'16 Women's BB NCAA Tournament

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Irish Earn 21st Consecutive NCAA Tournament Berth :: Notre Dame Women's Basketball :: UND.COM :: The Official Site of Notre Dame Athletics

Fighting Irish are No. 1 seed in Lexington Region, will play host to 16th-seeded North Carolina A&T in first round at 6:30 p.m. (ET) Saturday at Purcell Pavilion.

NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- For the 21st consecutive season, and the 23rd time in school history, Notre Dame has earned a berth in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship, having received the Atlantic Coast Conference's automatic berth into this year's field by winning its third consecutive ACC Championship title last week. The Fighting Irish are the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Championship's Lexington Region -- the fifth consecutive year and sixth time in program history they have earned a top seed -- and will play host to 16th-seeded North Carolina A&T (the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion) at 6:30 p.m. (ET) Saturday at Purcell Pavilion.

The game will be televised by ESPN2 as part of that network's "whiparound coverage," while viewers in the South Bend market, as well as those watching on ESPN3 and WatchESPN, will see the game in its entirety. However, the majority of ESPN2 viewers nationwide will be shuttled between all four games in that time slot, including the Notre Dame-North Carolina A&T contest. All Fighting Irish games also can be heard live on the radio in the South Bend area on Pulse FM (96.9/92.1), as well as worldwide online through the official Notre Dame athletics multimedia platform, WatchND (watchnd.tv), with veteran broadcaster Bob Nagle on the call.

...

All-session and single-session tickets for this weekend's NCAA tournament games at Purcell Pavilion currently are on sale through the official Notre Dame athletics ticketing web site (UND.com/buytickets). All-session tickets are $32 for adults and $17 for youth (18 & under), while single-session tickets for Saturday's first-round games are $15 for adults and $10 for youth (18 & under) and single-session tickets for the March 21 second-round game are $20 for adults and $12 for youth (18 & under). Tickets will be available by phone (574-631-7356) or in person at the Murnane Family Athletics Ticket Office (Gate 9 windows at Purcell Pavilion) beginning at 8:30 a.m. (ET) Tuesday. Fans who already have purchased NCAA tournament tickets can pick up their tickets beginning at 8:30 a.m. (ET) Tuesday at the Murnane Family Athletics Ticket Office.

In addition, Club Naimoli passes will be available for this weekend's NCAA tournament games at Purcell Pavilion. All-session club passes are $60, while single-session club passes are $40 for Saturday and $30 for March 21. As a reminder, game tickets are required in order to purchase club passes, which will go on sale at 8:30 a.m. (ET) Wednesday through the Murnane Family Athletics Ticket Office.

 

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2016 NCAA Tournament Bracket - March Madness Tournament Brackets - ESPN

 

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South Bend, IN Games

South Bend, IN Games

1 ND v 16 NCAT 3/19 6:30

A member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, North Carolina A&T (19-11, 12-4 MEAC) is making its third NCAA Championship appearance, returning to the tournament for the first time since 2009. The Aggies come into this weekend's NCAA first-round contest at Notre Dame having won nine of their last 10 games, and 15 of their last 18, with only a road loss to conference foe Bethune-Cookman (65-41 on Feb. 29) marring their resume down the stretch.

North Carolina A&T won a share of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular-season title with Bethune-Cookman, then claimed the conference tournament championship at the Scope in Norfolk, Virginia, defeating Florida A&M (67-50), Hampton (63-54) and Coppin State (65-46) to earn the MEAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Championship.

The Aggies have posted at least 19 wins in all four seasons since head coach Tarrell Robinson arrived on the Greensboro, North Carolina, campus. North Carolina A&T is led by redshirt junior center Aprill McRae (13.3 ppg., 6.4 rpg.), a second-team all-MEAC selection, who poured in 25 points in the Aggies' MEAC Tournament semifinal win over Hampton en route to earning MEAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors.

North Carolina A&T also gains support from a third-team all-MEAC choice in redshirt senior guard Dana Brown (11.5 ppg., team-high 64 three-pointers made), as well as sophomore guard Kala Green (9.7 ppg., 2.4 apg., 1.5 spg.) and redshirt senior guard Christina Carter (7.4 ppg., team-high 3.7 apg.).

Notre Dame not only will be facing North Carolina A&T for the first time, but also playing a MEAC school for the first time when the Fighting Irish and Aggies meet Saturday night.

Notre Dame and North Carolina A&T had one common opponent this season -- Ohio State. The Fighting Irish defeated the Buckeyes, 75-72 on Dec. 2 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge at Purcell Pavilion. Meanwhile, the Aggies dropped an 89-56 decision at Ohio State on Dec. 13.

8 UGA v 9 IND 3/19 9:00

Georgia (21-9, 9-7 SEC) finished in sixth place in the Southeastern Conference regular-season standings before falling to Vanderbilt, 54-49 in overtime in the second round of the SEC Championship. The Bulldogs, who come into the NCAA tournament having lost three of their last five following a five-game winning streak, will be making their 32nd NCAA Championship appearance (second all-time behind Tennessee's 35 berths) and return to the tournament after a one-year absence (the first time Georgia had missed the NCAA Championship since 1994).

Notre Dame is 1-2 all-time against Georgia, most recently earning a 75-73 victory over the Bulldogs on Nov. 24, 2000, in the championship game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Challenge in Madison, Wisconsin. Georgia also won both ends of a home-and-home series with the Fighting Irish in the early 1990s, prevailing 90-86 in overtime on Dec. 8, 1991, in Athens, Georgia, as well as 81-75 on Dec. 21, 1992, at Purcell Pavilion.

The Fighting Irish and Bulldogs had two common opponents this season -- Georgia Tech and Tennessee. Notre Dame went 3-0 against the pair, sweeping a home-and-home ACC series with Georgia Tech (85-76 on Dec. 30 at Purcell Pavilion; 54-42 on Jan. 28 in Atlanta) and toppling visiting Tennessee (79-66 on Jan. 18 at Purcell Pavilion).

Meanwhile, Georgia went 1-1 against those common opponents, defeating Georgia Tech (78-66 on Nov. 22 in Athens), but dropping an 80-60 decision at Tennessee on Feb. 28.

Indiana (20-11, 12-6 Big Ten) is back in the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2002 and the fifth time in school history after finishing fourth in the Big Ten regular-season race. However, the Hoosiers are coming off a 79-73 upset loss to Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, just their second loss in the last nine games.

Although in-state foes, Notre Dame and Indiana have met just 10 times before on the hardwood, with the Fighting Irish holding a 6-4 series edge against the Hoosiers. The teams have split their six prior matchups in South Bend, with IU winning the most recent game in the series, 54-51 on Dec. 3, 2006, at Purcell Pavilion.

Notre Dame and Indiana had four common opponents this season -- DePaul, Georgia Tech, Miami and Ohio State. Notre Dame went 6-0 against this group, including the aforementioned sweep of Georgia Tech and the noted victory over Ohio State, a pair of wins over Miami (90-69 in the regular season on Feb. 14 at Purcell Pavilion; 78-67 on March 5 in the ACC Tournament semifinals at Greensboro, North Carolina), and a victory over DePaul (95-90 on Dec. 9 at Purcell Pavilion).

Indiana went a combined 1-3 against those common opponents, defeating Georgia Tech, 69-60 on Dec. 2 in Bloomington, Indiana, in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Hoosiers also lost at DePaul (84-69 on Nov. 19) and Ohio State (97-70 on Jan. 7) and dropped a neutral-site decision to Miami (89-75 on Dec. 20 at the Florida Sunshine Classic in Winter Park, Florida).

 

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Five burning questions off the women's NCAA tournament bracket

1. How could Connecticut be stopped?

2. Which No. 1 seed has the most difficult road to Indianapolis?

Although it would travel the fewest miles of any No. 1 seed, barely crossing a state line along the way, Notre Dame faces an on-court trek to Bankers Life Fieldhouse that is worthy of Lewis and Clark.

Granted, the Fighting Irish aren't the only top seed with work ahead of them. Although South Carolina, more than any team, has the size to neutralize the threat and would be at home, do you think Dawn Staley is excited about a potential second-round game against George Washington's Jonquel Jones, a player with every bit the WNBA potential of A'ja Wilson or Alaina Coates?

Nor are there easy options for Baylor, which will likely have some combination of Florida State, Texas A&M, Louisville and Oregon State blocking its path.

But assuming Notre Dame plays to its seed in the first two rounds, at home against No. 16 North Carolina A&T and the winner of No. 8 Georgia vs. No. 9 Indiana, the regional in Lexington could earn the Irish tickets back to South Bend just as easily as a pass to Indianapolis. Start with a Sweet 16 game against Stanford. An inglorious Pac-12 tournament exit notwithstanding, the Cardinal looked like a better team down the stretch than the one Notre Dame dispatched with ease in the Sweet 16 a season ago. The team was far better defensively and more cohesive offensively.

Survive that, and Notre Dame might face a scenario in which the Big Ten regular-season and tournament champion, a team with Final Four experience, is the preferred option. If the opponent isn't Maryland, with all the challenges posed by Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, Brionna Jones & Co., it will likely be Kentucky on the court where that team plays many of its biggest games.

Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw's road to a sixth consecutive Final Four might be the most difficult of them all.

3. Where will the drama be in the first two rounds?

4. Which team could crash the Final Four?

5. Which players should you catch while you can?

 

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Creme: Women's committee got bracket right

Notre Dame, not South Carolina, to Lexington.

This may be the most interesting situation in the entire bracket. South Carolina stayed the No. 2 team overall on the committee's board with Notre Dame as the No. 3. It's an evaluation many fans and media disagreed with throughout February as the committee revealed its top-10 three times and it's a topic committee chair Chris Dawson has admitted all along was much discussed among committee members.

"We recognized the closeness of the two teams and it was something we spent some time on," Dawson said. "South Carolina's one more win in the RPI top-25 is really what made the difference."

However, the twist here is that despite being No. 2 overall, South Carolina was not sent to the Lexington, Kentucky region, the closest site to Columbia. Instead, the Gamecocks will be playing in the Sioux Falls Region. The Irish are the No. 1 seed in Lexington.

"When it's possible, we would rather have teams drive rather than fly as much as possible with a 350-mile radius as the marker," Dawson said. "South Carolina was a flight either way [to Lexington or Sioux Falls]. Notre Dame could drive to Lexington, but not Sioux Falls. That is why the teams were placed that way."

The byproduct of that decision was the ability to also place No. 3 seed Kentucky in Lexington, although Dawson said it wasn't something the committee sought out. If South Carolina had been there, the Wildcats could not be because of the NCAA's bracketing principle that doesn't allow teams from the same conference (the SEC in this case) to be placed in the same region if they are among the top-four seeds.

The Lexington Region is at Rupp Arena, where the Wildcats played twice this season (they play the majority of their games in Memorial Coliseum). By rule, if it had been more than three times, Kentucky would not have been allowed placement in Lexington.

So, the Irish get a bus trip rather than a flight, but that could also mean a possible matchup with the Wildcats in the Elite Eight at Rupp Arena, a true road game for the No. 3 overall team in the country. That kind of potential atmosphere would certainly be good for the game. It certainly is not ideal for the Irish.

 

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Creme Ranks ND 2nd In NCAA Tourney

Creme Ranks ND 2nd In NCAA Tourney

Ranking the women's NCAA tournament field

By Charlie Creme

2. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Remember when Taya Reimer left the team. That's right, neither does anyone else. The talented post player decided to step away after playing five games to start her junior season, and the Irish missed nothing. That's because Muffet McGraw has created such a hearty program that for every rare Tara Reimer case, there are two like Madison Cable and Michaela Mabrey, players who continually improved under the veteran coach. Those two seniors are part of another dominant Notre Dame team that can only wonder what life would be like if Storrs, Connecticut, was not on the map. The committee might have South Carolina as the overall No. 2, but Notre Dame really looks like the better team.

A prime example why McGraw is up for COY

 

[Irish#1]

In Muffet we trust.

 

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2Q ND 34 A&T 21

Turner 5-6, 10 pts.

 

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Rebs even at 15 but A&T has 9 Offensive Rebs.

ND has 16 Assists on 16 baskets.

ND 4 Turnovers to A&T's 7

A&T 3-10 shooting treys, ND 1-3

 

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Cable 5-8, 10 pts

 

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Lindsay on the bench with 2 fouls. 3:30 left in 1st half.

 

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Mich hits a 3 pointer than Westbeld pulls down a rebound and goes coast to coast for a layup and 52 -24 lead.

 

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Halftime ND 52 NCA&T 24

Halftime ND 52 NCA&T 24

Matchup NCA&T ND
FG Made-Attempted 9-37 21-32
Field Goal % 24.3 65.6
3PT Made-Attempted 3-13 3-5
Three Point % 23.1 60.0
FT Made-Attempted 3-6 7-8
Free Throw % 50.0 87.5
Total Rebounds 19 21
Offensive Rebounds 12 4
Defensive Rebounds 7 17
Team Rebounds 0 0
Assists 5 20
Steals 2 4
Blocks 0 3
Turnovers 9 6
Team Turnovers 1 0
Total Turnovers 10 6
Personal Fouls 10 6
Technical Fouls 0 0
Flagrant Fouls 0 0

 

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Notre Dame

STARTERS	FG	3PT	FT	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
B. Turner F	6-7	0-0	0-0	1	2	3	2	1	0	2	2	12
K. Westbeld F	2-3	0-0	0-0	0	5	5	1	0	1	0	0	4
M. Cable G	5-8	0-1	0-0	1	2	3	0	0	0	1	0	10
M. Mabrey G	2-3	2-3	0-0	0	1	1	4	1	0	0	1	6
L. Allen G	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	1	8	2	0	1	2	0
BENCH	FG	3PT	FT	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
K. Nelson F	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	2	0	1	1	0	0
D. Thompson C	-----	-----	-----	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
H. Huffman G	1-3	0-0	0-0	2	1	3	1	0	0	1	1	2
M. Mabrey G	2-2	0-0	4-4	0	2	2	2	0	1	0	0	8
Ogunbowale G	2-3	0-0	2-2	0	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	6
M. Johnson G	1-2	1-1	1-2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
TEAM	      21-32	3-5	7-8	4	17	21	20	4	3	6	6	52
 	      65.6%	60.0%	87.5%

 

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Westbeld 6-7, 12 points, 7 Rebs

 

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Cable Trey! 13 pts

 

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Turner on the bench with 3 PFs

Allen 2
Hannah 2

 

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Nelson cleared out underneath and Cable drove in for the basket.

 

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SDSU looked pretty good taking down Canes.

 

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Final ND 95 NC A&T 61

Final ND 95 NC A&T 61

Matchup NC A&T ND
FG Made-Attempted 22-67 34-58
Field Goal % 32.8 58.6
3PT Made-Attempted 7-23 6-12
Three Point % 30.4 50.0
FT Made-Attempted 10-23 21-29
Free Throw % 43.5 72.4
Total Rebounds 32 46
Offensive Rebounds 16 11
Defensive Rebounds 16 35
Team Rebounds 0 0
Assists 13 29
Steals 14 9
Blocks 0 4
Turnovers 19 21
Personal Fouls 24 21
Technical Fouls 0 0
Flagrant Fouls 0 0

 

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Notre Dame

STARTERS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
B. TurnerF	15	7-8	0-0	2-2	1	2	3	2	1	0	2	3	16
WestbeldF	15	6-7	0-0	0-1	1	6	7	2	0	1	0	0	12
M. CableG	20	7-11	1-3	0-0	1	6	7	0	1	0	1	0	15
M. MabreyG	28	2-5	2-5	0-0	1	2	3	6	3	0	3	4	6
L. AllenG	21	0-0	0-0	1-2	0	2	2	10	2	0	2	2	1
BENCH	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
K. NelsonF	14	1-3	0-0	2-2	2	2	4	2	0	1	3	1	4
D. ThompsonC	8	0-0	0-0	1-2	0	2	2	0	0	0	1	4	1
H. HuffmanG	21	2-4	0-0	0-0	2	3	5	5	1	0	6	4	4
M. MabreyG	20	3-7	0-1	7-8	1	4	5	2	0	2	1	0	13
A. OgunbowaleG	21	3-8	0-0	5-6	2	5	7	0	0	0	0	0	11
M. JohnsonG	17	3-5	3-3	3-6	0	1	1	0	1	0	2	3	12
TEAM		        34-58	6-12	21-29	11	35	46	29	9	4	21	21	95
 		        58.6%	50.0%	72.4%

 

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#2/3 Irish Win NCAA Opener, 95-61, Over N.C. A&T :: Notre Dame Women's Basketball :: UND.COM :: The Official Site of Notre Dame Athletics

Top-seeded Notre Dame dominated No. 16-seed North Carolina A&T for three quarters, earning praise from coach Muffet McGraw for unselfish play.

The Fighting Irish had 20 assists on 21 baskets in the first half and finished with 29 assists on 34 field goals en route to a 95-61 victory Saturday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

''That is amazing how unselfish we were,'' McGraw said. ''There were times somebody had a wide-open shot and they gave it to somebody for just a little better shot. It's really fun to watch them play that way when they share the ball.''

...

Lindsay Allen only had 1 point but dished out 10 assists.

The 29 assists were the most ever by the Irish in an NCAA Tournament game. The previous record was 26 against Tennessee-Martin in 2013.

 

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Up Next For The Fighting Irish:

Notre Dame will play host to ninth-seeded Indiana in the second round of the NCAA Championship's Lexington Region at 6:30 p.m. (ET) Monday at Purcell Pavilion.

The game will be televised live on ESPN2 and WatchESPN, while radio coverage will be available in South Bend on Pulse FM (96.9/92.1) and free of charge around the world through the official Notre Dame athletics online multimedia platform, WatchND (watchnd.tv).

 

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ND v IU 6:30 ET

ND v IU 6:30 ET

NCAA Championship - Lexington Region/Second Round
#2/3 [#1 seed] Notre Dame Fighting Irish (32-1 / 16-0 ACC) vs. [#9 seed] Indiana Hoosiers (21-11 / 12-6 Big Ten)
DATE: March 21, 2016
TIME: 6:30 p.m. ET
AT: Notre Dame, Ind. - Purcell Pavilion (9,149)
SERIES: ND leads 6-4
LAST MTG: IU 54-51 (12/3/06)

TV: ESPN2/ESPN3/WatchESPN (live) (Dave Pasch, p-b-p / Debbie Antonelli, color)

RADIO: Pulse FM (96.9/92.1)/WatchND (watchnd.tv) (live) (Bob Nagle, p-b-p / Ruth Riley, color)

LIVE STATS: UND.com

 

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ND -21.5

 

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Turner PF 1

 

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ND 2 turnovers in 2 minutes

 

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Turner with 2 on a turnaround

 

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ND dominating the early boards 5-2

 

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Mich with a 3