Tag: Dara Mabrey

Prosper, Watson speak ahead of Notre Dame second-round tournament game

How big of a role will these two play in their next tournament game?

SOUTH BEND – Two Notre Dame players on the opposite ends of the spectrum but also similar are [autotag]Cassandre Prosper[/autotag] and [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag]. Prosper enrolled early at the university and didn’t join the team until after the season already had begun. Watson is new to the Irish, too, but she already had two years at Oregon under her belt. She went to the NCAA Tournament in both of those years, and this is new for freshman Prosper.

In the Irish’s first-round win over Southern Utah, Watson shot a perfect 6 of 6 from the field for 12 points before fouling out. Prosper came off the bench and tied for the game high of 10 rebounds. Now, they will look to have similarly good games against Mississippi State in the second round. They recognize it will be more of a challenge, but that’s expected come tournament time.

Here is what they told the assembled media the day before their next win-or-go-home:

Tale of the Tape: Individual Leaders – Notre Dame vs. Mississippi St.

Does this chart make you nervous for the second round?

SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame only needs to take one look at Mississippi State’s leaders and realize where it stands, at least on paper. Once again, the Irish find themselves on the short end of a few areas in part because of the absences of [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] and [autotag]Dara Mabrey[/autotag]. At least the win over Southern Utah put a couple of new names on the Irish’s leaderboard.

A lot of what the Irish do runs through the guard position while the Bulldogs seem to have more of a threat in the middle. But as we saw in the first-round win, the the Irish can force their will at the rim, too. Perhaps they will take the Bulldogs’ game and throw it right back in their faces. We’ve seen them win games in a variety of ways all season, so nobody can rule anything out, which is appropriate for the NCAA Tournament.

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Photos of Notre Dame first-round NCAA Tournament win vs. Southern Utah

Here’s how the game looked in case you missed it.

SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame never allowed Southern Utah to get into its first-round game of the NCAA Tournament. It took control faster than a bar fills up on St. Patrick’s Day. That 82-56 final was a perfect representation of how lopsided it was. None of the many Irish fans inside Purcell Pavilion could have asked for much more.

Maybe the dominance made it a boring game for TV viewers who aren’t Irish fans, but sometimes, boring is good. It shows that you’re just that good when everything comes together, even when your best player is out for the season. Sure, the injured [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] only was able to watch in street clothes from the bench, but she surely knew deep down already that this team is good with or without her. The question now is how far it can go with both her and [autotag]Dara Mabrey[/autotag] out of action.

Here are some photos from a solid victory:

Tale of the Tape: Individual Leaders – Notre Dame vs. Southern Utah

How much does Miles’ absence change things?

Well, this chart looks different from what it did early this morning, at least on one side. But with the sobering news that Notre Dame won’t have [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] for the NCAA Tournament, adjustments were necessary. The result is [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] being the best player in nearly every category, and it also is kind of scary. While few Irish fans doubt her abilities, suddenly having to carry the in Miles’ absence surely will take a toll to some degree.

On the flip side, the Thunderbirds are a team more spread out as far as leaders. Miles being out flips a few categories or at least makes them closer. With the Irish’s guard play weakened by the losses of Miles and [autotag]Dara Mabrey[/autotag], they’ll have to try and win this and every tournament game in the paint. They have the personnel to do it, but will it be enough to get out of the first weekend?

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BREAKING: Notre Dame star Olivia Miles will miss NCAA Tournament

Definitely not what anyone wanted to hear.

Notre Dame’s path to its third national championship just got a lot tougher. After two-and-a-half weeks of speculation, the worst fears about [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag]’ availability for the NCAA Tournament have come true. Despite the best efforts of the Irish’s medical staff, the team will be without its best player for March Madness:

This is the second season-ending knee injury for the Irish in an otherwise excellent season. [autotag]Dara Mabrey[/autotag], another leader, went down for the season in January. While the Irish have done fine without her and and won a single ACC Tournament game without Miles, who suffered her injury in the regular-season finale, this team suddenly looks a lot more vulnerable.

There is little doubt that this will take some of the wind out of the Purcell Pavilion atmosphere when the Irish begin tournament play against Southern Utah. However, they have no choice but to press on. While this news definitely lowers the ceiling for this year’s team, especially with South Carolina likely looming later in Greenville Regional 1, you never know what could happen. That’s what this time is about after all.

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Notre Dame seed projections for NCAA Tournament

Might as well reserve your seats for the first two rounds in South Bend now.

Many are concerned about [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag]’ availability for the NCAA Tournament. Still others are concerned that her questionable status will affect Notre Dame’s seeding. But if you look at what experts are projecting, you’ll notice that Miles’ status is a minor factor at best.

Before Miles went down, the Irish were a surefire lock to host the first two rounds of the tournament. But between that unfortunate turn and the Irish getting blown out by Louisville without Miles in the ACC Tournament, doubts began to linger. Since then, it has become clear that those doubts were based purely on emotion. One only needed to take a step back and realize that the Irish built an impressive body of work during the regular season.

Miles or no Miles, the Irish’s projected seeding remains consistent, and barring a sudden shift in attitudes by the selection committee, it appears March Madness indeed will make a stop in South Bend. If you don’t believe that, look at these projections:

Niele Ivey, Maddy Westbeld, Sonia Citron speak after Notre Dame loss

Hear from a team that has to be nervous about the next week.

Even with no games to prepare for, don’t be surprised if [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] doesn’t get much sleep over the next week. Like everyone else, she gained a glimpse of what Notre Dame is like when it doesn’t have [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] in a 64-38 blowout loss to Louisville in the ACC Tournament semifinals.

Now, Ivey has to plan for scenarios in which Miles will and will not be available for the NCAA Tournament. Worse, it’s possible the selection committee will not allow the Irish to host the first two rounds if Miles’ status remains up in the air at the time of the bracket’s release.

[autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] led the hapless Irish with nine points against the Cardinals. [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] scored eight and was briefly knocked out with an apparent injury, but she checked back in quickly. Here is what those two players and Ivey said after a game that only can be described as brutal:

ACC honors galore for Notre Dame

So many Irish folks won awards that we had to make a listicle out of this story.

When you win the outright ACC regular-season championship, as Notre Dame did, many conference honors are sure to come. That’s exactly what happened when the ACC unveiled its annual honors. The best part is the honors weren’t limited to those who are on the court every game.

All of this is happening ahead of the ACC Tournament, which begins Wednesday in Greensboro, North Carolina. Having earned one of the top four seeds, the Irish received an automatic berth to the quarterfinals, which will take place Friday. As the top seed, they will play the winner of the second-round game between Syracuse and an NC State program that has given them problems over the past year.

Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology has the Irish holding steady as the No. 3 seed in the quadrant featuring undefeated and top-ranked South Carolina. Should the Gamecocks draw the Irish in the Elite Eight in that scenario, they’ll have to deal with these heavy hitters that have made the Irish such a force this season:

Notre Dame wallops Georgia Tech on senior night

Nice showing in the season’s final home game.

Senior night for Notre Dame began with honoring [autotag]Lauren Ebo[/autotag] and the injured [autotag]Dara Mabrey[/autotag]. Once the game tipped off though, the script started to flip. Georgia Tech scored eight unanswered points out of the gate, prompting [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] to take an early timeout. Fortunately, things more or less corrected themselves from there, and the Irish won, 76-53.

The Irish (23-4, 14-3) had trouble holding off the Yellow Jackets (13-15, 4-13) for a bit, only taking a six-point lead into halftime. That changed in the third quarter as the Irish opened it with a 14-4 run. The Yellow Jackets never seriously threatened after that, only getting as close as 14 early in the fourth quarter. In short, it was a typical Irish victory for the final regular-season game at Purcell Pavilion this season.

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] led all scorers with 13 points. [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag] completed a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] also scored 12, and [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] contributed 11 points and a game-high five assists. Ebo had eight points in her final regular-season home game, and [autotag]KK Bransford[/autotag] scored 10 off the bench.

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Notre Dame pulls away from Syracuse in fourth quarter

The Irish finally showed the Orange who’s boss.

Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team was fresh off watching the men blow a game at Syracuse. It surely didn’t want to suffer the same fate when it took its turn at the JMA Wireless Dome. While it took longer than probably would have been preferred, the Irish finally sent a message that they’re having a better season than their male counterparts. Their 72-56 win was the latest proof of that.

For the first three quarters, the Irish (14-2, 5-1) faced a real challenge from the Orange (13-5, 4-3). They took a five-point lead into the fourth and decided enough was enough. Including [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag]’s 3-pointer during the final minute of the third, they went on a 17-4 run to erase any doubt as to who the afternoon belonged to. In the final quarter, the Irish outscored the Orange, 22-11.

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] was the big player once again with 23 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. [autotag]Dara Mabrey[/autotag] had 15 points, and [autotag]Lauren Ebo[/autotag] grabbed eight boards off the bench.

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Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

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