Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JANUARY 2018 49 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL players, the Irish also have added walk-ons in guard Kaitlin Cole and forward Maureen Butler. Had the NCAA not granted Nebraska trans- fer and two-time All-Big Ten forward Jessica Shepard a waiver to play this season … McGraw shudders at the thought. Plus, 6-4 Kristina Nelson opted to return for a fifth season. McGraw has had the 6-2 forward Westbeld start up front with Shepard so that fifth-year senior point guard Lili Thompson can come off the bench instead of starting four guards. "It's just nice to look down the bench and know we can sub in a guard," McGraw said of Thompson, who still plays starter minutes. Meanwhile, 6-2 freshman Danielle Patterson's development also will need to be accelerated. She's not as natural in the post as Vaughn or Nel- son, but she did play 13 minutes at Michigan. "We're going to be in great [physi- cal] shape," McGraw said. "It's just a question of how long do we go [in practices]. We're going to be playing a lot of minutes, so we might want to shorten practice just a little bit." Junior guard and leading scorer Arike Ogunbowale said no oppo- nent will pity the perennial powerful Irish, so the team can't afford to wal- low in any woe. "They were big parts of our team, but we still have games to play, so we have to move on from it," Ogun- bowale said. "It just makes us better, it makes us tougher," Mabrey added. "We have to stay mentally strong and keep moving forward." NO REBUILDING During a school-record-tying seven- game road excursion, the Irish de- feated four ranked teams, including No. 3 and reigning national champ South Carolina, 92-85, to win the Gulf Coast Showcase held Nov. 24-26 in Estero, Fla. Sophomore guard Jackie Young was named the tournament MVP, capped by a 22-point and 10-rebound effort against the Gamecocks. Led by Ogunbowale's career-high- tying 32 points, the Irish then domi- nated Michigan from start to finish before traveling to Hartford, Conn., to face UConn, the overwhelming pick to win its fifth national title in the last six years. For 32 and a half minutes out of a possible 40, Notre Dame truly looked like the best team in women's college basketball. And then in the final 7:30, UConn demonstrated why it remains the UCLA 1964-75-like dynasty. Trailing 68-58 with 7:30 remain- ing, the Huskies finished with a 22-3 run to record an 80-71 victory — their seventh straight versus the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame went scoreless from the field the final 4:18. A three from the corner by Thomp- son gave the Irish a 65-54 advantage at the start of the fourth quarter, and another trey at the 7:30 mark provided the 68-58 margin before UConn closed with a flurry. The UConn energy in the fourth quarter was palpable. It would seem easy to say the Huskies wore down the Irish — but both teams basically used only seven players. "I'm very pleased with where we are right now, especially looking at the stretch we've just come through," McGraw said afterwards. "We're get- ting to where we need to get to." Determined to put the lost oppor- tunity at Connecticut behind them, Notre Dame exploded out of the gates in its first home game in eight contests with a 90-59 romp versus Michigan State Dec. 6. Ogunbowale paced the Irish with 23 points, while Shepard scored 19. Especially notable was Thompson's double-double with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds — all 5-7 of her — while also handing out a team- best four assists. Notre Dame jumped to a 7-0 ad- vantage in the first minute, expanded it to 11-0 before the Spartans scored, and were never threatened during a dominant first-half performance in which they led 47-16 at halftime. ✦ Three-Point Play 1. Scoring Balance — Junior guard Arike Ogunbowale's 20.7 scoring average during Notre Dame's 9-1 start would be a single-season record that would eclipse Katryna Gaither's 20.4 mark during the 1996-97 Final Four season. As the season progresses, Jackie Young (14.5), Jessica Shepard (12.9), Marina Mabrey (11.2) and even Lili Thompson (6.4) — who tallied more than 1,000 points while at Stanford — may balance out the scoring a little more. 2. On The Rebound — Minus junior All-American forward Brianna Turner and now 6-3 fresh- man forward Mikayla Vaughn, Notre Dame's rebounding situation was projected to be a potential problem. Yet the Irish are ranked No. 14 nationally in rebounding margin (11.6) among 345 teams and No. 27 in offensive rebounds per contest (17), with a 17-11 advantage at No. 1 UConn. Through 10 games, Shepard and Young averaged 8.0 and 7.7 caroms per contest, respectively, while Ogunbowale was at 5.8. 3. Three For The Show — While rebounding has been maybe more productive than expected, the Irish entered the Michigan State contest 174th in three-point field-goal percentage at 31.2 percent. Ogunbowale at 15 of 49 (30.6 percent) and Mabrey at 13 of 51 (25.5 percent) are much better than their numbers. Ogunbowale was at 45.4 percent last year and Mabrey 38.3 percent. Young entered the Dec. 6 Michigan State game 0 of 6 beyond the arc, but converted her first two when the Spartans laid off her. With opponents far more concerned about her drives to the basket, Young needs those perimeter shooting skills in her repertoire to become even more effective. — Lou Somogyi Junior guard Arike Ogunbowale averaged a team- high 20.7 points per game during Notre Dame's 9-1 start. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND