Dec. 9, 2001
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – One of the trademarks of Notre Dame’s national championship squad last season was its tenacious defense. It would appear that trait has carried over to this year’s club.
The Irish forced a season-high 27 turnovers and held USC to just 32.8 percent shooting on the way to a 62-49 win over the Women of Troy Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 7,595 at the Joyce Center. The win extended Notre Dame’s home winning streak to 41 games, the longest active run in the nation. It also was the 26th consecutive non-conference home victory for the Irish, a streak which dates back more than five years.
Freshman forward Jacqueline Batteast, the reigning BIG EAST Conference Rookie of the Week, led all scorers with a season-high 19 points, adding seven rebounds and a season-best five steals for good measure. Sophomore guard Le’Tania Severe turned in another strong performance with a career-high 17 points, seven rebounds and a personal-best five steals.
Junior center Amanda Barksdale also made her presence felt in the post, tying her career high with seven blocked shots, including five in the first half alone. As a team, the Irish rolled up a season-best 10 blocks and 13 steals.
Tiffany Elmore led three USC players in double figures with 11 points. Ebony Hoffman and Aisha Hollans each chipped in with 10 points, although Hollans’ total was less than half of her 21-point average coming into the contest. The Women of Troy also struggled from three-point territory, hitting only one of 12 long-range shots. In fact, in its last two games, Notre Dame now has held its opponents to two-of-25 shooting (.080) from beyond the arc.
USC (3-5) scored four of the game’s first five points to take its only lead of the day. With lightning speed, Notre Dame countered with a 10-0 run, capped by a rare four-point play from junior guard Alicia Ratay at the 15:02 mark. A layup by Jeneka Joyce stretched the Irish lead into double figures (17-6) four minutes later, before the Women of Troy cut the deficit back to six points on a short jumper by Rachel Woodward. But, Ratay canned a short jumper to ignite a 10-2 run that gave Notre Dame its largest lead of the half at 31-17 with 2:54 to go before halftime.
In the second half, the Irish maintained their double-digit lead for the first 10 minutes, bumping it to a game-high 16 points twice during that stretch. USC fought back gamely and used a pair of steals and fast-break layups to pull within 49-41 with 10:19 to go. From there, both teams went scoreless from the field for the next 3:53 before Ratay finally broke the drought with a pair of free throws. The Women of Troy would never get closer than 10 points the rest of the way as the Irish collected their seventh win in the last eight games against Pac-10 Conference opponents and clinched Muffet McGraw’s 325th career win in her 15th season as the head coach at Notre Dame.
The Irish (3-4) will be back in action Wednesday at 7 p.m. (EST) when they play host to Western Michigan at the Joyce Center. The Broncos are 2-6 this season following a 73-69 overtime loss at Arkansas Sunday afternoon.
– ND –