Dec. 11, 2004
By TOM COYNE
AP Sports Writer
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – Notre Dame’s one-two inside punch of Crystal Erwin and Jacqueline Batteast was just too much for Washington.
Erwin was 9-of-9 from the field for a career-high 24 points and Jacqueline Batteast had 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead seventh-ranked Notre Dame to a 72-58 victory Saturday over the Huskies.
“The way to win is to score on the block,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. “You need to build the offense from the inside out.”
The Irish did that, outscoring the Huskies 42-22 in the paint and outrebounding Washington 38-28.
“The difference in the game was points in the paint,” Washington coach June Daugherty said. “They kept pounding it in there.”
The Irish (9-1) opened the game by hitting their first five shots and were in control throughout, shooting 60 percent while holding the Huskies (4-4) to 34 percent.
The Huskies simply couldn’t stop Erwin, as she became the first player to shoot 9-for-9 at the Joyce Center in 18 years. She scored on fast-break layups, in traffic in the lane and even had one remarkably easy basket. After she fell in the offensive end, the play went to the other basket. Megan Duffy had a steal and passed it back down the court to the wide-open Erwin for the layup.
Erwin said the Huskies were physical.
“I enjoyed it,” she said. “I was just trying to work hard.”
Kayla Burt was the only Washington player in double figures with 16 points. Daugherty said Burt is continuing to get closer to the level of play she was at before she went into cardiac arrest on New Year’s Eve 2002.
“Every day she is getting better,” Daugherty said. “She’s not quite back to where she was, but I keep seeing her get dangerously close to being that player again.”
The Irish led 36-25 at halftime, but had trouble putting the Huskies away. The Huskies closed to 39-34 when Cameo Hicks scored on a layup three minutes into the second half. The Irish led only 58-51 when Hicks scored with 7:56 left.
But Erwin scored inside two straight times, blowing past Maggie O’Hara along the baseline for a layup on the second basket to ignite a 14-2 run that put the game away.
“We were talking about getting it inside and we did a good job of that,” McGraw said.
Duffy had a career-high 10 assists for the Irish, breaking the mark of nine assists she had against Washington a year ago. Breona Gray added 11 points for the Irish.
— ND —
POST GAME NOTES: Notre Dame takes a 2-1 series lead over Washington, in what was the Huskies’ first-ever visit to South Bend … the Irish also continue their recent success against Pac-10 opponents, winning for the 13th time in the past 15 games against teams from that league (2-0 this year with a Nov. 26 win at USC) … Notre Dame shot a season-best .604 from the floor (29-for-48), the best single-game shooting percentage by an Irish team since Feb. 27, 2001 (.635 at Pittsburgh) … Notre Dame’s first five baskets came from five different starters and the Irish starting lineup combined to shoot .700 (28-for-40) from the field … Notre Dame’s 25 assists on 29 field goals (.862) is the best assist percentage in a game for the Irish since Jan. 2, 2000, when Notre Dame had 26 assists on 29 baskets (.897) in a 75-60 win over Marquette … The Irish are 9-1 after 10 games for the third time in school history — the others were 1998-99 (9-1) and 2000-01 (10-0) … Notre Dame had four double-figure scorers for the fourth time this season, but first since they did so in each of their first three games (vs. Illinois State, Nebraska and #6 Duke) … with her 9-for-9 shooting performance, sophomore forward Crystal Erwin tied an 18-year-old Joyce Center record previously set by Sandy Botham vs. Evansville on Feb. 28, 1986; the only Irish player with a better shooting night than Erwin and Botham was Karen Robinson, who went 12-for-12 on the road at Saint Louis on Jan. 14, 1989 … Erwin finished with a career-high 24 points, breaking the freshly-minted mark of 20 points she set nine days ago on Dec. 2 in an overtime loss to then-#15 Michigan State … Erwin also plucked a career-best seven rebounds, one more than her previous high which she had done twice before (most recently on Thursday night at Dayton) … junior guard Megan Duffy dished out a career-high 10 assists, breaking her personal standard of nine assists which she set in last year’s game at Washington (Dec. 7, 2003) … Duffy also is the first Irish player to record 10 assists in a game since Niele Ivey also had 10 handouts vs. Connecticut on Jan. 15, 2001 at the Joyce Center … senior All-America forward Jacqueline Batteast notched her second double-double of the season (34th of her career) with 17 points and a game-high 10 rebounds … with Saturday’s victory, Irish head coach Muffet McGraw has tied Digger Phelps for the most wins ever by a Notre Dame basketball coach (men’s or women’s); McGraw has a career record of 393-150 (.724) in 18 seasons at Notre Dame, while Phelps posted a 393-197 (.666) mark in 20 seasons (1971-91) as the Irish men’s basketball coach … Notre Dame’s next game is Sunday, Dec. 19 at Marquette, with a 1 p.m. (CT) tipoff time — that’s a different time than all previously released Irish schedules had listed; the change was necessitated by the NFL’s decision to move the Green Bay Packers’ home game vs. Jacksonville to a late afternoon kickoff for television.