Notre Dame women’s basketball scores 90-79 win over Cal

BOX SCORE

Paced by a blistering first half when No. 9 Notre Dame shot 61 percent and built a nine-point lead over Cal, the Irish kept the Bears at arm’s length in the second half and won 90-79 at the Citi Shamrock Classic in St. Louis.

Cal (1-1) pulled to within three points twice in the fourth quarter, but terrific foul shooting and great work from the Irish bench provided Notre Dame (2-0) a wire-to-wire victory. 

Balance and poise were the keys for the Irish.

Cal wouldn’t go away and pulled to within 65-62 early in the fourth quarter. 

Notre Dame calmly responded and finished the game on a 25-17 run. 

The Irish went 20-of-24 foul shooting in the fourth quarter, including 10 straight to finish the game.

Led by graduate guard Dara Mabrey with 16 points — who tied her older sister Marina Mabrey in the game as the career leader at Notre Dame for all-time three-pointers made with 274 — all five Irish scored in double-figures.

Junior forward Kylee Watson added 15 points, sophomore guard Sonia Citron had 14, junior forward Maddy Westbeld had 12.

Sophomore guard Olivia Miles added 13 points with 10 assists, for the 11th double-double of her career.   

Foul trouble forced Irish head coach Niele Ivey to go to her bench early, late and often, and her reserves responded, even with some mixed-and-matched lineups. 

Miles and Westbeld spent much of the fourth quarter sitting next to Ivey while the Irish backups kept Notre Dame in front and panic-free.

Junior forward Natalija Marshall was clutch with 9 points on 4-of-5 field-goal shooting and 6 rebounds off the bench. 

Notre Dame returns to action Wednesday at Northwestern (0-1) (9 p.m., ET, Big Ten Network).