Observations from Notre Dame women's basketball season opening win

The 2022-23 Notre Dame women’s basketball season came to life Monday night with the flickering of thousands of green lights inside Purcell Pavilion. The Fighting Irish’s quest for another NCAA Tournament bid — and perhaps so much more — began with a 88-48 victory over Northern Illinois.

“The fans were electric,” head coach Niele Ivey said. “We had so much excitement the last couple weeks preparing for this moment.”

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Here are some observations from No. 9 Notre Dame’s season-opening win.

Olivia Miles starts the right way

It’s very possible sophomore guard Olivia Miles plays her way into the National Player of the Year conversation. Monday, she showed why.

Miles had 17 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Ten of those points came in the first quarter. Surprisingly, Miles didn’t have a single helper in the first frame. She notched one quickly in the second and another in rapid succession on an underhand flip to junior center Nat Marshall on the fast break.

“I didn’t see much from a passing perspective,” Miles said of no assists in the first quarter. “I feel like my lanes weren’t as open as they usually are, hence why I was more aggressive to the hoop. I always look for lanes I can drive within our offense. That’s what I was looking for as my passing lanes weren’t open.”

Miles eventually had her complete game on night one. Notre Dame’s first points of the season came on a Miles three-point swish. She also tied a career high with 6 steals. The Irish will go as Miles goes this season. She was going against the Huskies. If there was a knock to be had on Miles, it was a 5-of-14 (35.7%) effort from the field.

She’ll almost assuredly bounce back from that, though. She only had a worse field goal percentage than that in 6 of 33 games last season. She’s as efficient as she is electric — Ivey’s early-season buzzword.

“Her pace was amazing,” Ivey said. “Electric in transition. She had the crowd going with her passes and finishes. It was great.”

Maddy Westbeld shows off two-way game

There was much intrigue going into the game for how Texas transfer Lauren Ebo and Oregon transfer Kylee Watson would join forces to replace the offensive and defensive production of departed graduate student Maya Dodson. Rightfully so. Dodson was the 1B to Miles’ 1A last season, and sometimes it was vice versa.

Ebo and Watson were both effective. But not as much as junior forward Maddy Westbeld.

It was Westbeld who showed poise in the post on both ends of the floor. She was hard for the smaller Huskies lineup to guard. She had a game-high 4 blocks. Westbeld was arguably Notre Dame’s second best player, taking a spot so frequently held by Dodson a year ago. She finished with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.

Not quite Miles-like stat sheet stuffing, but pretty good for a 6-3 forward. Ivey said Westbeld’s comfort level as a junior has taken the next step.

“Maddy is in incredible shape, extremely confident and playing some of her best basketball right now,” Ivey said. “She does everything well.”

Struggles on the glass

Notre Dame still found out life without Dodson isn’t going to be a cruise-controlled drive down a deserted highway. The vertically-challenged Northern Illinois roster that doesn’t boast a player taller than 6-1 out-rebounded Ebo (6-4), Watson (6-4) and the Irish, 45 to 43.

Watson (9) and Ebo (10) combined for 19 points, but they only combined for 7 rebounds. Watson, who started at center, had 1. Northern Illinois had 18 offensive rebounds to Notre Dame’s 11. The Huskies are a three-ball, jump-shooting team, so some of those boards got away from the Irish. But Ivey contended her team needed to come down with more of them anyway.

“I thought we had good position, but we needed to be more aggressive in getting the ball,” Ivey said. “There were a lot of times the ball dropped. We boxed out and made contact, but we didn’t get the ball. It’s definitely something we’re going to work on and something we’ll fix.”

Dara Mabrey shakes off the rust

Miles’ backcourt mate, graduate student Dara Mabrey, was 1-for-7 (including 1-for-5 from three) in the first half. She was 5-for-5 (including 3-for-3 from three) in the second half. She finished with 16 points.

Mabrey also had an assist that raised Miles’ brows when she dribbled behind her back near the free throw line, charged hard to her left for a few paces then dished behind her head and to the right to Westbeld, who easily flipped in the ensuing layup.

“I was front and center watching it, so it was super cool,” Miles said. “I knew what Dara was going to do before she even did it. I saw her looking. It was cool to see her make that play. I appreciate good passers and love seeing a connection on the court. That’s one of the most rewarding things for me for sure.”

Notre Dame is back in action Saturday for a neutral-site matchup vs. California at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Saturday at 4 p.m. (NBC).