Halloween Exhibtion Hoops With Lake Superior State

Oct. 30, 2006

Complete Game Notes (PDF)

2006-07 ND Women’s Basketball: Exhibition 1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (0-0 / 0-0 BIG EAST) vs. Lake Superior State Lakers (0-0 / 0-0 GLIAC)

Storylines

• Notre Dame has won 19 consecutive exhibition games and is 24-1 in preseason contests dating back to the start of the 1993-94 season.
• Tuesday’s game will mark the earliest women’s basketball game ever played at Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame women’s basketball team tips off its 30th anniversary season Tuesday night when the Irish take on NCAA Division II member Lake Superior State in the first of two exhibition games prior to the start of the 2006-07 regular season. The Halloween night contest, which will start at 7 p.m. (ET) inside the Joyce Center, marks Notre Dame’s third consecutive preseason tilt against a Division II member, following last year’s wins over Indianapolis and Ferris State.

Notre Dame returns eight monogram winners and three starters from its 2005-06 squad that went 18-12 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the 11th consecutive season (and 13th time in program history). The Irish also will mix in a group of four talented freshmen, who comprise the nation’s No. 21 recruiting class, as noted by All-Star Girls Report.

Like Notre Dame, Lake Superior State will open its ’06-07 season Tuesday night. The Lakers went 21-8 last year, earning their fifth consecutive berth in the NCAA Division II Tournament.

Rankings

• Notre Dame is not ranked.
• Lake Superior State is not ranked.

Web Sites

• Notre Dame: http://www.und.com
• Lake Superior St.: http://www.lssulakers.com
• BIG EAST: http://www.bigeast.org
• GLIAC: http://www.gliac.org

Setting The Standard Under the guidance of 20th-year head coach Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame has evolved into one of the country’s leading women’s basketball powers. The Irish have appeared in 13 NCAA Tournaments (including a current streak of 11 in a row) and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 six times in the previous 10 years. Notre Dame also has reached the NCAA Women’s Final Four twice, winning college basketball’s ultimate prize with the 2001 national championship.

In its history, Notre Dame has developed eight All-Americans, nine WNBA players (including six draft picks in the past six years) and four USA Basketball veterans (eight medals won). Now in their 30th season in 2006-07, the Irish own an all-time record of 593-266 (.690).

Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw

• Saint Joseph’s ’77
• 20th season at Notre Dame
• 429-167 (.720) at Notre Dame.
• 517-208 (.713) in 25 years as head coach.

NOTES

• 2001 consensus National Coach of the Year
• Four-time Naismith Coach of the Year finalist
• Four-time conference Coach of the Year
• BIG EAST Conference (2001)
• Midwestern Collegiate Conference (1991)
• North Star Conference (1988)
• East Coast Conference (@ Lehigh) (1983)

A Quick Look At The Fighting Irish
A large majority of college basketball programs would be pleased with an 18-12 record and an 11th consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. Then again, those programs aren’t Notre Dame.

The Irish players and coaches alike feel dissatisfied with last season’s performance, which started well with a 9-2 non-conference record and a top-15 national ranking, but ended with an NCAA first-round loss to Boston College.

Along the way, Notre Dame also posted an 8-8 record in the rugged BIG EAST Conference, collected three victories over ranked opponents, and won the Duel in the Desert in Las Vegas with a convincing victory over eventual NCAA regional finalist Utah (68-55).

The Irish know they will face a host of challenges in 2006-07, with hurdles that include replacing All-America point guard Megan Duffy, tackling a schedule that features 16 postseason qualifiers (and 11 NCAA Tournament participants), and most recently, dealing with the season-ending knee injury to sophomore guard Lindsay Schrader.

The Bartlett, Ill., product was slated to be Notre Dame’s top returning scorer this season, having carded 10.5 points and a team-high 5.4 rebounds per game during her rookie campaign.

However, this year’s Irish squad already may be living up to the phrase “expect the unexpected.” When many outside observers dismissed Notre Dame’s chances, the players and coaches have pulled even closer, with team chemistry and cohesion becoming the single greatest strength the Irish will possess in 2006-07. In fact, between seven other returning monogram winners and four other players with significant starting experience, not to mention four talented freshmen, those who want to write off Notre Dame before the season even starts may do so at their peril.

unior guard Charel Allen (8.5 ppg., 4.3 rpg.) takes over as the top returning scorer for the Irish. The Monessen, Pa., resident spent much of last season working her way back to 100 percent after a March 2005 knee injury, saving her strongest efforts for the final month of the season, averaging 9.9 points and 4.5 rebounds in the season’s last 11 games.

Allen’s backcourt mate and fellow junior, Tulyah Gaines (4.9 ppg., 3.2 rpg., 1.7 apg.), assumes the mantle of court leadership for Notre Dame as both a team co-captain and the new starting point guard. Like her classmate, Gaines was very sharp down the stretch in 2005-06, averaging 8.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game with a 2.2 assist/turnover ratio in the final six games of the year.

A third junior, center Melissa D’Amico, will seek to anchor the Irish post game. Standing 6-foot-5, the Manorville, N.Y., native started 17 times last season, averaging 5.9 points and 3.7 rebounds per game, while ranking eighth in the BIG EAST in blocked shots (1.17 bpg.). She also owned a solid .468 field goal percentage and named the MVP of the Duel in the Desert (and subsequently the BIG EAST Player of the Week) after collecting 16.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game with an .824 field goal percentage in the two-game tourney.

Complementing the Notre Dame veterans is a freshman class that was ranked 21st in the nation by All-Star Girls Report. Guards Melissa Lechlitner and Ashley Barlow finished second and third, respectively, in the 2006 Indiana Miss Basketball voting, with Barlow winning MVP honors for the 2006 Indiana-Kentucky All-Star Series after scoring 20.0 points per game. Meanwhile, 6-3 forward Danielle Ben-Tsvulun is a two-time all-area pick out of Fort Wayne, Ind., while 6-4 center Erica Williamson averaged a double-double (10.0 ppg., 10.4 rpg.) in her final two prep seasons, winning state titles in two different states during that time.

Potent Notables About The Irish

• Notre Dame is among the nation’s winningest programs during the past decade (1996-97 to 2005-06), ranking seventh with 247 victories in that span.

• Notre Dame’s incoming freshman class was ranked 21st in the nation by All-Star Girls Report, marking the 10th consecutive season that the Irish have had a top-25 recruiting class. Notre Dame is one of only three schools (along with Connecticut and Tennessee) to have an active streak of that length.

• Notre Dame was ranked 11th in the nation in attendance in 2005-06 (6,601 fans per game), marking the sixth consecutive season the Irish have ranked among the national top 20 in attendance. Notre Dame also has attracted 5,000-or-more fans to 78 of its last 80 home games, including three Joyce Center sellouts of 11,418 (most recently on Dec. 31, 2005 vs. Tennessee).

• For the sixth time in school history, Notre Dame has been selected to host NCAA Tournament action, as the Joyce Center will be the site of NCAA Tournament first- and second-round games in 2010. In four of the five previous instances, Notre Dame was involved in NCAA Tournament play, going 6-1 all-time and advancing to the NCAA Sweet 16 three times (2000, 2001, 2004), with only a first-round loss to Minnesota in 1994 blotting the resume. Notre Dame also hosted the 1983 NCAA Mideast Regional at the Joyce Center, with Georgia defeating Tennessee, 67-63 in the regional final.

• The Irish have become a regular fixture in the WNBA Draft in recent years, as six Notre Dame players have been selected in the past six seasons. All-America guard Megan Duffy was the most recent Irish player to be chosen, going to the Minnesota Lynx in the third round (31st overall pick) of the 2006 WNBA Draft. Other active Notre Dame players in the WNBA during the 2006 season included Ruth Riley and Jacqueline Batteast (league champion Detroit Shock), while Niele Ivey sat out this year as a free agent, rehabilitating an injury after previously playing with Indiana, Detroit and Phoenix. Riley’s WNBA title with Detroit was her second (she was the 2003 WNBA Finals MVP), while Batteast earned her first pro crown this year.

• Notre Dame has been an elite program in the classroom as well. The Irish posted a perfect 100-percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR), according to figures released by the NCAA in October 2006. Notre Dame was one of 16 Division I-A programs to achieve this distinction, and one of only two BIG EAST programs (Syracuse is the other). Furthermore, since Muffet McGraw became the Irish head coach in 1987, every Notre Dame women’s basketball player that has completed her athletic and academic eligibility at the University has graduated.

A Quick Look At Lake Superior State
Fresh off its fifth consecutive trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament, Lake Superior State will look to build upon a 21-8 record behind four returning starters and nine veteran letterwinners. In fact, on a team loaded with experience, about the only inexperienced person will be the head coach, as Jamie Pewinski makes her debut at the Lakers’ helm Tuesday night against Notre Dame. However, Pewinski’s inexperience is solely limited to occupying the first chair, after she spent the previous seven seasons as an assistant at LSSU – and even then, she coached two games in place of her predecessor, Kris Dunbar, when the latter gave birth midway through the 2003-04 season.

The one departure in the Lakers’ starting lineup is a big one, literally and figuratively, as first-team all-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) center Becky Marquardt-King led the league in scoring (18.8 ppg.) and paced the country in field goal percentage (.711). Yet, the cupboard hardly is bare for Lake Superior State, as three other double-digit scorers are back in the fold.

Senior forward Mandi Johnson was a first-team all-GLIAC and all-conference defensive team selection last season after averaging 13.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and a league-high 3.2 steals per game. Sophomore center Jaclyn Armstrong was the 2006 GLIAC Freshman of the Year following a rookie campaign that saw her collect 10.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per night. And, senior guard Monica Rehmann is back to run a potent Laker offense, having carded 12.7 points and 3.6 assists per game with a team-best 47 three-pointers (and a .356 three-point percentage) a season ago.

Lake Superior State last faced a Division I opponent on Dec. 20, 2004, when the Lakers dropped a hard-fought 89-80 decision to Division I independent (and transitional member) North Dakota State at the Disney Classic in Orlando, Fla. Rehmann (15 points) and Johnson (11 rebounds) were among the LSSU veterans who played in that contest.

The Notre Dame-Lake Superior St. Series
Tuesday will mark the first time Notre Dame and Lake Superior State have ever faced one another on the hardwood.

Other Notre Dame-Lake Superior StateSeries Tidbits

• Lake Superior State is the second consecutive GLIAC opponent for Notre Dame in exhibition play. The Irish defeated Ferris State, 96-45, on Nov. 10, 2005, at the Joyce Center. Guard Lindsay Schrader tallied 19 points, center Melissa D’Amico scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while senior forward Crystal Erwin chipped in with 12 points for Notre Dame. The Irish will face a third consecutive GLIAC member on Nov. 5, when Northwood comes to the Joyce Center for Notre Dame’s second and final exhibition game of the 2006-07 season.

• While Notre Dame and Lake Superior State may be unfamiliar foes on the basketball court, they are regular combatants on the ice as members of the Division I Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). The Irish and Lakers have faced off at least twice annually since Notre Dame rejoined the CCHA in 1992-93 – LSSU leads the overall series between the programs 23-17-4, with this year’s two-game set scheduled for Jan. 12-13 in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

• Second-year Notre Dame hockey head coach
  Jeff Jackson spent six seasons as the skipper at Lake Superior State, guiding the Lakers to three consecutive NCAA finals appearances (1992-94), winning national championships in 1992 and 1994.

Jackson posted a staggering 182-52-25 (.751) record during his tenure on Michigan’s Upper Penninsula. He also served as Director of Athletics at LSSU from 1993-96, and still remains the winningest active Division I coach in NCAA history with a .713 winning percentage and recently won his 200th career game when the Irish downed Air Force, 2-0 to win the inaugural Lightning College Hockey Classic in Tampa, Fla.

• Notre Dame hockey associate head coach
  Paul Pooley filled a similar role on Jackson’s staff at Lake Superior State from 1992-94.

• Notre Dame hockey equipment manager Dave
  Gilbert is a 1996 graduate of Lake Superior State and played for Jackson as a walk-on goaltender on the Lakers’ 1991-92 national championship squad. After spending his final four seasons as an undergraduate student equipment manager, Gilbert remained at the school for two more years (1996-98) as head equipment manager for the entire LSSU athletic department.

Exhibition Excellence For Irish
Notre Dame has been nearly unbeatable in exhibition games during the past 13 seasons. Since the 1993-94 campaign, the Irish are 24-1 (.960) in these preseason tilts and own an active 19-game exhibition winning streak. During that time, Notre Dame has outscored its preseason opponents by an aggregate score of 2,173-1,531, which is good for an average score of 87-61. The last squad to defeat the Irish in exhibition play was the Lithuanian National Team, which edged Notre Dame, 94-89 in 1996-97. But the Irish were not fazed by that loss they went on to reach their first NCAA Final Four that year.