On a night that the Notre Dame Women’s basketball team played their best defensive quarter and half of the season, they fell in perhaps their most-frustrating loss of the season, a 50-47 decision at Duke on Thursday night as three turnovers in the final minute did the Irish in.
“I thought we lost that game entirely on our own – the turnovers were just so costly down the stretch. We couldn’t even get shots” Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw said after the game.
The Irish got off to a very fast start, going on a 14-2 run in the first quarter and not allowing a point the final 6:37 of the first frame, taking a 14-4 lead to the second quarter.
Duke’s offense came alive to the tune of 16 second quarter points but Notre Dame’s Mikki Vaughn led the Irish with eight points in the quarter herself to help aid Notre Dame to 15 themselves in the second quarter which led to a 29-20 halftime lead.
A 9-0 Duke run in the third quarter cut the Irish lead to three at 34-31, but Notre Dame responded with a run of their own to stretch the lead back to 40-33 entering the fourth.
Destinee Walker kicked off the fourth with a layup that pushed the Irish lead to nine but unfortunately that accounted for half of her made field goals on the night and Notre Dame would score just five more points on the night.
Haley Gorecki went on an 8-0 run by herself to draw Duke within one at 42-41 before Notre Dame’s final field goal of the night came with Sam Brunelle hitting her career-high fourth three and the Irish a 45-41 lead with 6:34 to go.
The Irish however would be turnover-happy down the stretch and only score again by sinking a couple of free throws as Duke rallied to win 50-47 on their home court.
No quit in us.
We drop a tight one to Duke, 50-47. Back at it Sunday when we host Miami at 1 p.m. ET.#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/J93cARzUNY
— Notre Dame WBB (@ndwbb) January 17, 2020
The loss drops Notre Dame to just 6-12 overall and 1-5 in ACC play while Duke improved to 9-8 overall and 3-3 in the ACC.
Notre Dame looks for their second conference win of the season again Sunday when they return home to take on Miami in a game that can be seen on ACC Network.