Tag: purcell pavilion

Notre Dame battles from behind against Georgia Tech, then wins

The Irish finally made their move towards the end.

Notre Dame never quit against Georgia Tech, even as its inability to go in front undoubtedly was frustrating. Still, the Irish fans who came to Purcell Pavilion for the late tipoff had to think a happy ending was in store. That was the case as the Irish completed a come-from-behind victory, 71-68.

The Irish trailed the Yellow Jackets for almost 37 of the game’s 40 minutes, but they never faced more than a seven-point deficit, the last of which came with 5:35 left. But that’s when they got their chance with the Jackets starting a lengthy scoring drought.

After a [autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag] 3-pointer, more than three minutes passed before anymore points were scored. Then, within 36 seconds, [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] made back-to-back 3s to give the Irish their first lead.

A short time later after Shrewsberry missed the front of a one-and-one, [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] got the rebound but had the ball swatted out and was ruled to have touched it last after a replay review. It didn’t matter because the Yellow Jackets were whistled for a five-second violation:

[autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag] put the nail in the coffin with a layup as he was fouled. Though he missed the subsequent free throw, Davis made two free throws on the next possession to complete a 13-0 Irish run.

Burton led all scorers with 26 points and four 3s. He also paced the Irish with three steals. Shrewsberry scored 15 points.

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Notre Dame snaps losing streak with big second half vs. Boston College

Back in the win column.

(This story has been updated to add a video.)

Notre Dame had lost all four games since they began their full-time ACC schedule. With luck, the skid wouldn’t have lasted that long, but the Irish instead had to try to get back on track against Boston College. This they did to the tune of a 78-60 victory.

Up until the midway point of the second half, the Irish (8-9, 2-4) and Eagles (9-8, 1-4) were locked in a tight battle where offense was at a premium at times. All signs pointed to this game coming down to the wire. That turned out not to be the case.

With the game tied at 48, [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] scored five consecutive points, [autotag]Matt Allocco[/autotag] hit two free throws, and the Eagles didn’t get much closer the rest of the way. That’s because the Irish played aggressively on offense and made often impressive stops on defense. They held a 30-12 scoring advantage over the final 10:08.

Davis was the man of the hour, throwing down four of his game-high 26 points on two impressive dunks that greatly impressed the Purcell Pavilion crowd. [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] scored 20 points and collected four steals:

Allocco scored 13 points, and [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag] nearly completed a double-double with 11 points and nine boards, not to mention overcoming a second-half ankle injury. Both players also had three steals.

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Notre Dame women’s basketball tipoff time moved up for Orange Bowl

Had to avoid the schedule conflict.

When the Notre Dame football team won the Sugar Bowl, that meant a trip to the Orange Bowl in exactly one week. That meant only half an hour would have separated that game and the women’s basketball team’s home game against Wake Forest. Needless to say, the women’s basketball interest that night would have been almost nonexistent.

So the wise decision was made for the women’s basketball team to tip off against the Demon Deacons at 5 p.m. EST Thursday instead of its original time of 7 p.m. EST. Assuming the game doesn’t go into overtime, that should mean the fans at Purcell Pavilion will have enough time to file out of Purcell Pavilion and go watch the College Football Playoff semifinal game against Penn State somewhere.

Both Notre Dame basketball teams avoided scheduling games on campus for the playoff’s first weekend in case Notre Dame Stadium ended up hosting a game. That’s exactly what happened, and the playoff has caused a basketball schedule alteration once again. Fortunately, this will be the last one because neither team is playing the night of the CFP title game.

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Notre Dame has highest-scoring game of season in win over Le Moyne

As easy a win as it gets.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

With [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] out indefinitely with an injury, Notre Dame has had to look elsewhere to find its scoring. That proved not to be a problem against Le Moyne, a program in its second season at the Division I level.

The Irish’s 91-62 victory over the Dolphins accounted for the most points they have scored in a game this season. The last time they scored at least that many points was a 99-95 win against Boston College in February 2022.

The Irish (7-5) led the Dolphins (5-9) wire-to-wire in their nonconference finale, even as they looked a little rusty at the start having not played in 11 days. But they slowly found their groove, and a 16-2 run past the midway point of the first half blew what had been a three-point game wide open. The contest was smooth sailing from there.

[autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] led all scorers with 24 points, three off his career high. Exactly half of those points came on 12-of-14 shooting from the free-throw line:

[autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag] scored 14 points, and [autotag]Logan Imes[/autotag] had 11 off the bench to go with a team-high two steals.

This game also marked the return of former Irish guard Robby Carmody to Purcell Pavilion. He scored 13 points, eight of them coming on a perfect showing from the charity stripe.

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Olivia Miles has fifth career triple-double in Notre Dame win

This is routine for her now, or so it seems.

Even though Notre Dame is better known for [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] now, [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] frequently reminds us that she was the face of the Irish first. The latest example of that came in the Irish’s 97-54 win over Loyola (Maryland), which accounted for the final game of their nonconference schedule.

Miles recorded the fifth triple-double of her collegiate career to the tune of 18 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. That’s the most for any Notre Dame basketball player, men or women. There’s a reason she’s projected to be a lottery pick in the next WNBA draft.

Miles wasn’t the only impressive Irish player in this game though. Hidalgo set a season scoring high with 33 points and also had five steals. [autotag]Liatu King[/autotag] achieved a double-double of 18 points and 10 boards, and [autotag]Liza Karlen[/autotag] scored 15 points.

Irish fans will want to get out to Purcell Pavilion and watch Miles play for their team while they still can. If you need any convincing to do so, here’s her highlight reel for this game:

The Irish now will take a week off for the holiday before beginning their ACC home schedule against Virginia in front of a sellout crowd. Now, the games really will count.

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Notre Dame women’s basketball sells out ACC home opener vs. Virginia

Will you be in attendance?

The primary excitement around the Notre Dame campus right is about the football team in the College Football Playoff and rightfully so. But when football ends, the focus will shift to the women’s basketball team, a national championship contender in its own right.

Even amidst all the football hoopla, Irish fans are finding time to turn out for women’s basketball games. Maybe no more home football games this season have at least partly to do with it, but Purcell Pavilion should be seeing a lot of fans as ACC play begins in earnest.

To that end, the women’s basketball team announced in the hours before the football team defeated Indiana that its conference home opener against Virginia has been sold out. What’s more, this season now has had the most sellouts for the program since [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] became coach. This is remarkable considering we’re not even into January yet.

People want to see the Irish play, and they deserve the attention.

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Notre Dame women’s basketball defeats UConn for third straight season

That’s three wins over top-five teams, too.

Notre Dame and UConn is as anticipated a matchup as you’ll find in women’s basketball. With numerous former Irish players on hand along with a sellout crowd at Purcell Pavilion, not to mention [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag], all eyes were on whether the Irish could beat a top-five opponent for the third time this season.

With the university nearing final exams, the Irish passed its own exam and won, 79-68, for their third victory over the Huskies in as many seasons. That means UConn, Texas and USC are a combined 0-3 against the Irish but 26-0 against everyone else.

The Irish (8-2) led the Huskies (8-1) for most of the game but never by more than 13 points. That lead was cut to one in the waning seconds of the third quarter, but [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] hit her career-high sixth 3 at the buzzer, and the Irish proceeded to score the first six points of the fourth quarter to go back up 10.

Although the Huskies got within six with 3:12 left, the Irish doubled their lead over the next two minutes, and that was that. This was the latest in a series of statement wins:

Hidalgo led all scorers with 29 points to get the better of fellow All-American Paige Bueckers, who had 25 points. She achieved a double-double with 10 rebounds and also had a game-high eight assists.

[autotag]Liatu King[/autotag] had her own double-double with 16 points and 12 boards. [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] overcame an early ankle injury to also score 16 points.

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Notre Dame photographer lauds women’s basketball student turnout

This is great to see.

When you photograph Notre Dame women’s basketball games for over 30 years, you tend to pick up on certain things. That’s the case for longtime Notre Dame photographer Matt Cashore. He graduated from the university in 1994 and has stuck around capturing the sights of campus ever since.

Among Cashore’s most prominent photographers have taken place at the athletic events on campus. That includes women’s basketball games, and he noticed one thing in particular during the Irish’s overtime win over Texas. That one thing was more students attending such a game than he could remember, and he took to social media to make that known.

It’s great to know that the Notre Dame students have started to take notice of a team that has national championship dreams this season. The men’s basketball team has to wait another season for arguably the best 2025 recruiting class in the country to arrive, so the women’s basketball team will do just fine this year:

The Irish need the students’ support if for no other reason than to make Purcell Pavilion an intimidating place for opponents. Hopefully, that will be the case by season’s end.

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Notre Dame defeats Buffalo for second victory in as many games

The Irish gave the right amount of effort in the win.

(This story has been updated to correct a typo.)

A less experienced Notre Dame team might have panicked when a mid-major opponent was making a run. For a while, Buffalo was doing just that at Purcell Pavilion. But the Irish stayed strong, retook control and held onto it just long enough in an 86-77 win.

The Irish (2-0) saw their eight-point lead turn into a seven-point deficit in the first half. A Ryan Sabol 3-pointer in the final seconds gave the Bulls (2-1) a two-point lead going into halftime.

The Irish moved the ball much better at the start of the second half and tightened up their defense, going on a 24-2 run to begin the frame. But the Bulls whittled that 20-point lead down to seven more than once, so this game’s outcome was in doubt up until the final minute.

[autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] capped his career-high 27-point night with four clutch free throws to create enough distance and ensure the victory, one in which the Irish couldn’t take their eyes off the Bulls for very long except for the hot start to the second half. Davis made 12 of 13 free throws during the game.

[autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 19 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. He also registered a game-high three steals.

[autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag] also scored 19 points and was the only Irish player to make two 3s on a night the team made only five of 20 attempts from beyond the arc. [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag] had 12 points with four of his five field goals coming on dunks.

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Photos of Notre Dame women’s basketball exhibition win over Davenport

See how the season unofficially tipped off.

The Notre Dame women’s basketball team is ready for the season. That much was on display during its lone exhibition game, a 101-41 victory over Davenport.

That the Irish would dominate this game was a given well before the fans filed into Purcell Pavilion. The main attraction was the long-awaited return of [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], who received a warm ovation while being introduced as part of the starting lineup. Miles made up for lost time by finishing one assist shy of a triple-double: 15 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] scored 31 points, dished out nine of her own assists and had five steals. [autotag]Liatu King[/autotag], in her first action for the Irish, scored 27 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked three shots. [autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag] had 11 points and four blocks.

We should expect a lot of games like this from the Irish this season, especially against inferior opponents. For a better idea, here are some photos from this particular game: