Lauren Ebo, Notre Dame women’s basketball fend off Mississippi State to reach Sweet 16

Mississippi State tested Lauren Ebo two times in the closing seconds at Purcell Pavilion on Sunday. Twice, the Notre Dame graduate student center was up to the task. It was a tall one — literally.

The No. 11 seed Bulldogs went to 6-5 senior center Jessika Carter on back-to-back designed plays inside 30 seconds remaining in a second-round NCAA Tournament matchup. They only trailed the No. 3 seed Irish by four points. A score and a steal, or even a score and missed free throws from the Irish, would have given them an opportunity to tie or take the lead.

Ebo made sure that score never came.

She blocked both of Carter’s shots, confidently nodding to nobody in particular after the first. It was a nod that silently screamed, “I’m not going anywhere.” Notre Dame guard Sonia Citron grabbed the rebound on the second and made a pair of foul shots. With a six-point lead and less than 15 seconds left, serious March Madness needed to ensue for Mississippi State to spring an upset. No must-see SportsCenter here. The Irish notched a 53-48 win to reach the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.

“Mississippi State chose to go to their post player, and I knew I was guarding her, so I had to get a stop,” Ebo said. “Which, I did.”

Nothing to it, right? Ebo was nonchalant in her postgame press conference for a player who set the all-time Notre Dame record for rebounds in an NCAA Tournament game with 18 to go along with 5 blocks and 10 points, her fifth double-double of the season. The block total tied a career high. Ebo’s top-two on-court duties are defense and rebounds. Notre Dame would not have beaten the Bulldogs without her high level of play in both categories.

A two-time Elite Eight participant the last two seasons at Texas, Ebo didn’t back down from a round-of-32 matchup against an underdog that just barely made the tournament field. Carter went into the game coming off six straight double-digit scoring performances. Ebo limited her to 8. Most of her eight shot attempts were contested. Only shooting eight times was a sign of how much Ebo keyed in on Carter in and of itself, too.

“She was really ready today,” Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey said. “She knew Mississippi State’s offense went through Carter. That was something we were focused on. We had to get the stops and protect the paint with her, and we had to establish our inside game. I could just tell she knew this was her opportunity to step up.”

Mississippi State went on an 8-0 run to tie the game at 41-41 midway through the fourth quarter. Who stopped the bleeding? Ebo. The ball fell to her from out of nowhere on an offensive rebound, and she put in an uncontested layup.

When it’s your night, it’s your night.

“Thankfully I think actually one of my teammates tipped to me, so shout out to them,” Ebo said.

The low score is entirely indicative of the type of game that took place. Nothing came easy for either team. Mississippi State shot 29.5 percent from the field. Notre Dame shot 34.7 percent. Each side’s defensive intensity affected those numbers. It was evident early neither side was going to win a beauty pageant. Games this time of year have a knack for going in that direction. Style points aren’t ever necessary.

Still, one-half of Mississippi State’s formula to continue its Cinderella season was played to perfection. The Bulldogs came out harassing Notre Dame’s ball-handlers from the start. They picked up the Irish full-court and didn’t relent when the ball crossed the mid-court stripe. Citron shot 2 of 12 as a result. Junior forward Maddy Westbeld shot 4 of 13. Both players looked frustrated throughout the afternoon.

Both players also made winning plays.

Citron made five free throws in a row in the final 1:15. Westbeld followed Ebo’s lead and snagged 15 rebounds. And even in one of the ugliest offensive outings of the season for the Irish, those two combined for 23 points. Put them in the category with Ebo of players who did enough to give Notre Dame another NCAA Tournament victory.

“It really showed showed the resiliency of this team,” Westbeld said. “Everybody stepped up when they had to. It wasn’t pretty a lot of the time … I’m so proud of this team for the way that we showed our toughness.”

Mississippi State went cold at the wrong time. The Bulldogs shot 3 of 20 from three after hitting 11 triples, which tied a season high, two days prior in an upset victory over No. 6 seed Creighton. The first of the threes didn’t drop until the first minute of the fourth quarter. The last went in after Citron’s free throws put the Irish up by six in the waning seconds.

Too little, too late.

The Bulldogs were the type of team talk-show panelists love to sit and discuss late on Sunday night wondering how a program that played in the First Four ended up in the Sweet 16. Mississippi State head coach Sam Purcell loved to poke fun at everyone who didn’t believe in his team in his press conferences, too. But Notre Dame had different plans for the Dawgs, even without starting backcourt duo Olivia Miles and Dara Mabrey.

Ivey now leads the Irish to Greenville, S.C., for this coming weekend’s regional with those two key pieces to the puzzle ripped up and unable to slot into the picture this Notre Dame team is trying to put together. But one thing is certain: this Notre Dame team isn’t going to quit no matter who’s on the floor. Or not on the floor.

This Notre Dame team is still dancing.

“It takes a lot of confidence and a lot of belief to be able to do what we’re doing right now,” Ivey said. “They want to keep playing. They want to keep dancing and they did that today by showing up and going all the way, leaving it all on the floor.”

Sometimes, on top of talent, confidence and belief is enough.