March 13, 2017
By Leigh Torbin
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – For the third year in a row, Notre Dame’s Lindsay Allen has been named as one of five finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award, presented annually to the nation’s best point guard.
Showing the strength of the Atlantic Coast Conference which Notre Dame won in both the regular season and tournament, three of the five finalists play in the league. Allen is joined by Duke’s Lexie Brown and Syracuse’s Alexis Peterson along with Kelsey Mitchell of Ohio State and Kelsey Plum of Washington.
Allen has assaulted the Notre Dame and ACC record books as a senior. Allen’s 811 career assists are both the conference’s and the school’s career record. Her 252 assists this season are a Notre Dame record and stand second in ACC history. Allen’s 811 assists lead all active players nationally and are just 15 shy of cracking the top 25 in NCAA history. Allen is the first Notre Dame player in 30 years to post three 200-assist seasons in her career.
Allen set an ACC Tournament record by having 33 assists on the Irish road to the title, including an ACC Tournament record-tying 13 assists in the championship game win over Duke on March 5. Allen was named the tournament’s MVP after recording at least 10 assists in all three games ââ’¬” tying Notre Dame’s school record by having double-digit assists in three consecutive games.
With Allen running the point, Notre Dame stands third nationally in field goal percentage (.495) and fourth nationally in 3-point field goal percentage (.394). Allen herself ranks second in the nation this year in assists (252) and fourth for both assists per game (7.6) and assist to turnover ratio (3.55).
Not only has Allen never missed a start in her career, opening all 145 contests of her time at Notre Dame but, like a true leader, the point guard has made those around her better with the Irish posting a 136-9 (.938) record in those games. While Allen’s 145 total starts are a school record, her 145 consecutive starts streak is believed to be an NCAA record. Allen has played 4,404 minutes in her career, second in school history behind just the 4,639 minutes logged by two-time Lieberman Award recipient Skylar Diggins.
Additionally, Allen has 77 steals on the season and 223 in her Irish career, ranking ninth. She is 24th in school history with 1,267 points scored. Her 77 steals on the year rank 42nd nationally while her 1,129 minutes played this season (including nine 40-minute games) rank 36th in the nation.
She has helped guide the Irish to four consecutive outright ACC regular season and tournament titles, joining Duke (2001-04) as the only schools to accomplish that feat.
The second-ranked Irish (30-3) will find out their NCAA Championship draw tonight at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
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Leigh Torbin, athletics communications associate director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2013 and coordinates all media efforts for Notre Dame’s women’s basketball and men’s golf teams. A native of Framingham, Massachusetts, Torbin graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in sports management. He has previously worked full-time on the athletic communications staffs at Vanderbilt, Florida, Connecticut and UCF.