December 11, 1996
No. 10 Notre Dame Rallies To Beat Hoosiers
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The 10th-ranked Notre Dame women’s basketball team rallied from 13 points down in the second half for a 71-63 victory over in-state rival Indiana this evening. Senior All-Americans Beth Morgan and Katryna Gaither combined for 49 points in leading the Irish to the win.
Notre Dame, which lost to Wisconsin on Monday night, improved to 8-3, while the Hoosiers fell to 4-3.
Indiana led by four at the half (38-34) after shooting 51.7 percent from the field and hitting on seven of 13 three-pointers. The Hoosiers jumped out to the largest lead (49-36) of the game for either team when Sunday Watson nailed a three-pointer.
Following that basket, Notre Dame went on a 19-5 run over the next eight minutes to take a 55-54 lead, its first of the game, on a Gaither layup. Gaither then nailed a turnaround eight-foot jumper to extend the Irish lead to 57-54.
Tatjana Vesel, who led the Hoosiers with 19 points, nailed a three-pointer to tie the game at 57-57 with 6:44 left in the contest. Sheila McMillen, who made her first start of the season for Notre Dame, put the Irish up 59-57 with a driving layup and then Vesel’s fastbreak layup tiekd the score for the final time in the contest (59-59) with 5:22 left.
Notre Dame, which hit it last 12 free throws in the game, outscored Indiana 12-4 in the final 5:20 of the contest.
The Irish connected on 24 of 30 free throws for the game.
Notre Dame’s defense forced 25 Indiana turnovers. The Irish committed a season-low 12 turnovers in the game.
Indiana hit on a school-record 11 three-pointers. The Hoosiers had two other players in double figures as Dani Thrush and Kameelah Morgan finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
Gaither finished with 10 rebounds in the contest for her fifth double-double of the season. She also moved into second-place on the all-time Irish scoring list with 1611 points. Morgan is the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,808 points
Notre Dame will now take a 10-day break for final exams before returning to action on Saturday, December 21 at Valparaiso.
NOTRE DAME 71, INDIANA 63
INDIANA (63) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tpThrush 37 5-13 0-1 1-5 2 3 13Maines 25 0-2 1-2 0-5 1 2 1Barnes 35 3-9 1-3 3-11 1 4 7Green 28 1-3 0-0 0-1 8 2 3Vesel 18 8-14 0-0 0-2 2 4 19Morgan 18 4-8 2-2 0-1 1 3 12Watson 18 1-2 0-0 0-4 0 0 3Malone 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0Honegger 15 2-2 0-0 1-2 1 3 5Kerns 5 0-0 0-0 0-3 0 1 0_______________________________________________TOTALS 200 24-53 4-8 5-34 16 22 63_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.453, FT-.500. 3-Point Goals:11-25, .440 (Thrush 3-7, Green 1-3, Vesel 3-7,Morgan 2-5, Watson 1-2, Honegger 1-1). Teamrebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 4 (Barnes 3,Honegger). Turnovers: 25 (Green 6, Thrush 6,Barnes 3, Honegger 2, Maines 2, Morgan 2, Vesel2, Kerns, Watson). Steals: 2 (Honegger 2).NOTRE DAME (71) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tpMorgan 29 7-18 10-12 1-6 1 1 25Bohman 20 2-7 1-2 4-5 1 2 5Gaither 36 10-21 4-4 5-10 0 2 24Augustin 30 2-4 0-1 1-3 7 2 4Mcmillen 24 1-5 2-2 1-4 2 3 4Peirick 28 0-2 3-5 0-2 5 2 3Jordan 9 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0Henderson 12 0-2 0-0 1-3 0 2 0Hutchinson 12 1-2 4-4 0-3 1 0 6_______________________________________________TOTALS 200 23-61 24-30 13-36 17 14 71_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.377, FT-.800. 3-Point Goals:1-7, .143 (Morgan 1-6, Mcmillen 0-1). Teamrebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 1 (Gaither).Turnovers: 12 (Bohman 3, Augustin 2, Gaither 2,Henderson 2, Mcmillen, Morgan, Peirick). Steals:11 (Augustin 4, Gaither 4, Henderson, Morgan,Peirick).__________________________________Indiana 38 25 - 63Notre Dame 34 37 - 71__________________________________Technical fouls: None. A: 715. Officials: DeeKantner.