December 21, 1996

Strong Second Half Leads Notre Dame Past Valparaiso

VALAPARAISO, Ind. — The 16th-ranked Notre Dame women’sbasketball team rallied from a five-point halftime deficit and used a29-7 run in the final 10:16 of the contest to defeat Valparaiso on theroad, 75-56. It was the 12th straight victory for the Irish over theCrusaders.

Notre Dame, which improved to 9-3, shot 72.0 percent in the second halfand 51.7 percent for the game despite having several players in foultrouble. The Irish were led by Beth Morgan, Rosanne Bohman and KatrynaGaither, who each had 13 points in the contest. Also in double figureswere Mollie Peirick and Sheila McMillen, who scored 11 and 10 points,respectively.

With the score tied 49-49 following a Peirick three-pointer with 10:16left in the game, Notre Dame outscored the Crusaders 19-4 to take a68-53 lead with 3:54 remaining in the contest.

Gaither played only 21 minutes in the game after sitting out most ofthe second half because of foul trouble. Her 13 points were a season-low andmarked only the fourth time this season that she failed to score 20 or morepoints in a game.

Valparaiso, 5-4, was led by freshmen Sarrah Stricklett and ShantilRobinson, who had 16 and 13 points, respectively.

The Crusaders were outrebounded 46-35 in the game and shot only 34.4percent from the field. Notre Dame committed 20 turnovers and waswhistled for 22 fouls.

Today’s contest was the final one for the Irish who do not play againuntil a Jan. 2 meeting against Big East foe Seton Hall.

NOTRE DAME (75)                      fg    ft    rb               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tpMorgan          33  4-14   5-7   1-5  2  0   13Bohman          21   5-8   3-4   2-7  2  4   13Gaither         21   6-8   1-3   2-6  1  4   13Augustin        23   4-5   1-2   0-2  6  3    9Mcmillen        31   3-7   2-2   2-5  2  2   10Peirick         28   5-7   0-1   0-6  1  3   11Jordan          10   0-1   0-0   0-1  1  1    0Ervin           13   0-1   0-0   0-4  0  1    0Henderson       20   3-7   0-0   5-7  2  4    6_______________________________________________TOTALS         200 30-58 12-19 12-43 17 22   75_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.517, FT-.632. 3-Point Goals:3-7, .429 (Morgan 0-2, Mcmillen 2-4, Peirick1-1). Team rebounds: 46. Blocked shots: 7(Gaither 3, Bohman 2, Morgan, Augustin).Turnovers: 20 (Peirick 6, Morgan 4, Ervin 3,Henderson 3, Bohman 2, Gaither, Mcmillen).Steals: 11 (Augustin 4, Morgan 2, Peirick 2,Bohman, Henderson, Mcmillen).VALPARAISO (56)                      fg    ft    rb               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tpGoldman         24   0-3   0-0   2-7  0  0    0Stover          22  2-10   0-2   2-3  5  3    6Stricklett      31   6-7   4-6  5-10  1  4   16Foreman         22   3-5   0-0   0-2  2  2    7Robinson        27  6-16   1-3   1-1  0  3   13Drabicki        28   1-7   2-3   0-2  2  3    5Lenschow        22   1-7   0-1   0-2  1  1    2Wickham         22   2-6   3-4   2-3  0  2    7Nduwayo          2   0-0   0-0   1-1  0  0    0_______________________________________________TOTALS         200 21-61 10-19 13-31 11 18   56_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.344, FT-.526. 3-Point Goals:4-20, .200 (Stover 2-6, Foreman 1-3, Robinson0-3, Drabicki 1-4, Lenschow 0-4). Team rebounds:35. Blocked shots: 2 (Goldman, Robinson).Turnovers: 18 (Robinson 6, Foreman 3, Stover 3,Drabicki 2, Stricklett 2, Goldman, Wickham).Steals: 11 (Robinson 3, Stricklett 3, Drabicki 2,Foreman 2, Wickham).__________________________________Notre Dame         25   50  -   75Valparaiso         30   26  -   56__________________________________Technical fouls: None.  A: 1,117. Officials:Lanny Rossman, Ron Hoover, Mark Braden.