Dec. 6, 2006
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame had advice from Digger Phelps and an offensive reminder on their jerseys.
That one-two combo, coupled with a career-high 22 points by Breona Gray, helped the Irish overcome an 11-point deficit in the second half to beat 10th-ranked Purdue 67-58 Wednesday night.
“I just took the shots when I was open and I just felt confident,” Gray said.
Gray was 8-of-12 from the field and made a career-high four 3-pointers – the only 3-pointers the Irish had. Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said she decided to have the team wear the jerseys with green borders to remind her team to shoot 3s after going 1-of-14 in its last game.
It was the first time the Irish wore those jerseys in a home regular-season game.
But McGraw said the key to the victory was the Irish using a 1-3-1 defense that Phelps, Notre Dame’s longtime men’s coach, had taught her staff before practices started.
“We were talking that the 2-3 is good, but we wanted something else, so we talked about that,” she said. “I had a couple questions yesterday, so I called him, said we had put it in in practice. It looked pretty good. He was definitely kind of the master behind it.”
Purdue coach Sharon Versyp said the Boilermakers hadn’t practiced well, which has been a continuing problem.
“We haven’t played well for four games and you just can’t show up and play and not be prepared,” she said.
Purdue (7-2) led through most of the game, opening a 41-30 lead when Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton scored nearly eight minutes into the second half. The Irish (6-3), who shot 58 percent in the second half, answered with a 14-4 run to cut the lead to 45-44 when Tulyah Gaines scored inside on a pass from Gray.
“Late in the game, I thought they were a little unsure against the 1-3-1 and were able to really attack them,” McGraw said
Versyp said her team just didn’t play gritty enough.
“We weren’t as aggressive as we were in the first half, and I think that really set the tone,” she said.
Gray hit a 3-pointer with 2:59 left to give Notre Dame its first lead, 53-52. Katie Gearlds then threw up an air ball from 12 feet along the baseline and Purdue was called for its second shot-clock violation. The Irish extended the lead to 59-52 on a fast break basket with 1:17 left by Gaines, who finished with 20 points (16 in the second half).
Wisdom-Hylton and Gearlds led Purdue with 15 points each and Jodi Powell scored 11.
It was a sloppily played game by both teams. Notre Dame turned the ball over a season-high 23 times and Purdue had 20 turnovers – one shy of the season-high it had in its only other loss this season, 66-55 to No. 7 Connecticut last week. The Boilermakers made just 1 of 9 shots in the final four minutes.
Wisdom-Hylton said the Boilermakers weren’t ready for the game.
“We came off a pretty good win the other night, and then we just kind of weren’t really focused and we weren’t concentrating as hard and going at it in practice like we needed to,” she said. “We kind of faded at the end.”
— ND —
POST GAME NOTES: Notre Dame’s last win over a ranked opponent (and a top-10 foe) came on Jan. 17, 2006 (78-75 vs. DePaul at the Joyce Center) … the Irish have defeated 41 ranked opponents in the past eight-plus seasons, with nearly half of those wins (20) coming against top-10 opponents … Wednesday’s victory was the 550th for Notre Dame as a Division I member (1980-81 to present), as well as the program’s 599th overall win in its 799th all-time game during its 30th season … the Irish have won four of the past five games vs. Purdue at the Joyce Center … Notre Dame held Purdue to its lowest point total ever in the series, topping a 73-60 Irish win on March 15, 1996 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Lubbock, Texas (Notre Dame’s first-ever NCAA Tournament victory) … the Irish defeated their highest-ranked Purdue squad since April 1, 2001, when Notre Dame downed the No, 9/8 Boilers, 68-66 in the NCAA national championship game at the Savvis Center in St. Louis … the Irish have defeated 14 of their last 16 in-state opponents, with their only losses coming to Purdue (Jan. 2003) and Indiana (Dec. 2006) … the Purdue win was the second this season for the Irish when rallying from a double-digit deficit — they trailed by 13 points in the first half vs. Bowling Green on Nov. 13, but came back to defeat the Falcons in overtime, 85-81 at the Joyce Center … Notre Dame was charged with a season-high 23 turnovers, its second consecutive 20-plus giveaway game after putting together a 19-game streak of sub-20 turnover efforts dating back to the middle of last season … the Irish notched double-digit steals (14) for the seventh time in nine games this year … Notre Dame shot better than 80 percent from the free throw line for sixth time in nine games this year, having gone 25-of-28 (.893) from the stripe in their last two games … the Irish have outrebounded their last two opponents by a combined +23 margin … Notre Dame is 4-0 this year when shooting 45 percent or better from the floor … the Irish had two 20-point scorers in the same game for the second time this year — Tulyah Gaines had 25 and Charel Allen had 21 vs. Bowling Green on Nov. 13 … Breona Gray’s previous career scoring high was 17 points vs. Syracuse (Jan. 5, 2005) and she had made a career-high two three-pointers on eight different occasions (most recently vs. Western Michigan on Nov. 19, 2006) … Gray’s seven rebounds also were one off her career high (eight vs. USC on Nov. 27, 2005) … Tulyah Gaines posted her second 20-point game of the year after coming in with a career high of 14 points and just five double-figure scoring games in her career … Charel Allen was held to single-digit scoring for the first time all season, but contributed in other ways, including a career-high five assists (previous: four on three times, last vs. Providence on Feb. 4, 2006) … Notre Dame debuted new alternate home uniforms (white with green trim and blue lettering), marking the first time the Irish had ever played a regular-season home game with green on their uniforms — they did sport all green jerseys for their NCAA Tournament openers in 2000 (vs. San Diego) and 2001 (vs. Alcorn State), both of which were played at the Joyce Center and both of which took place on St. Patrick’s Day.