Jan. 16, 2008
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – Villanova coach Harry Perretta knew his team was in trouble when he saw that Notre Dame’s 6-foot-2 freshman forward Devereaux Peters was quicker than his guards.
“She’s everywhere,” Perretta said. “She takes up a lot of ground. She’s guarding our guards. She’s faster than our point guard. You have a little bit of trouble when the other team’s big kids are faster than your guards.”
Peters finished with a career-high 15 points, seven steals and three blocked shots, and No. 17 Notre Dame forced Villanova into a season-high 24 turnovers en route to a 69-58 victory Wednesday night.
Peters plays at the top of Notre Dame’s pressing defense and her primary job is to force bad passes.
“I really just want to make them throw it long so other people can get the steals. I don’t think it’s necessarily for me to get them,” she said.
Against Villanova, though, she was the one making the steals.
“She’s got great speed and can anticipate,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. “She gets a hand on a lot of balls.”
Peters entered the game at 15:47 of the first half, grabbed her first steal 20 seconds later and scored her first basket just 29 seconds after that.
“She made a big difference when she came in the game,” McGraw said. “She rebounded, she blocked some shots, she did some scoring. She did a lot of great things.”
The Irish (14-3, 2-1 Big East) went ahead 43-34 when Peters caught a pass inside from Tulyah Gaines and banked it in with 15:52 left. The Wildcats (11-6, 1-3) twice cut the lead to five points and had chances both times to cut it to three, but couldn’t do it.
The Irish extended the lead to 62-52 when Ashley Barlow, who led the Irish with 16 points, converted on a three-point play with 4:20 left, and went ahead 68-55 when Peters made a pair of free throws with 67 seconds left.
Charel Allen added 13 points for the Irish and Lindsay Schrader finished with 12. The Irish shot 54 percent for the game and were 17-of-18 from the free throw line. The Wildcats were just 3-of-4 from the line.
Laura Kurz, sister of Notre Dame men’s basketball captain Rob Kurz, led the Wildcats with 20 points. She said she was nervous playing in front of him and other family members.
“At one point I was looking in the rafters and saw his picture,” she said.
Stacie Witman had 14 points for Villanova, Lisa Karcic had 11 and Siobhan O’Connor added 10. The Wildcats hit five 3-pointers in a row in the first half to keep the game close.
The Irish had some trouble handling the ball as well, turning it over 19 times, one shy of their season high. McGraw, though, said she wasn’t concerned.
“I don’t think their the type of turnovers you worry about because they weren’t bad decisions,” she said.
— ND —
POST GAME NOTES: Notre Dame improves to 15-8 all-time against Villanova and wins back-to-back series games vs. the Wildcats for the first time since a series-long six-game winning streak from 1998-2000 … the Irish have scored 65+ points in their last three games against Villanova after failing to do so in the previous seven contests … Notre Dame has forced a combined total of 44 Villanova turnovers in its last two games against the Wildcats; VU came into Wednesday’s game leading the nation in fewest turnovers (11.2 per game) … in fact, Villanova’s 24 turnovers were its highest giveaway mark since Dec. 1, 2001, when the Wildcats had 26 turnovers in a 43-35 loss at Big 5 rival Temple … Notre Dame had at least four double-figure scorers for the ninth time in 17 games this season, improving to 9-0 in those contests … the Irish shot a season-best .944 (17-of-18) from the foul line, just missing the school record for free throw accuracy (18-of-18 at Valparaiso on Nov. 30, 2004); Notre Dame’s Joyce Center free throw record is .960 (24-of-25), set against Marquette on Dec. 1, 1993 … Notre Dame bounced back extremely well from a season-low .245 field goal percentage on Sunday at #16 West Virginia, with its .543 percentage against Villanova marking the seventh time this season the Irish have shot better than 50 percent from the floor (first since a .529 mark on Dec. 29 vs. Saint Francis-Pa.) … Notre Dame registered a season-low 25 rebounds, 10 fewer than its totals against No. 3 Maryland (Nov. 16) and No. 3 Tennessee (Jan. 5) … Villanova’s 21 rebounds are an Irish opponent season-low and the fewest for a Notre Dame foe since Jan. 4, 2006, when St. John’s also had 21 boards in a 66-63 upset win over the visiting Irish … Notre Dame notched at least 15 steals for the seventh time this season and first since collecting 18 thefts at Richmond on Jan. 2 … the Irish now had held 13 of their 17 opponents to fewer than 60 points, going 12-1 in those contests … freshman forward Devereaux Peters scored a season-high 15 points, one more than her total in the overtime win at Bowling Green on Dec. 5 … Peters also tallied a season-high seven steals, the most for an Irish player since Jan. 30, 2005, when Megan Duffy also had seven thefts in a 65-59 win at #9/10 Connecticut … in addition, Peters’ seven steals tie for the fifth-most by an Irish player in Joyce Center history, a mark most recently attained by Duffy, who had seven steals against Colorado State on Nov. 22, 2004 … senior guard Charel Allen moved into 13th place on the Notre Dame career scoring list with 1,296 points, passing former teammate Duffy, who had 1,290 points from 2002-06 … junior guard Lindsay Schrader had a perfect shooting night (5-5 FG, 2-2 FT) en route to her highest scoring night since a 17-point, 12-rebound effort on Dec. 5 at Bowling Green; yet it wasn’t Schrader’s best career shooting performance, as she went 6-of-6 from the field on Dec. 4, 2005 at Wisconsin.