Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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went on a 21-3 run to knot the game at 41. Still, it took a buzzer-beating bank shot near the foul line by senior guard Natalie Novosel to lock up the victory. The usually sharp-shooting Novosel converted only 1 of 10 field goal attempts in the first half before finding her stroke and tallying 15 points in the second half. National Player of the Year candi- date and junior guard Skylar Diggins finished with 19 points after scoring 22 the previous day in the romp over the Trojans. "This is unbelievable," McGraw said. "We played so poorly in the first half. We just couldn't do any- thing right at either end. We didn't rebound. We couldn't make a shot. And then at halftime, we just said, 'Hey, we're not playing our game.' And they decided they were going to Date Opponent Nov. 11 Akron# B 2011-12 WOMEN'S Nov. 13 Indiana State# Nov. 17 Hartford# Nov. 20 at Baylor# Nov. 25 vs. USC^ Nov. 26 vs. Duke^ Dec. 2 Pennsylvania Dec. 4 at Creighton Dec. 7 Marquette* Dec. 10 at Purdue Dec. 18 Kentucky 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* ASKETBALL SCHEDULE Time (ET)/TV W, 81-61 W, 99-34 W, 98-43 L, 94-81 W, 80-58 W, 56-54 W, 69-38 W, 76-48 W, 95-42 W, 66-38 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 # Preseason WNIT (Akron, Baylor, Chattanooga, Detroit, Drexel, East Tennessee State, Hartford, Howard, Indiana State, Long Island, Manhattan, McNeese State, Notre Dame, Tennessee Tech, UAB, UCLA); ^ Junkanoo Jam at Freeport, Bahamas; * Big East game; ! at XL Center in Hartford, Conn.; CBSNN — CBS Sports Network, BTN — Big Ten Network, BEN — Big East Network www.BLUEANDGOLD.com come out and play a little better de- fense. Then we got some easy baskets because of that." Meanwhile, Novosel's clutch shooting in the closing seconds might evoke memories for longtime Notre Dame basketball fans of Dwight "The Iceman" Clay (1972-75). During his career under former head coach Digger Phelps, Clay made four jump shots in the clos- ing seconds that led to victory — the most famous being his corner jumper with 29 seconds left in the Jan. 19, 1974 victory against No. 1 UCLA that snapped the Bruins' NCAA-record 88-game winning streak. The Lexington, Ky., native Novosel also has had a hand in a go-ahead basket in the final 30 seconds of regu- lation or overtime in four games the past two seasons, with all of them coming against a top-15 opponent. BALANCE, DEPTH AND DEFENSE Although Diggins is easily capable of averaging 25 points per game, her unselfish play as a distributor en- hances overall team play. It was best manifested during the blowout of Purdue. Diggins set the tone early by scor- ing eight points while directing the Irish to a 16-5 advantage. She tallied one point the rest of the game and was the fourth-leading scorer for the Irish, but along the way she dished out seven assists (she averages a team high 5.7 per game, three times more than anyone else), grabbed six rebounds and played intense pres- sure defense in the 28-point rout. Novosel scored a team-high 17 points while fifth-year senior cen- ter Devereaux Peters recorded a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Natalie Achonwa chipped in with 11 points and six boards. During the 9-1 start, the Irish dis- played a balanced attack that fea- tured four players averaging dou- ble-figure scoring: Diggins (16.7), Novosel (16.2), sophomore swing- man Kayla McBride (12.0) and Peters (10.0). The 5-11 McBride, who started four times last year as a freshman and was making a splash before sitting out the second semester for personal rea- sons, has been living up to McGraw's preseason expectations of potentially becoming "the most improved player in the Big East." The fifth starter, fifth-year senior guard Brittany Mallory (5.5 points per game) is the team's defensive stopper — she helped hold Purdue's leading scorer, Brittany Rayburn, to four points on 1-of-7 shooting — but also is the team's top three-point shooter (41.4 percent, 12 of 29). No one else on the team has converted better than 30 percent beyond the arc. A huge boost has been the return of 6-3 low-post player Achonwa, who underwent preseason knee surgery for a torn meniscus and has gradu- ally assimilated into the lineup, scor- ing a career-high 20 points in the Dec. 4 victory versus Creighton. Reserve forward Natalie Achonwa registered a career-high 20 points for Notre Dame in a blow- out victory over Creighton on Dec. 4. It was just her fifth game back after offseason knee surgery. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS Capable of a double-double on almost any occasion, according to McGraw, Achonwa, who is averag- ing 7.4 points and 4.3 rebounds in 17 minutes of action per game, and Pe- ters provide much-needed presence in the paint in a lineup that often features four guards. Overall, 10 different Irish players have averaged at least 12 minutes per contest, with Diggins' 28.3 average the team high. Defensively, the quick and deep lineup ranks sixth in the country in steals per game (15.9) and No. 2 in turnover margin (11.20). No. 1 in both categories is Kentucky — Notre Dame's next challenge on Dec. 18. ✦ JANUARY 2012 55