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.