Irish fall short of ACC title

Mannion McGinley

Assistant managing editor

notre d ame women’s basketball didn’t look like the same team when they took on the Louisville c ardinals s aturday at noon. s coring only 15 points in the first half, the Irish fell 64-38 in the semifinals of the 2023 Acc Tournament.

notre d ame saw the Louisville c ardinals twice before in the regular season.

The wins came ten days apart in two tight games. First, on Feb. 16, the Irish won 78-76 in overtime at home. Then, to close the regular season, the Irish beat the c ardinals in Louisville on Feb. 26, 6865. The second win didn’t come without a price, though. s ophomore guard o livia m iles went down with a knee injury halfway through the meeting. m iles has not been on the court for the Irish since. The point guard is still “day to day” and was only seen in sweats besides injured graduate student guard d ara m abrey during the Acc Tournament.

While the Irish were able to surge in the second half of the season finale without m iles — and won again without her against nc state in the Acc quarterfinals — it wasn’t possible to notch a third win over the c ardinals on s aturday, especially since the squad was once again without m iles.

o utside of junior forward m addy Westbeld’s five points, each Irish player had no more than one basket through the first two frames. s ophomore guard s onia c itron, who took over at point when m iles fell, had 8 points, nine rebounds and five assists on Friday, but couldn’t recreate that same magic s aturday. c itron started the matchup 1-4, including two efforts from beyond the arc that didn’t fall. e arly enrollee freshman c assandre Prosper also couldn’t get anything to fall early, going 0-for6. Westbeld ultimately had the only Irish three on the day. she also remained the leading scorer for the Irish to the end, going 4-for-12 and ultimately claiming nine points.

o nly scoring 15 in the first half was the lowest point total for an Irish first half since they saw Louisville in February of 2022. Four Irish players only drained one basket, and they shot 31% from the field as a unit. c itron ultimately put up eight points, while Prosper and graduate student Lauren e bo snagged five boards each. o n the other hand, four c ardinals players scored in the double digits. The 35-15 Louisville lead at half grew as large as 34 points before the Irish cut it down. The deficit was too large to surmount though, and notre d ame lost by 26 with only 38 on the board. b y a considerable margin, it was the fewest points ever scored by the top seed at the Acc women’s basketball tournament. The previous low was 52 points. notre d ame will be back on the court in the nc AA tournament. The Irish were a no. 3 seed in the most recent selection committee release, but this weekend’s results may change that positioning. They’re looking to improve on last year’s s weet 16 finish.

The Irish will look for their seeding with the rest of the nation on m arch 12, s election sunday. The selections will be announced at 8 p.m. on esPn notre d ame awaits two announcements, though — the second being m iles’ return. Further information on her injury will inevitably change what the Irish post-season run will look like.

i rish beat Wolfpack, 66-60

The Irish reached the semifinals by defeating three-time defending conference champions nc state on Friday afternoon. The Irish were slow to start and early, they were unable to pull ahead. The Wolfpack led 18-14 headed into the second quarter.

Another injury plagued the Irish when freshman c assandre Prosper crashed the rim, accidentally hitting junior natalija m arshall in the face. d espite the injury, notre d ame outscored nc state 11-4 in the second quarter. Westbeld hit a late three-pointer to give notre d ame a 25-22 halftime lead. Westbeld helped spark the offense, reaching 1000 career points. she made two triples to spark the Irish to a 44-37 lead through three quarters. c itron scored 28 points to lead the Irish to the 66-60 victory.

After the game, c itron commented on adapting to playing without m iles. “With o livia m iles out...everyone has to step up,” c itron said. “It’s tugh to figure out how to play without her...I know my team needs me and I am going to

Contact Mannion McGinley at mmcginl3@nd.edu

The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.