Observations from Notre Dame women’s basketball win over Ball State
No. 9 Notre Dame (4-0) turned in another complete performance Sunday in a 95-60 victory over Ball State (2-2) at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend. It was the second consecutive game in which the Irish scored 90-plus points and held its opponent to 60 or less.
“I love that each night is a different rotation that does well together,” head coach Niele Ivey said. “For me, it’s great to see different pieces jelling together. Cohesively, I feel like we are really getting there every game.”
Here are some observations from the Irish’s latest victory.
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Olivia Miles does it all
Sophomore point guard Olivia Miles might have had her most pure passing performance of the season. She finished with 11 assists and just 3 turnovers. Her vision on entry feeds freed up teammates for easy looks time and again. She kept Ball State defenders guessing, and most times they guessed incorrectly.
The most impressive part of Miles’ game is that she’s routinely able to put it all together. Some point guards have to ration their exertion in certain areas on different nights. Some games, they might focus more on facilitating. Others, they want to score. Miles can effortlessly do it all day after day.
Her final line was 13 points, 11 helpers, 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 emphatic block on a 6-2 forward. She continuously finds ways to turn heads. For Ivey, it was a touch-pass floated over everyone’s heads — teammates and opponents alike — for an alley-oop layup to sophomore guard Sonia Citron.
“That got the whole crowd on their feet, which is what we want,” Ivey said. “Ir’s an unselfish group, and it was fun to see them having fun out there sharing the ball, making the right plays and playing the right way.”
Dara Mabrey lights it up
Notre Dame once trailed 11-6 in the first quarter. Graduate student guard Dara Mabrey didn’t flinch. She drained a triple to get the Irish to within 11-9, and then she drained another to give her team its first lead, 17-15. She finished with 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor and 5-of-10 shooting from deep.
Mabrey broke the career three-point record held by her sister, Marina, in last week’s game against Northwestern. She’s made 281 threes in her career and counting. Marina, who walked into the gym at the tail end of the game coming in on a flight from Italy, made 275 in her storied Notre Dame career. She’s currently a member of the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA and the Perth Lynx of the WNBL.
“I actually shed a couple years when I saw her walk in,” Mabrey said. “That was a really special moment. When I work out [in the ND practice facility], I see her WNBA banner. To be able to break her record as her sister, it means a whole lot to me. Behind the scenes, people don’t really know how much she has done for me. She’s my biggest role model. I literally try to model my game off of her. I’m her biggest fan girl.”
Notre Dame freshman KK Bransford has her best game
Freshman guard KK Bransford is just getting started. After scoring 4.0 points per game in 18.7 minutes in the first three appearances of her career, she broke out with a 16-point performance Sunday. Bransford’s jumper looked smooth, and her hustle around the hoop was noticeable. She also knocked in 8-of-8 free throw attempts.
The McDonald’s All-American is playing an important role for Ivey from the jump. Sunday was a sign her ceiling is as lofty as Ivey thought it would be when she was the team’s lone signee in the recruiting class of 2022.
“It’s definitely a process transitioning to college,” Bransford said. “I think it was special for me and special for my teammates to see what I can bring to the team. They’ve been big in supporting me to go as hard as I can and give as much as I can. Tonight I felt really confident knowing they have my back. It felt really good.”
Notre Dame wins in spite of quiet night from post players
Ball State’s tallest starter was 6-2. Notre Dame boasted two players taller than that in its starting lineup; 6-3 junior forward Maddy Westbeld and 6-4 junior center Kylee Watson. There were obvious mismatches down low, but the Irish didn’t necessarily elect to use them the traditional way.
Westbeld finished with 6 points and 2 rebounds. Watson had 2 points and 4 rebounds. Graduate student center Lauren Ebo paced Notre Dame’s post players with 11 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for her first double-double in a Notre Dame uniform.
In totality, it was the Notre Dame guards who got it done for the Blue and Gold. Miles, Mabrey and Bransford were unstoppable. Citron was steady throughout, as usual, in racking up 14 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.
The size advantage was still evident in Notre Dame’s 50-24 edge in total rebounds and 42-28 discrepancy in points in the paint. It just was not the Irish’s tallest players getting the gimmes around the rim. The guards set each other up within the offense, assisting on 21 of 32 field goal connections.
Notre Dame heads to the Bahamas for the 2022 Goombay Splash this week. The Irish play American at 4:15 p.m. ET on Thursday. They’ll square off against Arizona State on Friday or Saturday depending on Thursday’s result.
“It’s an incredible opportunity for us to be able to represent and go to this new place,” Ivey said. “We’re playing some great teams. I think they appreciate this part of basketball as Notre Dame and our administration, we want to give them so many opportunities to see the world. This is our opportunity to do that together as a family. It’s a sacrifice being away from their family, but they’ll have that opportunity to be with family at Christmas. And we’re family as well.”
