Jan. 18, 1997

No. 21 Notre Dame Women Down Pittsburgh For Fifth Straight Win

NOTRE DAME, Ind. —- Notre Dame scored 31 unansweredpoints over a span of 13:21 as the 21st-ranked Irish postedtheir fifth straight win (longest of the season) en route to a69-45 victory over Pittsburgh.

The Irish defense held the Panthers to just one field goal inthe final 15:20 of the first half after Pittsburgh jumped out toa 14-2 advantage early in the first half.

Notre Dame, which improves 15-4, 7-0 in the BIG EAST, was led byBeth Morgan’s game-high 18 points. She led four Irish playersin double figures. Katyrna Gaither scored 15 points and grabbeda game-high nine rebounds, while Mollie Peirick added 11 andSheila McMillen scored 11 and 10 points, respectively. McMillenscored eight of her 10 points in the key first-half run thatgave the Irish the 21-point lead (39-18) at the half. Peirickalso finsihed with a season-high nine assists in the contest.

The Irish forced 32 Pittsburgh turnovers and forced the Panthersto just 31.8 percent shooting in the first half, although thevisitors hit 52.4 percent of their shots in the second half asthey outscored Notre Dame 31-26.

Notre Dame connected on just 32.4 percent of their shots in thesecond half after hitting on 51.5 percent in the first 20minutes of action. Notre Dame was just 1 of 11 from three-pointrange and had 23 turnovers in the contest.

The Irish enjoyed a 41-33 rebounding advantage.

With the loss, Pittsburgh falls to 7-12 on the season and 2-6 inthe BIG EAST.

PITTSBURGH (49)                      fg    ft    rb               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tpThompson        23   4-7   3-7   2-6  1  2   11Senneca         30   1-4   0-0   2-4  0  2    2Howard          25   5-8   3-6   1-3  2  4   13Guzman          25   0-3   0-0   0-5  2  0    0Balich          25   2-5   0-0   1-2  2  1    6Montesano        1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0Katowski        16   3-8   2-4   0-1  0  3    8Hunter           4   0-1   0-0   1-1  0  1    0Lawrence         6   0-2   0-1   0-2  0  1    0Krueger         11   1-2   0-0   1-2  2  0    2Morris           9   0-0   0-0   0-1  0  0    0Webb             7   1-2   2-2   0-0  0  0    4Woods           18   1-1   1-2   0-1  0  0    3_______________________________________________TOTALS         200 18-43 11-22  8-28  9 14   49_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.419, FT-.500. 3-Point Goals:2-7, .286 (Guzman 0-1, Balich 2-4, Katowski 0-2).Team rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 3 (Thompson,Morris, Webb). Turnovers: 32 (Howard 8, Guzman 5,Thompson 5, Katowski 4, Balich 3, Senneca 2,Woods 2, Hunter, Krueger, Montesano). Steals: 9(Katowski 3, Guzman, Howard, Senneca, Thompson,Webb, Woods).NOTRE DAME (65)                      fg    ft    rb               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tpMorgan          30  8-18   2-2   1-4  1  1   18Bohman          17   2-3   0-0   0-1  2  3    4Gaither         24  7-13   1-1   6-9  1  2   15Peirick         25  5-11   0-0   1-3  9  3   11Augustin        22   1-5   1-2   0-3  3  1    3Jordan          12   0-2   0-3   1-1  0  1    0Mcmillen        24   4-8   2-2   3-3  0  2   10Ervin            3   0-1   0-0   1-1  0  1    0Henderson       17   0-1   0-0   2-5  0  3    0Hutchinson      26   2-8   0-0   2-5  0  3    4_______________________________________________TOTALS         200 29-70  6-10 17-35 16 20   65_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.414, FT-.600. 3-Point Goals:1-11, .091 (Morgan 0-4, Peirick 1-4, Mcmillen0-1, Hutchinson 0-2). Team rebounds: 6. Blockedshots: 3 (Hutchinson 2, Gaither). Turnovers: 23(Henderson 4, Augustin 3, Bohman 3, Hutchinson 3,Peirick 3, Mcmillen 2, Morgan 2, Ervin, Gaither,Jordan). Steals: 21 (Gaither 7, Augustin 4,Morgan 3, Hutchinson 2, Mcmillen 2, Peirick 2,Jordan).__________________________________Pittsburgh         18   31  -   49Notre Dame         39   26  -   65__________________________________Technical fouls: None.  A: 1,271. Officials:Frank Geiselman, Bob Trammell, Greg Smith.