Observations from the Notre Dame women’s basketball loss to Maryland
Diamond Miller started “shushing” before Notre Dame fans at Purcell Pavilion knew what hit them. The Maryland guard dribbled out the clock, got to her spot and nailed a shot NBA superstar Kevin Durant deemed a “Dirk fade” via Twitter right at the buzzer Thursday night.
Final score: No. 20 Maryland 74, No. 7 Notre Dame 72.
Miller’s 30th and 31st points of the night were the difference in the Fighting Irish’s first defeat of the season. They dropped to 6-1 ahead of another showdown in South Bend versus No. 3 Connecticut (5-0) on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.
“I felt like she got to her spots,” Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey said of Miller. “In transition, off of rebounds — she scored on all three levels. She was so active and so aggressive offensively. She would miss shots and go get her own rebound. She just had a night. It was one of those nights.”
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Ivey said she’s still searching for someone on her team who can lock down defensively on opposing star players. The Irish only went seven-deep in the rotation, so the options are limited. Sophomore point guard Olivia Miles and junior forward Maddy Westbeld finished the game with four fouls apiece, too. That doesn’t help the cause.
Stopping Miller and staying out of foul trouble were just two of Notre Dame’s shortcomings in a narrow loss. Here are more observations.
Losing the physicality battle
Miller is Maryland’s tallest player at 6-3. Notre Dame boasts three players in the regular rotation who are at least that tall. Miller is also a guard; she’s not banging bodies in the post with the likes of Irish centers Kylee Watson and Lauren Ebo, both of whom stand 6-5.
And yet, Maryland out-rebounded Notre Dame 41-37.
“I felt like they were getting every 50-50 ball, every loose ball,” Ivey said. “I really challenged the team. I had to call timeout just to really talk about focusing on effort plays.”
Ebo finished 0 of 5 from the floor with 5 rebounds in 21 minutes. Watson scored 8 of her 10 points in the first half and finished with just 2 rebounds. Maryland won the offensive rebounds battle 17-13 and had 21 second-chance points to Notre Dame’s 9.
The Terrapins’ Shyanne Sellers, who finished the game with 17 points, drew 8 fouls. Miller drew 6. The Irish can’t let opponents walk onto their floor as the more foul-savvy, tougher team. Especially not with the Huskies coming to town.
Offensely out of sorts
Miles only played 25 minutes because of foul trouble. The Irish offense was stagnant at times as a result, especially in the first half. Notre Dame had 7 first-quarter turnovers. It was subsequently the home team’s lowest-scoring quarter at 13 points.
Graduate student guard Dara Mabrey and sophomore guard Sonia Citron, who had a team-high 24 points, are perfectly fine ball handlers, but they are not Miles. The Notre Dame suffers every minute Miles is not putting the Irish into an offensive flow.
“When you turn the ball over, it’s a momentum killer,” Ivey said. “A momentum booster for them, especially since they were capitalizing on our mistakes. Something we’ve been working on every day, passing away from the defense, just working on that. But it definitely got us out of our rhythm. Offensively, we couldn’t get it going.”
Twelve of Miles’ 14 points came in the second half. She was an aggressor before she picked up her fourth foul late in the third quarter. She missed the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. Maryland outscored Notre Dame 11-8 in that span to cut a four-point margin down to one.
Miles and Citron accounted for more than half of Notre Dame’s point total. They work well in tandem. Citron played 38 minutes. In a game of this magnitude, Miles would have joined her had she stayed out of foul trouble. She didn’t, and it might have cost the Irish a huge home win.
“We know how important and valuable she is,” Maryland head coach Brenda Frese said. “She sets that tone for them. I thought that was a pretty big X-factor for us to be able to get her in foul trouble as a result of us being aggressive.”
