Sophomore guard Madison Cable scored a career-high 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting (including 3-of-4 from three-point range) in Notre Dame's 100-39 win over Alabama A&M on Wednesday at the World Vision Classic in Las Vegas.

#5 Irish Meet Kansas State Thursday In Las Vegas

Dec. 19, 2012

Supplemental Game NotesGet Acrobat Reader | World Vision Classic Tournament Page

2012-13 ND Women’s Basketball: Game 9

World Vision Classic — Second Round
#5/5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (7-1 / 0-0 BIG EAST) vs. Kansas State Wildcats (7-2 / 0-0 Big 12)

DATE: December 20, 2012
TIME: 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT
AT: Las Vegas, Nev. – Cox Pavilion (2,500)
SERIES: ND leads 1-0
LAST MTG: ND 59-53 (3/25/03)
VIDEO: basketballtravelers.com (live)
RADIO: Pulse FM (96.9/92.1) / UND.com (live) (Bob Nagle, p-b-p)
LIVE STATS:
TWITTER: @ndwbbsid

Storylines

  • In the past five seasons (2008-09 to present), Notre Dame is 29-9 (.763) when playing on one day’s rest or less.
  • The Fighting Irish have won 11 consecutive games in tournaments presented by Seattle-based Basketball Travelers, Inc., a run that began in Las Vegas with a pair of victories at the 2005 Duel in the Desert.

No. 5 Fighting Irish Meet Kansas State On Second Day Of World Vision Classic
After adding a new entry in the school’s record book, No. 5 Notre Dame continues play at the World Vision Classic when it takes on Kansas State at 6 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT) Thursday at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas. The game will be streamed live on the official Basketball Travelers tournament web page (visit basketballtravelers.com for details), while live audio and stats will be available through the official Notre Dame athletics web site, UND.com.

Playing for the first time in 11 days after its final exam break, Notre Dame (7-1) led virtually from start to finish in Wednesday’s 100-39 win over Alabama A&M in the first round of the World Vision Classic. The Fighting Irish used an 18-4 run midway through the first half to take command and then held the Lady Bulldogs to one field goal during the final 16:04 of the game en route to its second consecutive 100-point game (a first in the 36-year history of the Fighting Irish women’s basketball program).

Junior guard Kayla McBride led five Notre Dame players in double figures with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while senior guard Skylar Diggins and sophomore guard Whitney Holloway each added 15 points (the latter being a career high). Holloway’s classmate, Madison Cable, also posted a career scoring high with 13 points (including 3-of-4 three-pointers), while junior forward Ariel Braker continued her remarkable improvement this season with 12 points (her fourth double-digit game in six outings as a starter). Sophomore forward Markisha Wright also sparkled in a reserve role with a career-best 14 rebounds, posting her second double-figure rebounding effort in as many games.

Rankings

  • Notre Dame is ranked No. 5 in this week’s Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today polls.
  • Kansas State is not ranked.

Scouting Kansas State
Kansas State has six letterwinners, including two starters returning from last year’s club that posted a 20-14 record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championship before being eliminated by eventual NCAA Women’s Final Four participant (and Notre Dame’s fellow BIG EAST Conference member) Connecticut.

The Wildcats (7-2) opened their season with seven consecutive wins, but enter Thursday’s contest on a two-game losing streak, falling at home to UTEP, 52-50 on Sunday before Wednesday’s 83-60 setback against No. 22 Texas A&M in the first round of the World Vision Classic. In that most recent outing against TAMU, freshman guard Haley Texada scored a season-high 19 points and junior guard Brittany Chambers made a rare reserve appearance (due to a high ankle sprain suffered early in the UTEP loss) and scored 15 points off the bench for K-State, which played the Aggies close for the majority of the first half behind 5-of-9 three-point shooting, but Texas A&M pulled away just before halftime and continued to widen its lead throughout the second half.

Chambers has been Kansas State’s talisman throughout her career, particularly this season, as she leads the Wildcats in scoring (18.1 ppg.), rebounding (7.2 rpg.), field goal percentage (.488) and three-point percentage (.407). Meanwhile, Texada is second on the KSU roster in scoring (13.0 ppg.), field goal percentage (.453) and three-point percentage (.364).

Head coach Deb Patterson is in her 17th season at Kansas State with a 327-191 (.631) career record, including an 0-1 mark against Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame-Kansas State Series
Notre Dame and Kansas State will be playing for just the second time, and the first in the regular season. The Fighting Irish won the only prior matchup between the two programs, 59-53 on March 25, 2003, in an NCAA Championship East Region second-round game at Manhattan, Kan.

The Last Time Notre Dame and Kansas State Met
Notre Dame did it again — another upset on another opponent’s home court in the NCAA tournament.

Credit a defense called “The Storm.”

The 11th-seeded (but unranked) Fighting Irish got 17 points from Le’Tania Severe and used an active matchup zone to beat No. 3 seed (and No. 8/7-ranked) Kansas State 59-53 on March 25, 2003, in the second round of the NCAA East Regional at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kan.

Notre Dame shut down a team that had been averaging 75 points a game and advanced to the round of 16 for the fifth time in seven years.

“Regardless of what (defense) we were in, we knew we just had to get out on the shooters and make sure we didn’t give them any easy shots,” Severe said. “I didn’t realize we confused them, but I thought we did a great job on defense. We did what we practiced and it worked out for us.”

Notre Dame had not used that particular defense since early January and brought it out at just the right time. Even with its potent offense, Kansas State couldn’t recover after going 12:44 without a field goal and had a 22-game home winning streak broken.

“It was a good change of pace for us,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. “It enabled us to get out a little better on their shooters and also be able to double-team inside. We call it `The Storm’ because we put a lot of pressure on the ball and try to be real aggressive in it.”

The Fighting Irish were too aggressive for Kansas State, which shot 33 percent and was 9-for-30 from three-point range.

“I thought for whatever reason that mentally we really froze,” Kansas State coach Deb Patterson said. “We were our own worst enemies a lot of possessions in the second half. I haven’t seen this team play like this all year. It snuck up and got us.”

Notre Dame took advantage of the Wildcats’ struggles to open a 45-38 lead on freshman Megan Duffy’s three-pointer with 7:45 left, just enough of a cushion to hold on down the stretch.

Duffy, who had been 5-for-30 from behind the arc coming in, had put Notre Dame ahead to stay at 35-32 with a three-pointer and made four of her team’s eight free throws in the final 1:01. Her reward was a trip to her hometown of Dayton, Ohio, for a regional semifinal game with Purdue.

Another freshman, Courtney LaVere, made two other free throws at the end.

“I was so pleased with the poise of our freshmen to step up and hit free throws like that,” McGraw said.

Kansas State, cheered on by a purple-clad crowd of 11,534, managed a late run, but Notre Dame kept making free throws every time the Wildcats got to within two points.

Nicole Ohlde’s layup with 28.2 seconds remaining left K-State trailing 55-53, but Duffy made two free throws to take the lead back to four. Kansas State’s last hopes ended when Chelsea Domenico missed a three-point shot and Jacqueline Batteast rebounded for Notre Dame. Severe then made two final free throws.

LaVere added 14 points for Notre Dame, Alicia Ratay scored 12 and Duffy 10. Laurie Koehn hit seven three-pointers and led Kansas State with 23 points. Ohlde scored 15.

Notre Dame, the 2001 national champion, had previously pulled off upsets on the home courts of higher seeded teams in 1997 and 1998. Thanks to their defense, the Fighting Irish did it again.

Kansas State recovered from a miserable start to take a 31-26 lead on Koehn’s three-pointer with 1:40 left in the first half. But the Wildcats did not make another basket until Koehn hit a three with 8:56 left in the game.

By that time, Notre Dame had built a 40-32 lead. Kansas State missed its first 11 shots of the second half and committed six turnovers in that stretch.

“A lot of this was us not getting in our spots and doing what we’re capable of doing,” Ohlde said. “You have to give them credit. They were aggressive and had their hands up all over the place.”

Other Notre Dame-Kansas State Series Tidbits

  • Kansas State is the only school from the Sunflower State that Notre Dame has faced in its 36-year history.
  • The Fighting Irish have had two players from the state of Kansas suit up during the program’s history. Topeka native and sharpshooting guard Jeneka Joyce (’05) was a valuable reserve on Notre Dame’s 2001 NCAA national championship team, while walk-on guard and Salina resident Anne Weese (’05) (first name pronounced Annie) transferred to the University in 2002 after two years at Seward County Community College and earned a monogram as a senior in 2003-04 after helping the Fighting Irish reach the NCAA East Regional semifinals (Sweet Sixteen).
  • The two head coaches in Thursday’s matchup have a similar career pedigree in that each was mentored by current Ohio State head coach Jim Foster. Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw spent two seasons (1980-82) as an assistant on Foster’s staff at Saint Joseph’s (Pa.) (also McGraw’s alma mater) before accepting her first head coaching position at Lehigh (1982-87) and paving the way for her Hall of Fame career under the Golden Dome. Meanwhile, Kansas State head coach Deb Patterson served as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator on Foster’s staff at Vanderbilt for four seasons (1992-96) before taking the reins at K-State in 1996.
  • KSU associate head coach Kamie Ethridge was also on Foster’s staff with Patterson during that time, spending five years (1991-96) in Nashville before taking her current post with the Wildcats.
  • Patterson should be familiar with another member of the Notre Dame coaching staff. From 1988-91, Patterson was the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Northern Illinois University, where she worked with a standout post player named Carol Owens (who is now in her 13th season on Muffet McGraw’s staff at Notre Dame, including her fourth as associate head coach). With Patterson helping tutor her, Owens was a two-time Kodak (now State Farm) Coaches’ All-District IV selection in 1989 and 1990, captaining the Huskies both seasons and helping lead NIU to a 26-5 record, a North Star Conference title (12-0 mark) and the school’s first-ever NCAA Championship berth in 1990. Owens graduated from NIU in 1990 as the first player (male or female) in school history to amass 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career, and she held 13 school records at the time of her graduation. Owens returned to her alma mater in 2005 and enjoyed a successful five-year tenure as the Huskies’ head coach, leading NIU to a .449 winning percentage (better than either of her two predecessors) and becoming just the second coach in program history (first in 28 years) to pilot the Huskies to double-digit wins each season she walked the sidelines in DeKalb.
  • Ethridge was a graduate assistant on the 1989-90 Northern Illinois team that was led by Owens.

Notre Dame vs. The Big 12 Conference
Notre Dame is 27-12 (.692) all-time against current Big 12 Conference members, including a 15-10 (.600) record away from home (road/neutral sites combined). The vast majority of those results have come against West Virginia, which the Fighting Irish played annually when the Mountaineers were members of the BIG EAST Conference from 1996-2012.

Thursday’s game against Kansas State will be Notre Dame’s second against a Big 12 opponent in a little more than two weeks. Back on Dec. 5, the Fighting Irish gave No. 3 Baylor all it could handle, leading the Lady Bears, 50-49 with less than five minutes remaining before BU rallied for a 73-61 win at Purcell Pavilion.

Take out West Virginia and the last time Notre Dame defeated a current Big 12 school was March 26, 2011, when the Fighting Irish toppled No. 21/20 Oklahoma, 78-53, in the NCAA Championship Dayton Regional semifinals (Sweet Sixteen) at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio. Current senior guard Skylar Diggins dished out a career-high 12 assists for Notre Dame, and current junior forward Natalie Achonwa nearly had a double-double (10 points, eight rebounds) in that victory.

Tournament Tested
Notre Dame has felt right at home in tournament situations during the past 17 years. Starting with the 1996-97 season, the Fighting Irish have won 32 of their last 36 regular-season tournament games (multi-game events only), including Wednesday’s World Vision Classic first-round win over Alabama A&M and runs to the title in four tournaments since 2009-10 — 2009 Paradise Jam (Island Division), 2010 WBCA Classic, 2010 State Farm Holiday Hoops Classic and 2011 Junkanoo Jam (Freeport Division).

The only Notre Dame losses during this current stretch were three defeats to teams ranked in the top three nationally during the Preseason WNIT semifinals (72-59 vs. No. 3/2 Tennessee at Ruston, La., in 1996; 75-59 at No. 3 Maryland in 2007) or championship (94-81 at No. 1 Baylor in 2011), and a 67-63 overtime setback at No. 20 Colorado on Nov. 15, 2003, in the finals of the WBCA Classic — a game that saw the Buffaloes sink a desperation 30-footer at the end of regulation to force the extra session.

Notre Dame is playing its only regular-season tournament of the 2012-13 campaign, while this marks the third time in four years the Fighting Irish have participated in an event sponsored by Seattle-based Basketball Travelers, Inc. (having previously won the 2009 Paradise Jam and 2011 Junkanoo Jam).

48 Hours
Since the start of the 2008-09 season, Notre Dame has played 38 times when it has had a short one-day break (or less) between games.

When faced with such a tight turnaround, the Fighting Irish have risen to the occasion in recent seasons, going 29-9 (.763) on the back half of these two-game (or more) blitzes during the past four years.

Notre Dame has already played on short rest once this season, defeating Mercer, 93-36, on Nov. 20 at Purcell Pavilion, two days after downing Massachusetts, 94-50, also in South Bend.

Game #8 Recap: Alabama A&M (World Vision Classic – First Round)
Notre Dame returned from a 10-day layoff and picked up right where it left off.

Kayla McBride scored 16 points to lead five teammates in double figures as the fifth-ranked Fighting Irish cruised to a 100-39 victory over Alabama A&M in the first round of the World Vision Classic on Wednesday at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas.

Notre Dame, off for exams since a 109-70 victory against Utah State on Dec. 8, reached triple digits in consecutive games for the first time in school history.

“I was really pleased with the way we shot the ball,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. “We had 10 days off between games, and we didn’t get to shoot on the court here before the game. I thought we’d be rusty, but I thought we looked pretty good. We only made 10 turnovers.

“You look at the layoff, and you think you’re not going to look sharp, but 26 assists and 10 turnovers, those were the most pleasing statistics.”

Skylar Diggins and Whitney Holloway had 15 points each for the Fighting Irish (7-1). Madison Cable added 13 points and Ariel Braker had 12.

“It’s funny, because when you’re not allowed to practice, you are allowed to shoot,” McGraw said. “Kayla McBride has done a lot of shooting over the past couple of weeks, and she really has looked good shooting the ball. Madison Cable, the same thing. She has gotten a lot of shots in.”

Jasmine Sanders scored 10 points for Alabama A&M (1-6).

“Their pressure got to us,” Alabama A&M coach Altherias Warmley said. “I thought that Notre Dame played a great 40-minute game. There were parts of the first half where we did well at making our reads and executing and doing some of the things that we wanted to, but at the end, we were worn down. They picked up the pressure in the second half.”

Notre Dame never trailed and was up 45-24 at halftime. McBride led the Fighting Irish with 14 points in the opening half while Natalie Achonwa had seven rebounds and four assists.

“My teammates have faith in me and they find me in open spots,” McBride said. “The 15-foot pull-up is my favorite shot. They know where to find me. They were making great assists, and I was able to make shots.”

In the second half, Holloway led all scorers with 13 points and scored the final basket of the game that gave the Fighting Irish their record. Her 15 points were a career best.

Kaila Turner (seven assists and seven steals) and Cable were also big in the backcourt for the Fighting Irish, who had 19 steals and committed just 10 turnovers while the Lady Bulldogs had four steals and 29 turnovers. Notre Dame also finished with a 37-9 edge in points off turnovers.

“I thought Whitney Holloway and Kaila Turner really played well,” McGraw said. “They found people open, they took the shots when they had them. I was pleased with their overall game.”

Cable, who scored nine points on three three-pointers near the midway point of the second half, returned to the lineup this season after missing the 2011-12 campaign due to a foot injury. Cable and Holloway led a Fighting Irish bench that had a 44-16 scoring advantage over the Lady Bulldogs.

“I had some great passes from Whitney and K.T. (Turner), so they did the hard part,” Cable said. “I just had open shots. They just found me.”

Markisha Wright was another Fighting Irish bench player with a career best, as she grabbed a team-high 14 rebounds, including 11 in the second half.

Beyond The Box Score: Alabama A&M

  • Notre Dame scores 100 points in consecutive games for the first time in school history.
  • The Fighting Irish reach triple digits at a neutral site for just the second time in school history, and first since Nov. 24, 1989 (a 113-35 win over Liberty in the first round of the UCF Rotary Classic in Orlando, Fla.).
  • The 61-point margin of victory is Notre Dame’s largest since Jan. 17, 2012 (a 120-44 win over Pittsburgh at Purcell Pavilion), and its largest at a neutral site since the aforementioned 78-point win over Liberty in 1989 at the UCF Rotary Classic in Orlando.
  • Notre Dame held Alabama A&M without a field goal for 11:25 in the second half (from Alyssa Strickland’s tip-in at the 16:04 mark until Ebony Johnson’s jumper with 4:39 left), with Johnson’s field goal being AAMU’s lone basket from the floor in the final 16-plus minutes of the game (1-15 FG, 7-10 FT in that 16:04 span).
  • The Fighting Irish are 32-4 (.889) in regular-season tournament games (multi-game events) during the past 17 seasons (1996-97 to present).
  • Notre Dame has won 10 consecutive games against first-time opponents, while improving to 34-3 (.919) against new foes since 2000-01 and 54-7 (.885) against first-time opponents since joining the BIG EAST Conference in 1995-96.
  • The Fighting Irish have topped 100 points in three of their last four games against new opposition and held seven of their last 10 new opponents to less than 50 points; during its current 10-game winning streak against first-time foes, Notre Dame has won by an average score of 95-43.
  • The Fighting Irish set season bests for fewest turnovers (previous was 11 against Mercer on Nov. 20), offensive rebounds (most since Dec. 28, 2011, when they had 30 against Longwood) and bench points (previous was 36 against Utah State on Dec. 8).
  • For the second consecutive game, the Fighting Irish had a season-high five players score in double figures, with Notre Dame improving to 58-4 (.935) in the past four seasons when they have at least four double-digit scorers, including an active 28-game winning streak.
  • Sophomore guards Madison Cable and Whitney Holloway both scored in double figures for the first time in their careers, meaning nine of the 11 players on this year’s Fighting Irish roster have reached double digits at least once this season, the lone exceptions being senior guard/tri-captain Kaila Turner (who has scored nine points twice so far in 2012-13) and freshman guard Hannah Huffman (who matched her career high with five points on Wednesday vs. Alabama A&M).
  • Including Huffman, several Notre Dame players set or tied career highs in one or more categories during Wednesday’s game — Holloway, Cable and Huffman did so in points, sophomore forward Markisha Wright in rebounds, junior forward Natalie Achonwa, Cable and Turner in assists, freshman guard Jewell Loyd in blocks, Turner and Holloway in steals, and Cable in field goals made/attempted and three-point field goals made/attempted.
  • Turner’s seven steals are the most by a Notre Dame player in a game since Nov. 11, 2011, when Fraderica Miller had seven thefts in a win over Akron in the first round of the Preseason WNIT at Purcell Pavilion.
  • The Fighting Irish had all 10 players in uniform (freshman guard Michaela Mabrey was out nursing an ankle injury) crack the scoring column for the second time this season, having also done so on Nov. 18 against Massachusetts (Cable missed that game with a sore foot).
  • Notre Dame has won 25 consecutive games coming off its final exam break (no games played between finals and Christmas in 1994 and 1997), a streak that dates back to Dec. 21, 1985 (a 73-67 loss to UCLA at Purcell Pavilion).
  • The Fighting Irish are 3-0 all-time in UNLV’s Cox Pavilion, having also won both games it played in the 2005 Duel in the Desert, also hosted by UNLV. In those three games (120 minutes of game action), Notre Dame has trailed for a grand total of 15 seconds, all on Dec. 18, 2005 (9:54-9:39 in second half when No. 22/21 Utah briefly took a one-point lead on Shona Thorburn’s layup before Notre Dame’s Crystal Erwin hit two free throws to put the Fighting Irish up for good in a 68-55 win).

Next Up: World Vision Classic (Final Round)
Notre Dame will wrap up its stay in Las Vegas on Friday with its final game at the World Vision Classic, with the time and opponent to be determined by the results of Thursday’s second-round action.

With a victory over Kansas State, the Fighting Irish would advance to the tournament championship game at 5:30 p.m. PT (8:30 p.m. ET) inside Cox Pavilion against the winner of Thursday’s semifinal between No. 22 Texas A&M and Old Dominion. Notre Dame is 0-2 all-time against TAMU, most recently dropping a 76-70 decision to the Aggies in the 2011 NCAA national championship game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse (then known as Conseco Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

The Fighting Irish are 1-5 all-time against ODU, with their last meeting against the Lady Monarchs coming on Jan. 2, 1994, at historic ODU Fieldhouse in Norfolk, Va. (with Old Dominion prevailing 76-67).

Should Notre Dame lose on Thursday against Kansas State, the Fighting Irish would likely face host UNLV at 12:30 p.m. PT (3:30 p.m. ET) in a consolation game at Cox Pavilion. It would be the first-ever meeting between Notre Dame and UNLV.

— ND —