Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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said after the game. "We know now we're not where we need to be, and we're going to move forward and learn some things." It was just the fourth time that Notre Dame had lost in its last 33 reg- ular-season games. The Irish flew south during the holi- day weekend for its second preseason tournament., the four-team Junkanoo Jam in the Bahamas. The Irish had very little time to celebrate Thanksgiving before tak- ing on Southern California on Friday, Nov. 25. The Trojans entered the tour- nament with a 1-2 record, but on the cusp of the Associated Press top 25. Depending on the results of the first two games, the Irish were scheduled to play either Duke or Gardner-Webb the following day. ✦ Senior guard Natalie Novosel scored a career-high 28 points in the Preseason WNIT title game, but the Irish lost, 94-81, to top-ranked Baylor. EARLY TEST The Irish fall to Baylor in a battle of the best BY DAN MURPHY against. The Irish took one on the chin in a 94-81 loss at No. 1 Baylor Nov. 20 in the Preseason Women's National Invitational Tournament champion- ship game. Baylor junior Brittney Griner was I unstoppable for the Bears, scoring 32 points and racking up 14 rebounds to lead her team. The 6-8 center was aided by point guard Odyssey Sims (25 points and six assists) and Destiny Williams (15 points and 13 rebounds) to hand the Irish their most lopsided defeat since a 78-57 loss to Connecti- cut last February. Irish head coach Muffet McGraw said Griner's dominance was inevi- table, but she was disappointed with the porous defense that allowed Bay- lor's supporting cast to open up such a big lead. 42 DECEMBER 2011 f No. 2 Notre Dame hopes to avenge last season's loss in the national championship game, they now know what they are up "We didn't play the kind of defense that we hope to play this year," Mc- Graw told reporters after the game. "It was a good learning experience. … It's great that it's in November, and we can look ahead to what we want to be and know that we're not there now. I think we have that promise, and we have that vision of our team moving forward, but we are really disappointed with the loss today." The Irish were 3-0 heading into their first game away from the Pur- cell Pavilion this season. They rolled through three lesser teams with blowout wins of at least 20 points, but finally met their offensive match against the Bears. It wasn't all gloom and doom for the Irish. Senior guard Natalie No- vosel scored a career-high 28 points in a breakout game for her this season. Junior All-American Skylar Diggins chipped in with her typical perfor- mance, adding 27 points and three assists. "It was a great test for us," Novosel PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND Date Opponent Nov. 2 Windsor^ Nov. 11 Akron# B 2011-12 WOMEN'S Nov. 13 Indiana State# Nov. 17 Hartford# Nov. 20 at Baylor# Nov. 25 vs. USC@ Dec. 2 Pennsylvania Dec. 4 at Creighton Dec. 7 Marquette* Dec. 10 at Purdue Dec. 18 Kentucky ASKETBALL SCHEDULE Time (ET)/TV W, 83-34 W, 81-61 W, 99-34 W, 98-43 L, 94-81 5:45 p.m. Nov. 26 vs. Duke or Gardner-Webb@ 5:45 or 8 p.m. 7 p.m. 2:35 p.m. 7 p.m. Dec. 20 Central Florida Dec. 28 Longwood Dec. 30 at Mercer Jan. 4 Jan. 7 at Seton Hall* Connecticut* Jan. 10 at Georgetown* Jan. 14 at Cincinnati* Jan. 17 Pittsburgh* Jan. 21 Villanova* Jan. 23 Tennessee Jan. 28 at St. John's* Jan. 31 at Rutgers* Feb. 5 DePaul* Feb. 7 at Syracuse* Feb. 12 West Virginia* Feb. 14 Providence* Feb. 20 at Louisville* Feb. 25 South Florida* Feb. 27 at Connecticut* 12 p.m./BTN 1 p.m./ESPNU 7 p.m. 2 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 4 p.m./CBS 7 p.m./CBSSN 3 p.m. 7 p.m. 1 p.m. 7 p.m./ESPN2 12 p.m./BEN 7 p.m.CBSSN 1 p.m./ESPNU 7 p.m. 3:30 p.m./ESPNU 7 p.m. 2 p.m./ESPN 2 p.m. Mar. 2-6 Big East Championship! 9 p.m./ESPN2 TBD ^ Exhibition; # Preseason WNIT (Akron, Baylor, Chattanooga, Detroit, Drexel, East Tennessee State, Hartford, Howard, Indiana State, Long Island, Man- hattan, McNeese State, Notre Dame, Tennessee Tech, UAB, UCLA); @ Junkanoo Jam at Freeport, Bahamas; * Big East game; ! at XL Center in Hart- ford, Conn.; CBSNN — CBS Sports Network, BTN — Big Ten Network, BEN — Big East Network BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED