Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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NCAA Tournament in 1982, the Fight- ing Irish became only the fourth pro- gram to make it to five straight Fi- nal Fours, joining Stanford, LSU and UConn, which has done it twice, with a current streak of eight. This younger Notre Dame team improved as much as any under McGraw, but it was still a 16-point underdog to the Huskies. Highlighting Notre Dame's effort was 14 points from freshman post player Bri- anna Turner, all of them coming in the second half on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor. Turner, who grabbed 10 rebounds while the Irish posted a surprising 45-34 advantage on the boards, also helped hold National Player of the Year Bre- anna Stewart in check. The 6-4 Stewart did grab a game-high 15 rebounds, but took only eight shots from the field and converted four of them for eight points. The Irish defense placed an emphasis on not getting dominated inside like it did last year by UConn and took its chances — picking its poison, so to speak — with backcourt players Moriah Jefferson and Kia Nurse getting some open looks. Jefferson, who was 0 of 8 from the field at Notre Dame during a 76-58 UConn win Dec. 6, made 3 of 8 three-point attempts and tied senior Ka- leena Mosqueda-Lewis with 15 points. The ultra-quick Jefferson, the Nancy Lieberman Award winner as the na- tion's top point guard, also dished out five assists, recorded four steals and helped hound Notre Dame All-Amer- ican Jewell Loyd into 4-of-18 shooting from the field, most notably a 0-of-8 per- formance in the second half. Freshman center Brianna Turner's 7-of-8 shooting from the floor in the second half wasn't enough against UConn in the national championship game, with the Huskies prevailing 63-53. PHOTO BY SCOTT CLARKE/ESPN IMAGES