixth at 2.3 spg.

Helping Hands
Continuing a trend from last season, Notre Dame has shared the basketball very well during the first 23 games of the year.

In the latest NCAA statistics report, the Fighting Irish are second in the nation (and second in the BIG EAST) at 19.9 assists per game, including a season-high 33 assists against Pittsburgh on Jan. 17 (one of 13 games with 20-or-more assists this year, including six with 25 assists).

Individually, junior guard Skylar Diggins is 14th in the nation in assists (BIG EAST-best 5.9 apg.) and 12th in the country with a 2.39 assist/turnover ratio (also tops in the conference).

What’s more, Notre Dame has assisted on 65.7 percent of its field goals this season (478 of 727), compared to last year when the Fighting Irish registered assists on 60.9 percent of their baskets (669 of 1,099), with 16 games of at least 20 assists.

Experience Matters
Notre Dame has benefited from an experienced lineup this season, using the same starting five (guards Skylar Diggins, Brittany Mallory, Kayla McBride and Natalie Novosel, and forward Devereaux Peters) for all but two games this year (Dec. 30 at Mercer, when senior guard and Atlanta-area native Fraderica Miller earned the nod in her homecoming game; Jan. 7 vs. No. 2 Connecticut).

The foundation of this stable lineup has been the quartet of Diggins, Mallory, Novosel and Peters, who also started 34 of 39 games last year (Mallory missed two games with an ankle injury and came off the bench for two more, while Diggins relinquished her starting spot for Senior Day last year to allow walk-on forward Mary Forr to make the start). In the four games Mallory was not in the lineup last year, McBride earned the first starts of her college career.

Collectively, the current Notre Dame lineup has started 315 games in their careers (Diggins-92, Novosel-67, Peters-66, Mallory-64, McBride-26).

Spread The Wealth
Notre Dame has featured a balanced offense thus far, with at least three players scoring in double figures in 21 games, and at least four double-digit scorers in 13 games, including a season-high (and school record-tying) eight with at least 10 points against Pittsburgh on Jan. 17.

During the past three seasons (2009-10 to present), Notre Dame is 47-4 (.922) when it has at least four players score in double figures, with two of those losses coming in overtime (March 28, 2010 – 77-72 vs. Oklahoma in NCAA Sweet 16 at Kansas City; Nov. 18, 2010 – 86-83 in double overtime vs. UCLA at Purcell Pavilion) and a third by a single point (Feb. 28, 2011 – 70-69 at DePaul).

The Fighting Irish also have had six different players lead them in scoring this season. Five of the six leading scorers this year also have registered at least one 20-point game to date, while 10 different Notre Dame players (of the 11 healthy Fighting Irish who have seen action to date) have scored in double figures at least once this year.

Improvement Continues On The Glass
After averaging 37.2 rebounds in its first six games (and holding the upper hand in that category only three times, with an aggregate minus-2 rebounding margin), Notre Dame has featured a marked improvement on the boards since its return from the Bahamas after the Thanksgiving weekend.

In their last 18 games, the Fighting Irish are averaging 43.7 rebounds a night, with an average rebounding margin of +14.8 rpg. Furthermore, Notre Dame has grabbed at least 40 rebounds 15 times in the past 18 games after not reaching that mark once in its first six contests.

According to the latest NCAA statistics report, Notre Dame ranks eighth in the country in rebounding margin (+10.9 rpg.) this year.

Windy City Warrior
Fifth-year senior forward Devereaux Peters is in the midst of one of the best stretches of her college career, averaging 15.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game with a .612 field goal percentage (41-of-67) in her last six outings.

Here’s a look at some of the rare feats Peters (the Jan. 23 BIG EAST Player of the Week and a member of last week’s BIG EAST Honor Roll) has been accomplished in the past two weeks:

• Peters chalked up consecutive double-doubles against No. 7/9 Tennessee (16 points, 16 rebounds), at St. John’s (18 points, 15 rebounds), and at No. 13/14 Rutgers (10 points, career-high 17 rebounds) while adding a career high-tying six assists vs. UT and a season-best five blocks at St. John’s.
• Peters is the first Notre Dame player with three consecutive 15-rebound games since Feb. 16-24, 1979, when Jane Politiski had four consecutive games with at least 15 rebounds during the program’s AIAW Division III era (21 at Marion, 15 vs. Valparaiso, 18 vs. Saint Mary’s-Ind., 16 vs. St. Joseph’s-Ind.).
• Peters is the fifth Fighting Irish player with three 15-rebound games in a single season, with Katryna Gaither the last to do so (four in 1996-97). The others in this elite club are Jane Politiski (school-record seven in 1977-78, four in 1978-79), Shari Matvey (five in 1979-80) and Letitia Bowen (three in 1992-93, four in 1993-94).
• Peters became the first Notre Dame player in nearly 20 years to record back-to-back 15-point/15-rebound games. Letitia Bowen was the last to pull that off, doing so on Dec. 21, 1992, vs. No. 20 Georgia (16 points, 15 rebounds) and then again on Dec. 30, 1992, vs. Georgetown (16 points, 18 rebounds).
• Peters became the first Fighting Irish player with three consecutive double-doubles since the 2004 NCAA Championship, when Jacqueline Batteast did so against Missouri State (17p/11r), Middle Tennessee (22p/12r) and No. 5/7 Penn State (22p/12r) from March 21-27, 2004.

The Diggins Factor
Notre Dame has posted an 83-15 (.847) record in the past three seasons, a mark that can be traced in no small part to the arrival of guard Skylar Diggins. The South Bend native has helped lead the Fighting Irish to a spot in the 2011 NCAA national championship game and a berth in the 2010 NCAA Sweet 16, as well as a 13-9 record against AP Top 25 teams (7-7 vs. the AP Top 10) and an active 62-game winning streak against unranked opponents (not appearing in the AP poll) since the start of the 2009-10 season.

Upon closer examination, Notre Dame’s 15 losses in Diggins’ career primarily have been verdicts that could have gone either way, with nine decided by single digits (five that were in doubt inside the final minute), and two that went to overtime.

With Diggins in uniform, the Fighting Irish have posted two of the top 10 most prolific offensive seasons in school history, averaging 77.0 ppg. last year after logging 77.1 ppg. in her freshman season (and Notre Dame is on pace to go well beyond those figures this year).

In addition, thanks to Diggins’ penchant for steals (she has a 2.29 spg. career mark), the Fighting Irish have recorded the top two single-season steal marks in program history with 495 thefts last year and 450 steals the season before. Last season also saw Notre Dame post the third-best defensive scoring average in school history, allowing just 56.2 ppg. (the best since the 2000-01 Fighting Irish yielded 55.8 ppg. en route to the national championship).

A Rally To Remember
Notre Dame tied a school record by digging out of an 18-point second-half hole to defeat No. 7/6 Duke, 56-54 on Nov. 26 in the Junkanoo Jam Freeport Division championship game at St. Georges High School in Freeport, Bahamas.

Nearly three years earlier on Dec. 30, 2008, the Fighting Irish trailed 46-28 at No. 20/19 Vanderbilt with 15:56 left and came back to win, 59-57 at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn.

This year’s comeback victory over Duke marked the fourth time in program history Notre Dame has ralled from a deficit of 15 points or more to post a victory, with all four of these comebacks occurring in the past 11 seasons.

Beat The Clock
Senior guard Natalie Novosel hit a running bank shot at the foul line as the buzzer sounded to give Notre Dame a 56-54 win over No. 7/6 Duke on Nov. 26 in the Junkanoo Jam Freeport Division championship game at St. Georges High School in Freeport, Bahamas.

Novosel’s buzzer-beater was the first winning shot at the horn by a Notre Dame player since Jan. 10, 2006, when Megan Duffy scored the last of her career-high 32 points with an off-handed layup at the overtime siren to earn a 67-65 win over Marquette at Purcell Pavilion.

Notre Dame also has had several players nail winning shots in the final minute of games during recent seasons. Prior to Novosel, Ashley Barlow was the last Fighting Irish player to pull off such late-game heroics, canning a three-pointer with 34.2 seconds remaining to help Notre Dame take a 74-73 win at Syracuse on Jan. 30, 2010.

Another notable recent “beat-the-clock” moment for Notre Dame occurred on Dec. 5, 2007, when Charel Allen sank a foul-line jumper with 0.8 seconds remaining in overtime, lifting the Fighting Irish to an 86-84 win at Bowling Green.

The Model Of Consistency
The Jan. 23 win over No. 7/9 Tennessee marked the end to a remarkable streak, as senior guard/tri-captain Natalie Novosel was held to four points, her first single-digit point total since March 7, 2011, when she had eight points in Notre Dame’s 71-67 BIG EAST Championship semifinal win over No. 9/13 DePaul at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.

Novosel’s 27-game double-digit scoring streak is the second-longest in school history, and was the longest by a Fighting Irish player in 15 seasons.

Katryna Gaither staked an ironclad claim to the school record with a remarkable 76-game double-figure scoring streak from 1994-97.

A Grand Trio
Notre Dame has had two of its captains score their 1,000th career point this season — senior guard Natalie Novosel hit the milestone on a free throw with 14:20 remaining on Nov. 13 against Indiana State, while fifth-year senior forward Devereaux Peters reached the landmark on a layup 16:52 left on Dec. 28 vs. Longwood.

Novosel currently ranks 16th in school history with 1,343 points, while Peters became the 30th member of the Fighting Irish 1,000-Point Club and presently stands 25th with 1,147 points.

Together with junior guard Skylar Diggins (10th with 1,471 points), Notre Dame has three active players in that elite Fighting Irish club for the third time in school history. In both 2000-01 and 2009-10, Notre Dame also had three 1,000-point players on the roster, with the third reaching that total in her final career game (Kelley Siemon in 2001 NCAA national championship game vs. Purdue, Melissa Lechlitner in 2010 NCAA Sweet 16 game vs. Oklahoma).

The Fighting Irish could have a fourth player reach the scoring millennium later this season — fifth-year senior guard Brittany Mallory has 896 career points. Should Mallory hit the 1,000-point mark, it would be the first time in the 35-year history of Notre Dame women’s basketball that a quartet of active 1,000-point scorers were on the roster at the same time.

What’s more, Peters became the seventh player from Notre Dame’s 2009-10 NCAA Sweet 16 team to reach the 1,000-point plateau during her career, along with Diggins, Novosel, Lechlitner, Ashley Barlow (ninth at 1,492), Lindsay Schrader (14th at 1,429) and Becca Bruszewski (24th at 1,148) — and that doesn’t even include Mallory, who also was part of that season’s 13-player roster.

More Than Tough Enough
Fifth-year senior guard/tri-captain Brittany Mallory is closing in on a a somewhat-overlooked and key career milestone, as she has tied the school record with 136 career games played, matching the total of her former teammate and co-captain Becca Bruszewski, who also played in 136 games from 2007-11.

Aside from the 2008-09 season that Mallory largely missed after injuring her knee in the seventh game at Michigan, she has missed only three other games in her career to date — one as a freshman in 2007-08 (at Richmond) due to an acute illness and two last season (at Kentucky, vs. IUPUI) following an ankle injury suffered against UCLA.

Not bad for a player who also was an All-America lacrosse standout coming from the McDonogh School in suburban Baltimore. In fact, head coach Muffet McGraw foreshadowed Mallory’s endurance at Notre Dame way back on Signing Day, when she said — “You know she’s going to be tough when she’s used to getting beat in the head with a lacrosse stick every day.”

Game #24 Recap: DePaul
Notre Dame was nearly perfect on offense for a 16-minute stretch against No. RV/23 DePaul.

Yet after the game, coach Muffet McGraw was more concerned about the team’s defense in the second-ranked Fighting Irish’s 90-70 win over the visiting Blue Demons on Sunday.

The offense couldn’t get much better during that 16-minute stretch. Notre Dame (23-1, 10-0 BIG EAST) didn’t miss many shots during its 56-point first half. The Fighting Irish shot a blistering 72 percent from the field. From the 13:54 mark of the first half to the 17:18 mark in the second half, they hit 22 of their 24 shots to build a 34-point lead.

McGraw started subbing liberally and the Blue Demons rallied behind Jasmine Penny’s 24 points and Katherine Harry’s 20.

DePaul (17-7, 5-5) was coming off an 86-61 rout of No. 14/12 Louisville on Jan. 31. The Blue Demons, who are down to only seven healthy players because of injuries, had a much tougher time against Notre Dame.

Natalie Novosel scored 17 of her 21 points in the first half. Skylar Diggins had a double-double (11 points, 10 assists), Brittany Mallory scored a season-high 14, Devereaux Peters 11, and reserve Natalie Achonwa added 16.

Beyond The Box Score — DePaul

• Notre Dame logged its 20th consecutive home victory, its longest since a 25-game Purcell Pavilion winning streak from 2003-04.
• Notre Dame’s current 10-game BIG EAST win streak is its longest since 2000-01, when the Fighting Irish won their first 12 conference games.
• Notre Dame is 8-1 against ranked opponents this season (DePaul was No. 23 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll at tipoff), including a 4-0 record at home.
• DePaul still leads the all-time series with Notre Dame, 19-17, although the Fighting Irish have won six of the past seven in the series — they also are 10-6 against the Blue Demons at Purcell Pavilion (where they have won seven of their last eight match ups).
• Notre Dame shot a season-high 60 percent from the three-point line, and tied its season best with nine three-pointers made.
• Diggins registered her third double-double of the season, and fifth of her career.
• Diggins also chalked up her fourth double-digit assist game of the season, the most by a Fighting Irish player in one year since 2004-05, when Megan Duffy also had four 10-assist outings.
• In addition to her season-high 14 points, Mallory tied her season best with four three-pointers made.
• Mallory moved into a tie for sixth place in school history with 139 career three-pointers, drawing even with former teammate Ashley Barlow (139 from 2006-10).
• Novosel logged her seventh 20-point game of the season, and 14th of her career.
• Novosel moved into a tie for 10th place on Notre Dame’s career games played list with 129, equaling the totals by Ericka Haney (1998-2002) and Charel Allen (2004-08).
• Peters jumped to a tie for eighth place in program history with 774 career rebounds, drawing even with Sandy Botham (1984-88) in that category.

Polling Station
Notre Dame is ranked No. 2 in this week’s Associated Press poll, its 14th consecutive week in the top five of the media balloting. The Fighting Irish also earned a preseason No. 2 ranking that was their highest since the final 2000-01 poll (taken before the the NCAA Championship), and also was the highest Notre Dame had ever been ranked in the AP preseason poll, topping its No. 4 debut in 2009-10.

Notre Dame received six first-place votes in the 2011-12 AP preseason poll (and four the following week), the first time it received consideration for the top spot since March 11, 2001, when the Fighting Irish earned five first-place votes (they were ranked No. 2 after falling at Connecticut, 79-76 in the BIG EAST tournament final). The previous week, Notre Dame had 33 first-place votes in its sixth week with the No. 1 ranking in the AP poll.

This week’s No. 2 ranking marks the 91st consecutive AP poll appearance for the Fighting Irish, extending the program record that started with the AP preseason poll in 2007-08 (the old record was 59 consecutive weeks from 1998-2001). In fact, every current Notre Dame player has competed for a ranked Fighting Irish squad throughout her career, spending more than half (53) of those appearances in the AP Top 10.

This year’s No. 2 preseason ranking also represents the 12th time in the past 13 years (starting with the 1999-2000 campaign) that Notre Dame has appeared in the initial AP poll, something only nine schools in the nation have done — Connecticut, Duke and Tennessee have shown up in all 13 during that span, while Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Stanford join the Fighting Irish with 12 preseason AP poll berths.

Notre Dame has been ranked in the AP poll for 230 weeks during the program’s 35-year history, with every one of those appearances coming in the Muffet McGraw era (since 1987-88). McGraw ranks 11th among all active NCAA Division I head coaches for weeks in the AP poll, and 20th all-time in that category.

In addition, the Fighting Irish were No. 2 in last week’s ESPN/USA Today/WBCA coaches’ poll, holding that spot for the fourth consecutive week after they also held it for the first two weeks of the season. Like the AP poll, Notre Dame earned its best-ever preseason ranking (second) in the coaches’ poll, topping its No. 5 placement to begin the 2000-01 campaign. The Fighting Irish also collected five first-place votes in this year’s preseason coaches’ survey (and two a week later), their first nods for the top spot since the final ’00-01 balloting, when they received all 40 first-place votes after winning the national championship.

Notre Dame has been ranked in the coaches’ poll for 91 of the past 92 weeks (not counting this week’s poll that will come out Tuesday afternoon), falling just outside the Top 25 in the final poll of the 2008-09 season. Nevertheless, the Fighting Irish have appeared in the coaches’ poll for a total of 222 weeks during their history (all coming during McGraw’s tenure).

This marks the fourth consecutive season Notre Dame has been ranked in the top 10 of the ESPN/USA Today/WBCA poll, as well as 10 of the past 14 campaigns (1998-99 to present).

More Polling Data
Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw is one of 31 people in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history who have both played for and coached a team that has appeared in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Besides her 230 AP poll appearances while coaching at Notre Dame, McGraw was the starting point guard at Saint Joseph’s (Pa.) as a senior in 1977, helping the Hawks to No. 3 in the nation.

Of the 31 people on this list, 16 currently are NCAA Division I head coaches (see accompanying chart), with McGraw and Baylor’s Kim Mulkey are the only active skippers to play for and coach a team in the AP poll, and coach that team to a national title (McGraw in 2001, Mulkey in 2005).

Half And Half
During the past 11 seasons, Notre Dame has been nearly unbeatable when it has the lead at halftime. The Fighting Irish are 237-18 (.929) since the start of the 2000-01 campaign when they go into the dressing room with the lead, including wins in 165 of their last 177 such contests (.932).

What’s more, in the past three seasons (2009-10 to present), Notre Dame is 74-1 (.987) when leading at the half, with the only loss coming on April 5, 2011, in the NCAA national championship game at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (Notre Dame led Texas A&M, 35-33 at intermission before falling 76-70).

The Best Offense Is A Good Defense…
During the past 17 seasons, Notre Dame has discovered that a solid defensive effort can almost certainly guarantee a victory. In fact, since the beginning of the 1995-96 season (Notre Dame’s first in the BIG EAST Conference), the Fighting Irish have an amazing 249-15 (.943) record when they hold their opponents below 60 points in a game, including 19 contests this year.

…But Sometimes You Have To Score If You Want To Win
Not resting solely on its defensive laurels, Notre Dame also seemingly has found the magic mark when it comes to outscoring its opponents. During the past 17 seasons (since 1995-96), the Fighting Irish are 165-6 (.965) when they score at least 80 points in a game. The only blemishes on that record are three overtime losses to Texas A&M (88-84) and Michigan State (87-83) in 1995 and UCLA (86-83 in double OT) in 2010, as well as a 106-81 loss to Connecticut in 1998, an 81-80 loss to DePaul in 2008, and a 94-81 setback at Baylor in 2011.

In the past three years (2009-10 to present), Notre Dame is 42-2 (.955) when topping the 80-point mark, having reached that level in 13 games this season and winning 12 times.

Now That’s A Home Court Advantage
One of the hallmarks of Notre Dame’s success has been its stellar play at home. In fact, the Fighting Irish have been virtually untouchable at home in recent years, winning 217 of their last 244 games (.889) at the 9,149-seat Purcell Pavilion, including winning streaks of 51 and 25 games in that span (and an active run of 20 in a row). Notre Dame also has a 118-19 (.861) record in BIG EAST Conference play at the former Joyce Center, sporting a program-record 31-game league winning streak at home before it ended with a 48-45 loss to Villanova in the ’02 home finale.

The Fighting Irish have been particularly strong when it comes to non-conference games at home, winning 101 of their last 109 non-BIG EAST contests (.927) at Purcell Pavilion, dating back to the 1994-95 season. Five of the eight losses in that span came at the hands of Big Ten Conference opponents (four by 12 points or less) — Wisconsin in 1996 (81-69), Purdue in 2003 (71-54), Michigan State in 2004 (82-73 OT), Indiana in 2006 (54-51) and Minnesota in 2009 (79-71) — with the other defeats coming to Tennessee in 2005 (62-51) and 2008 (87-63), and to UCLA in 2010 (86-83 in 2OT). The Purdue loss also snapped a 33-game non-conference home winning streak which began after the UW setback.

Since its inaugural season in 1977-78, Notre Dame has played all of its games at the former Joyce Center, posting a 367-88 (.807) record at the venerable facility. Three times (1999-2000, 2000-01 and 2003-04), the Fighting Irish went a perfect 15-0 at home, which was the school record for home victories in a season prior to the 2009-10 campaign, when Notre Dame went 16-1, capped by an 84-66 triumph over Vermont in the second round of the NCAA Championship.

Irish Are The Hottest Ticket In Town
The past two seasons have seen an unprecedented surge in fan support for Notre Dame women’s basketball, as the Fighting Irish set new program records for the highest year-end NCAA attendance ranking (fourth in 2009-10), highest average attendance (8,553 fans per game in 2010-11) and most sellouts in a single season (six in 2009-10). And, as the old saying goes — “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

For the third consecutive year, Notre Dame fans exhausted the program’s season ticket packages (7,500) and have snapped up single-game ducats at a rate that helped the Fighting Irish already sell out a school record-tying six games (Dec. 18 vs. Kentucky, Dec. 28 vs. Longwood, Jan. 7 vs. Connecticut, Jan. 21 vs. Villanova, Jan. 23 vs. Tennessee, Feb. 5 vs. DePaul), and put two others (Feb. 12 vs. West Virginia and Feb. 25 vs. USF) within striking distance of a sellout.

What’s more, through its first 13 home games this season, Notre Dame is averaging 8,780 fans per game (good for fourth in the nation), including those aforementioned six sellouts (9,149). The Fighting Irish now have posted 17 sellouts in the past three seasons and 23 in program history.

While some additional tickets may be available on the day or week of the game for individual contests this season (depending on returned inventory by visiting teams and other constituencies), it’s entirely possible that Notre Dame will flirt with a sell out for every one of its home games during the 2011-12 regular season.

Fighting Irish On Your Radio Dial
Beginning with the 2008-09 athletics year, the Notre Dame athletics department announced it had partnered with the LeSEA Broadcasting Network, making Pulse FM (96.9/92.1) the new radio home of Notre Dame women’s basketball in the South Bend market.

LeSEA originates all Notre Dame women’s basketball games, with those events carried on Pulse FM (96.9/92.1), marking a return to the FM side of the dial for the first time since the 1998-99 season. Combined, these two stations blanket the nation’s No. 91 media market (South Bend-Elkhart), covering a 21-county area in northern Indiana and southwest Michigan that contains more than 1.4 million listeners (better than 800,000 in the greater South Bend area alone). All told, Notre Dame’s women’s basketball network stretches from Kalamazoo, Mich., to the north, North Judson, Ind., to the west, Macy, Ind., (home of former Fighting Irish All-America center Ruth Riley) to the south, and LaGrange, Ind., to the east.

Women’s basketball game broadcasts also continue to be streamed live and free of charge on Notre Dame’s official athletics web site (www.UND.com) through the Fighting Irish Digital Media package.

Bob Nagle, the voice of Notre Dame women’s basketball from 1996-97 through 1998-99 (including the program’s first NCAA Final Four berth in 1997), is now in the fourth season of his second stint as the radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame On The Small Screen
Notre Dame will have at least 23 regular season games televised during the 2011-12 season. Highlighting this year’s broadcast schedule are 11 nationally- or regionally-televised Fighting Irish women’s basketball contests, including the program’s fifth-ever appearance on network television, and second in as many years (Jan. 7 vs. Connecticut on CBS) and six showings on the ESPN family of networks, including three appearances on that entity’s famed “Big Monday” telecast.

In addition, Notre Dame continues to expand its broadcast reach globally on the Internet. For the sixth consecutive season, all Fighting Irish regular-season home games not selected for commercial TV coverage (as well as the Nov. 2 exhibition vs. Windsor) will be webcast live on the official Notre Dame athletics web site, www.UND.com, via the site’s free Fighting Irish Video Channel.

This year’s TV slate continues a trend that has seen the Fighting Irish become a regular fixture on television. Beginning with the NCAA championship season of 2000-01 and continuing through the Feb. 5 game against DePaul (televised live on ESPNU), Notre Dame has played in 219 televised games, including 163 that were broadcast nationally.

Oh Captain, My Captain
Fifth-year senior guard Brittany Mallory, senior guard Natalie Novosel and fifth-year senior forward Devereaux Peters are serving as Notre Dame’s team captains for the 2011-12 season. Mallory is in her second season as team captain, while Novosel and Peters received the captain’s honor for the first time in their respective careers following a preseason vote by their teammates.

Irish Fans Crave Another Big Mac Attack
It’s year five of Notre Dame’s wildly-successful “Big Mac” promotion, offering fans a coupon for a free Big Mac from South Bend-area McDonald’s restaurants if the Fighting Irish score at least 88 points in a home game.

In the five-year history of the promotion (and counting exhibition games), Notre Dame has hit the 88-point mark 34 times, most recently in the Feb. 5 win over DePaul.

It should come as no surprise that in the short history of the promotion, the Notre Dame player with the most “Big Mac” baskets shares the same initials with the tasty burger — fifth-year senior guard Brittany Mallory, who has sent the crowd home happy (and presumably with full bellies) five times, including four during the promotion’s inaugural run in 2007-08.

And for those tracking such things (or perhaps falling under the heading of “the media relations director has way too much time on his hands”), 19 different players have converted the “burger ball”, including eight current members of the Fighting Irish roster.

What’s more, of the 34 Big Mac games to date, 16 have been reached on two-point baskets, 13 on free throws, and five on three-pointers.

Next Game: West Virginia
Notre Dame will play host to its fourth annual Pink Zone game at 3:30 p.m. (ET) Sunday when it welcomes BIG EAST foe West Virginia to Purcell Pavilion. The game, which will be televised nationally on ESPNU, is the focal point of the yearly Fighting Irish fundraising drive for breast cancer awareness and research, with Notre Dame women’s basketball having raised more than $275,000 in the first three years of the event.

WVU (17-6, 7-3) has won seven of its last nine games and comes to town on a three-game winning streak following a 66-50 victory over No. 14/12 Louisville last Saturday in Morgantown. The Mountaineers are in the midst of an eight-day break before they take on Notre Dame next weekend.

— ND —