Notre Dame beats NC State in ACC Tournament opener without Miles

No Olivia, no problem.

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] didn’t play in Notre Dame’s ACC Tournament opener against NC State. It appears unlikely she will play the entire weekend, which definitely decreases the Irish’s chances of cutting down the nets. Still, the Irish have to try to get there, and they took a big step by beating the three-time defending tournament champion Wolfpack, 66-60. They now advance to the semifinals against Louisville, which beat Wake Forest earlier in the day.

The Irish (25-4) had lost their previous two against the Wolfpack (20-11), and that skid had a possibility of hitting three for much of the first half as they just couldn’t do a lot of what they wanted to. A [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] 3 in the final seconds gave the Irish a three-point halftime lead. They slowly built their lead from there, going up by as much as 14 in the fourth quarter. They needed almost all of those points, too, because they didn’t make a field goal in the final five minutes, and the Wolfpack got within five with 23 seconds to go.

[autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] set a season high in leading all scorers with 28 points and rounded out her line with nine rebounds, five assists and two steals. Westbeld completed a double-double of 15 points and 10 boards.

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