Jan. 8, 2014
2013-14 ND Women’s Basketball: Game 14
#2/2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (13-0 / 1-0 ACC) vs. Boston College Eagles (10-5 / 1-0 ACC)
DATE: Jan. 9, 2014
TIME: 7:00 p.m. ET
AT: Notre Dame, Ind. – Purcell Pavilion (9,149)
SERIES: ND leads 12-5
1ST MTG: BC 59-55 (12/30/83)
LAST MTG: ND 102-54 (11/23/08)
TV: WatchND (live)
RADIO: Pulse FM (96.9/92.1) (live) (Bob Nagle, p-b-p)
LIVE STATS:
TWITTER: @ndwbbsid
TICKETS: (574) 631-7356; UND.com/buytickets
Storylines
- Boston College is the first of five ACC opponents for Notre Dame that the Fighting Irish previously played as a member of a different conference (Notre Dame was 10-3 against BC while they were part of the BIG EAST from 1996-2005).
- The Eagles are one of two repeat opponents on Notre Dame’s ACC schedule this year. The teams will meet a second time on Feb. 13 at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
No. 2 Fighting Irish Welcome Boston College To Town Thursday Night
While Notre Dame’s first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference presents many new challenges, there are some familiar faces along the way, and the first of those pays a visit to Purcell Pavilion Thursday night when the No. 2 Fighting Irish welcome former BIG EAST foe Boston College to town for a 7 p.m. (ET) contest. The game will be streamed live on the official Notre Dame athletics multimedia platform, WatchND.
The Fighting Irish (13-0) opened their inaugural ACC campaign on a positive note Sunday, dispatching Clemson, 71-51 at Purcell Pavilion. Sophomore guard Jewell Loyd scored 12 of her game-high 16 points after halftime, while senior guard/tri-captain Kayla McBride also had 16 points and senior forward/tri-captain Natalie Achonwa collected her fourth double-double of the year (and second in a row) with 15 points and a season high-tying 13 rebounds.
Rankings
- Notre Dame is No. 2 in the latest Associated Press poll and is No. 2 in the latest WBCA/USA Today poll.
- Boston College is not ranked.
Quick Hitters
- At 13-0, the Fighting Irish are off to the third-best start to a season in program history, as well as the program’s best start since 2009-10, when they started 15-0.
- Notre Dame stands at No. 2 in the AP and WBCA/USA Today polls, the third consecutive season that the Fighting Irish have earned the second position in both surveys.
- Notre Dame leads the nation in field goal percentage (.510) and assists (22.8 apg.), part of seven NCAA statistical categories that the Fighting Irish rank among the top six (not including won-loss percentage, for which they are one of five remaining teams in the nation without a loss).
- Notre Dame has won 36 consecutive regular season games and 19 consecutive home games, both dating back to Dec. 5, 2012 (a 73-61 loss to No. 3 Baylor).
- The Fighting Irish have won a school-record 26 consecutive regular season road games (and 33 of their last 38 overall) since a 94-81 loss at top-ranked Baylor on Nov. 20, 2011, in the Preseason WNIT championship game.
- Now in its inaugural season in the ACC, Notre Dame has won 21 consecutive regular season conference games, as well as 16 consecutive regular season league road games. The Fighting Irish last lost a regular season conference game on Feb. 12, 2012 (65-63 at home vs. West Virginia), and dropped a regular season league contest on the road on Feb. 28, 2011 (70-69 at No. 12/11 DePaul), both in BIG EAST play.
- Since the start of the 2011-12 season, Notre Dame is 30-5 (.857) against ranked opponents, including a 10-1 record at home.
- With a 106-72 victory over Central Michigan on Dec. 22, the Fighting Irish became the 27th NCAA Division I women’s basketball program to record 800 all-time wins.
- Notre Dame has appeared in the AP poll for 126 consecutive weeks (including the past 56 weeks in the AP Top 10), extending a program record that dates back to the 2007-08 preseason poll, and ranking sixth in the nation among active AP poll appearances. What’s more, every current Fighting Irish player has competed for a ranked Notre Dame squad during her career, with the vast majority of that time (76 of 87 weeks) spent in the AP Top 10.
- Senior forwards Natalie Achonwa and Ariel Braker, and senior guard Kayla McBride have helped Notre Dame to a 114-14 (.891) record in their careers, putting them on pace to challenge last year’s senior class of Skylar Diggins and Kaila Turner, who helped Notre Dame to 130 wins in their careers.
- Of the 14 losses suffered by the current Fighting Irish senior class, eight were decided by single digits (and three others by 10-13 points).
- Notre Dame aims to continue its remarkable success at Purcell Pavilion, with the Fighting Irish owning a 392-90 (.813) all-time record in 37 seasons at the facility, including a 69-5 (.932) record since the arena was renovated prior to the 2009-10 season.
- Notre Dame ranks third in this week’s NCAA attendance rankings (8,583 fans per game), and is one of just three schools (along with Kentucky and DePaul) in the country to fill its arena to better than 90 percent capacity, something the Fighting Irish have done each season since 2009-10.
- With 639 victories in her 27 seasons at Notre Dame, head coach Muffet McGraw ranks 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).
- With 727 career wins, McGraw needs 12 victories to move into the top 10 on the NCAA Division I career list. She currently stands 12th behind two former ACC coaches — Virginia’s Debbie Ryan (739) and the late North Carolina State coach Kay Yow (737).
The Notre Dame-Boston College Series
Notre Dame is 12-5 all-time against Boston College, and has won nine of the past 11 meetings between the schools (one of those losses coming in the postseason in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Championship in West Lafayette, Ind.), including both ends of a non-conference series in 2007 and 2008 (the latter being the most recent game in the rivalry, a 102-54 Fighting Irish win on Nov. 23, 2008, in Chestnut Hill, Mass.).
Notre Dame also is 8-0 all-time against BC at Purcell Pavilion, including an 88-58 victory the last time the Eagles came to town on Nov. 24, 2007.
Notre Dame and Boston College played alongside one another as members of the BIG EAST Conference from 1996-2005, with the Fighting Irish going 10-3 against the Eagles in that span (all three losses coming on BC’s home floor at Conte Forum).
The Last Time Notre Dame And Boston College Met
Becca Bruszewski scored 18 points to lead six players in double figures and No. 15 Notre Dame shot 65 percent from the field to cruise to a 102-54 win over Boston College on Nov. 23, 2008, at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Erica Solomon added 15 points for Notre Dame, while Brittany Mallory had 14 and Lindsay Schrader 13. Ashley Barlow and Erica Williamson each finished with 10.
Carolyn Swords led the Eagles with 16 points and seven rebounds.
Notre Dame led 49-25 at halftime and never had its lead fall below 20 points in the second half.
The Fighting Irish used an 8-0 run early in the contest to open their first double-digit lead of the game (20-10) on Bruszewski’s jumper. They closed the first half by outscoring the Eagles, 15-3, over the final 4:13. Mallory scored five points and Williamson had a pair of baskets in the run as Notre Dame used a tight defense on the perimeter that led to a number of turnovers and easy transition baskets.
The Fighting Irish shot 59 percent in the opening 20 minutes. BC committed 17 of its 28 turnovers in opening half.
The Last Time Notre Dame And Boston College Met At Purcell Pavilion
Notre Dame knocked Boston College out of its game plan with a pressing defense, forcing the Eagles into 33 turnovers.
The No. 23/24 Fighting Irish got 41 points off the turnovers en route to an 88-58 victory on Nov. 24, 2007, at Purcell Pavilion. Notre Dame opened a 10-point lead in less than five minutes and Boston College never got any closer.
Five Fighting Irish players scored in double figures, led by Lindsay Schrader with 16 points, Charel Allen with 15 and Ashley Barlow and Brittany Mallory with 13 each. Becca Bruszewski added 10 points.
Stefanie Murphy led the Eagles with 18 points and Carolyn Swords added 11 points and nine rebounds.
Allen scored six points to help Notre Dame take a 14-4 lead as Boston College struggled against full-court pressure, turning the ball over four times in the first five minutes. The Fighting Irish went ahead 38-20 when Mallory hit a three-pointer with 4:13 left in the second half and led 46-30 at the half.
The Eagles scored two quick baskets by Murphy and Mickel Picco to start the second half and cut Notre Dame’s lead to 46-34. However, the Fighting Irish defense quickly forced four turnovers, sparking a 9-0 run to regain control.
Other Notre Dame-Boston College Series Tidbits
- In their last six matchups, the Fighting Irish have held BC to less than 60 points five times and winning each time. The only exception was the Eagles’ 78-61 victory in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Championship.
- The 102-54 Notre Dame win in the team’s last matchup was the largest margin of victory in the series, as well as the largest by a visiting team in Conte Forum history.
- Fighting Irish athletic trainer Anne Marquez is a native of Framingham, Mass.
- Maureen Leahy, the sister of former Fighting Irish forward (and 2001 national championship team member) Meaghan Leahy, played at BC from 2000-01 through 2003-04.
Getting The Jump
At 13-0, Notre Dame is off to the third-best start in the program’s 37-year history. The only times the Fighting Irish opened with a better record than this season were in 2000-01 (when they reeled off a school-record 23 consecutive wins en route to a 34-2 final record and the program’s first national championship) and 2009-10 (when they started 15-0 on the way to a 29-6 record and spot in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen).
The Comforts Of Home
Notre Dame has won 19 consecutive home games since a 73-61 loss to third-ranked Baylor on Dec. 5, 2012, at Purcell Pavilion. The Fighting Irish currently own the nation’s fourth-longest active home winning streak, with this run also the fourth-longest in school history (longest since a 20-game stretch from Jan. 12, 2011-Feb. 5, 2012, a run that ended a week later with a 65-63 loss to West Virginia).
Notre Dame also has won its last 11 conference home games since that loss to WVU in 2012, when both the Fighting Irish and Mountaineers were members of the BIG EAST Conference.
Road Warriors
Notre Dame has won a school-record 26 consecutive regular season road games and 33 of its last 38 overall, including the Dec. 29 victory at Oregon State. The Fighting Irish last tasted defeat on the road in the regular season on Nov. 20, 2011, a 94-81 setback at No. 1 Baylor in the Preseason WNIT championship game.
The highlight of this current run came on Jan. 5, 2013, when Notre Dame edged No. 1 Connecticut, 73-72, in Storrs, Conn., earning its fourth all-time win over a top-ranked opponent and first-ever victory on the road.
The Fighting Irish also have won a school-record 16 consecutive conference regular season road games, with their last loss coming as part of the BIG EAST Conference on Feb. 28, 2011 (a last-second 70-69 loss at No. 12/11 DePaul).
A Helping Hand
The Fighting Irish entered the weekend leading the nation in assists at 22.8 per game. Notre Dame has dished out at least 21 helpers in 10 games thus far (including a season-high 31 dimes against UCLA on Dec. 7), with the Fighting Irish piling up assists on 66.9 percent of their made field goals this year (297 of 444).
Notre Dame also ranks fifth in the nation (and tops in the ACC) in assist/turnover ratio (1.52).
That’s Some Sharp Shooting
Notre Dame currently is setting the pace nationally with a .510 field goal percentage, thanks in part to a recent surge that has seen Notre Dame shoot better than 50 percent from the field in four of its last six games, including three in a row at better than 55 percent (.563 vs. UCLA, .586 at Michigan, .618 vs. Central Michigan).
It was the first time the Fighting Irish had three consecutive 55-percent outings since Nov. 20-29, 1997, when they did so in victories over North Carolina State (.565), Bowling Green (.558) and Ohio University (.567).
For the season, Notre Dame has shot better than 50 percent seven times, including three games where it topped 60 percent from the field.
The Fighting Irish sharpshooting brigade has been led by freshman guard Lindsay Allen, who ranks fourth in the ACC with a .591 field goal percentage, and senior forward/tri-captain Natalie Achonwa, who is tied for 10th in the conference with a .556 field goal percentage.
Freshman forward Kristina Nelson (.773), junior guard Madison Cable (.625) and junior forward Markisha Wright (.600) actually have higher field goal percentages than Allen and Achonwa, but none has made the minimum number of shots (three per game) to qualify for ACC ranking.
Dialing Long Distance
Although not usually a primary part of the Notre Dame arsenal, the Fighting Irish have found the three-point shot much to their liking this season. Notre Dame currently ranks sixth in the nation and leads the ACC with a .408 three-point percentage, with three different players connecting at 40 percent or better from beyond the arc.
Junior guard Madison Cable leads the way for the Fighting Irish with a league-leading .565 three-point percentage, including a career-high 5-of-6 from deep (part of a career-high 21 points) in the Dec. 7 win over UCLA.
Sophomore guard Michaela Mabrey has connected on a team-high 21 three-pointers this season, including a career-high four treys against Michigan (Dec. 14) and Central Michigan (Dec. 22), and she has made two triples in seven of her last nine outings. She is tied for 13th in the ACC with 1.6 three-pointers made per game, while her .362 percentage is good for 15th in the conference this week.
The other two Fighting Irish players hitting 40 percent from distance — freshman guard Lindsay Allen (.471) and senior guard/tri-captain Kayla McBride (.444) — haven’t made the minimum 1.0 3FG/game to qualify for ACC ranking.
As a team, the Fighting Irish connected on 10-of-17 three-pointers in their victory over UCLA, their highest production from the arc in nearly four years, dating back to a similar 10-triple performance on Jan. 30, 2010, at Syracuse.
Spreading The Wealth
Notre Dame has had at least four players score in double figures in nine games this year, going 10-0 in those contests. Since the start of the 2009-10 season, the Fighting Irish are 85-5 (.944) when they have four or more players reach double digits in the scoring column, including wins in 55 of their last 56 such outings (the lone loss coming in last year’s NCAA Women’s Final Four national semifinal against Connecticut).
Irish Join The 800-Win Club
Notre Dame’s 106-72 victory over Central Michigan on Dec. 22 at Purcell Pavilion was a milestone for the Fighting Irish, who became the 27th program in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history (and fourth Atlantic Coast Conference school) to record 800 victories. The Fighting Irish have posted a 803-316 (.718) record in their 37 seasons of varsity competition, dating back to the 1977-78 campaign.
Prior to Notre Dame reaching the milestone, the last school to reach the 800-win mark was LSU (which did so on Nov. 25, 2012, at Florida International). Along with the Fighting Irish, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland are the other three ACC members in the 800-victory club (with Duke and North Carolina State expected to follow later this year).
Crown Jewell
Sophomore guard Jewell Loyd has continued her development as one of the top young talents in the country this season, building on last year’s selection as the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) National Freshman of the Year.
The Lincolnwood, Ill., product currently ranks ninth in the ACC in scoring (17.3 ppg.) and 17th in rebounding (6.8 rpg.), sporting career-high marks in both areas. She also has four 20-point games thus far (including a career-high 30 points against Central Michigan on Dec. 22) after scoring 20 points twice during her rookie campaign.
Loyd stormed out of the gates this season, piling up 63 points in Notre Dame’s first three games, wins over UNC Wilmington (19 points), No. 19/18 Michigan State (22 points) and Valparaiso (22 points).
Loyd’s point production was the highest for a Fighting Irish player in the opening three contests of a season since 1998-99, when Danielle Green had 66 combined points in wins against No. 6 UCLA at home (23 points), at Butler (23) and No. 6/4 Duke at home (20).
Notre Dame’s 1,000-Point Scorers
Senior tri-captains Kayla McBride and Natalie Achonwa will spend their final season at Notre Dame steadily climbing the program’s all-time scoring list, after both entered the Fighting Irish 1,000-Point Club last year.
McBride currently ranks 16th in program history with 1,405 career points, having passed Shari Matvey (1,373 points from 1979-83) with her 18-point outing against South Dakota State on Jan. 2.
Meanwhile, Achonwa stands 25th in Notre Dame history with 1,186 points, closing in on the next rung up the ladder, held by Krissi Davis (1,194 from 1987-91).
Coming Up Aces
Senior forward/tri-captains Natalie Achonwa (nicknamed “Ace”) also is making her way up Notre Dame’s career charts in both rebounds and double-doubles. She currently ranks ninth on the rebounding list (802) and is tied for eighth on the double-doubles chart (24), moving up one spot on the latter rundown with 15 points and 13 rebounds against Clemson on Sunday.
Achonwa continues to remain among the top 10 in school history with a .543 career field goal percentage, presently ranking ninth in program annals.
Youthful Leader
Freshman Lindsay Allen got the call from head coach Muffet McGraw to start at point guard in Notre Dame’s season opener against UNC Wilmington on Nov. 9 at Purcell Pavilion. Allen finished with 11 points in her debut game, including the team’s first five points of the season.
It was the first time a Fighting Irish rookie point guard started the season opener since Nov. 26, 1994, when Mollie Peirick cracked the lineup and played 38 minutes (two points, five rebounds, three assists) in a 65-60 overtime loss at No. 25 Seton Hall.
Allen has not disappointed in her debut campaign, averaging 8.7 points and 3.8 assists per game (the latter ranking 11th in the ACC). She also is fourth in the ACC with a 2.27 assist/turnover ratio and a .591 field goal percentage, and is just outside the top 15 in the conference with a team-high 1.69 steals per game.
The Second Platoon
Another reason for Notre Dame’s success this season has been the performance of its reserves, who are averaging 29 points per game and have outscored the opponent’s bench by better than a 2-to-1 margin (29.0 ppg. to 14.6 ppg.).
In fact, only three Fighting Irish opponents to date has finished with a bench scoring advantage against Notre Dame — No. 19/18 Michigan State (18-11 edge), No. 25 DePaul (33-32) and Clemson (13-4).
Sophomore guard Michaela Mabrey (9.1 ppg.) and freshman forward Taya Reimer (9.0 ppg.) head up the strong Notre Dame bench contingent, which has seen players score in double figures 11 different times, including six by Mabrey.
Call Her Mabrey
While the season is less than half over, certainly an early favorite as the nation’s most improved player would have to be Notre Dame sophomore guard Michaela Mabrey. The Belmar, N.J., resident has emerged as a key reserve for the Fighting Irish, averaging 9.1 points and 3.4 assists per game, while leading the ACC (and ranking 20th in the nation) with a 2.75 assist/turnover ratio, after logging 3.0 ppg. and 1.3 apg. with a 1.06 A/TO mark last year.
What’s more, Mabrey already has scored in double figures six times this year (including a career-high 19 points in the season opener against UNC Wilmington) after doing so three times in 30 games last season.
Next Game: Virginia
Notre Dame begins a three-game road swing at 2 p.m. (ET) Sunday when it travels to Charlottesville, Va., to take on ACC foe Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena. This will mark just the second time the Fighting Irish have visited the UVa campus, and the first since Jan. 4, 1988 (during head coach Muffet McGraw’s first season at Notre Dame), when the Cavaliers earned a 79-59 win.
— Chris Masters, Associate Athletic Media Relations Director