March 27, 2017
By Leigh Torbin
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Two of the players who helped lead the Notre Dame women’s basketball team to a fourth consecutive outright ACC regular season championship, fourth straight ACC Tournament championship and the NCAA’s Elite Eight were recognized for their work on Monday. Junior Brianna Turner earned a spot on the Associated Press’ All-America second team while senior captain Lindsay Allen claimed a spot on the All-America third team.
Allen set both Notre Dame and ACC single season records with 282 assists on her way to setting both Notre Dame and ACC records with 841 career assists. A first-team all-ACC performer, Allen led the elite league in assists (282), assist-to-turnover ratio (3.57) and assists per game (7.6) this year, also standing in the top four nationally for all three categories. Additionally, Allen ranked 36th nationally with her 83 steals this year, finishing her career in seventh place on the Irish career chart with 229. Notre Dame played 149 games while Allen was on campus and she started every one of them, believed to be an NCAA record for 149 consecutive starts. The Irish won 139 of those 149 games started by Allen. Her 1,319 career points tie Devereaux Peters for 21st in Irish lore.
Turner is one of the country’s top players at both ends of the court, leading the ACC in both field goal percentage (.619) and blocked shots (86). Turner stands eighth nationally in shooting percentage and, with just a handful of games left to be played nationally, seems destined to rank in the top 10 for the third consecutive year. The two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year, Turner stands ninth in league history in career blocked shots (263) and second at Notre Dame behind only Ruth Riley’s 370. Turner’s 1,456 points stand 16th in school history with one season still left to play. She averaged 15.3 points per game this season and led Notre Dame at 7.1 rebounds per game.
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Leigh Torbin, athletics communications associate director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2013 and coordinates all media efforts for Notre Dame’s women’s basketball and men’s golf teams. A native of Framingham, Massachusetts, Torbin graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in sports management. He has previously worked full-time on the athletic communications staffs at Vanderbilt, Florida, Connecticut and UCF.