Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Irish icon Skylar Diggins ended her career converting only 3 of 15 from the field for 10 points. Fellow All-American and junior Kayla McBride was 5 of 20 from the field, and National Freshman of the Year Jewell Loyd was 5 of 17. The superb Irish perimeter trio was 13 of 52 collectively (25.0 percent). Notre Dame couldn't compensate on the inside either, especially with the Huskies blocking 12 shots, five of them by 6-5 junior Stefanie Dolson and four by the 6-4 Stewart. Irish 6-3 junior center Natalie Achonwa was 2 of 6 from the floor and found the navigation difficult in the paint. Notre Dame had two brief flurries in the second half, but in both cases Connecticut quickly stemmed and then turned the tide. Trailing 50-43, Diggins put up an open shot in the lane that missed. Connecticut then converted back-to-back treys by Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Stewart to regain control with a 56‑43 advantage. The Irish registered a pulse again when Loyd drilled a three and junior forward Ariel Braker banked home a drive to reduce the deficit to 61-55, forcing a UConn timeout with 6:13 remaining. The Huskies then scored seven unanswered points to regain their 13-point lead and squelch the last remaining hope of one more dramatic Irish rally. "I'm just so proud of this team and what we accomplished this year and hate for it to end on a game like this, when we just played so poorly," McGraw said of Notre Dame's supposed "rebuilding year" after losing three starters from last season, two of them top-eight picks in the WNBA (center Devereaux Peters and guard Natalie Novosel). "It was a disappointing way for this really wonderful season to end, but we will try to think back on what we did to get here and be proud of that." The final exam was a dud, but it was a third straight summa cum laude season for the women's basketball program. ✦ The Road To The Final Four March 24: Notre Dame 97, Tenn.-Martin 64 In her NCAA Tournament debut, freshman guard Jewell Loyd scored a career-high 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field. Overshad‑ owed was junior guard Kayla McBride's doubledouble with 22 points (10 of 13 from the floor) and 10 rebounds. March 26: Notre Dame 74, Iowa 57 On the Hawkeyes' home floor, McBride tallied a career-high 28 points on the strength of 4-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc, while classmate Natalie Achonwa pulled down 14 rebounds to go with 11 points to record her 17th double-double of the season — a Notre Dame record. March 31: Notre Dame 93, Kansas 63 Senior All-American Skylar Diggins dominated, scoring 22 points in the first half (highlighted by a 4-of-6 effort from three-point range). She became the program's career scoring leader with her last basket of the game to finish with 27 points to augment her team-high nine assists. April 2: Notre Dame 87, Duke 76 With Diggins in early foul trouble, the Irish fell behind 26-17 before she re-entered the game and helped them tread water with three treys to trail only 37-31 at the half. The offense deto‑ nated with a 56-point second half. Diggins fin‑ ished with 24 points, nine assists, five assists and five steals.