ND Women’s Basketball 2021-2022

[BabyIrish]

The women’s basketball team kicked off the second season under Nielle Ivey tonight. Their opponent was Ohio, a team they lost to last year who returned all five starters from a year ago.

Tonight was a different story. We got our revenge with a 36 point thrashing with a score of 105-69.

Transfer Maya Dodson looked really really good. Looked like Jess Shepherd on offense and Brianna Turner on defense. If she can play like this consistently along side what Brunelle and Westbeld as the other bigs, then we could have a great year. Sonia Citron had herself a debut as well.

As a team we had a 3:1 assist to turnover ratio. Great to see. That’s obviously pretty hard to maintain but would love to see the turnovers continue to stay down.

Can’t wait to see what this team can do!

 

[JurDocDuLac]

Thank you BabyIrish!

 

[BabyIrish]

Irish played on Thursday and won improving to 2-0 on the season. Shooting was off for some reason. They’ve got a huge conference game today against Syracuse. This should give us a good snapshot of how good this team is.

 

[BabyIrish]

Irish up 9-3 at the first break with Miles at the line for 2 shots.
Defense is looking really good. Playing a 2-3 zone to keep them from driving the lane. Working out so far.

 

[BabyIrish]

ND- 17, Cuse-10 at the end of 1Q
Westbeld leads all scorers with 8 points. She’s dominating thus far.

 

[BabyIrish]

End of 2Q ND-34, Cuse-28
A much sloppier 2nd quarter. We have 14 turnovers and lots of foul trouble with the bigs. Dodson, Westbeld and Marshall have 2 with both Dodson and Westbeld not playing a second in the 2nd quarter. I suspect with those two back on the floor we’ll see better play.

 

[BabyIrish]

Final. ND-82 Cuse- 56
ND finished the game on a 21-0 run. Westbeld played most of the 2nd half. So it’s not surprise that we took over and only had 5 turnovers in the second half.

 

[BabyIrish]

WBB went 2-0 last week to bring the record to 5-0 on the season. The next four games are against top 30 teams.
Georgia
Oregon St
Michigan St
UConn

All four are away or neutral site. Can’t wait to see how they look against tougher competition.

 

[BabyIrish]

Ended up splitting last week’s invitational by losing in OT to Georgia but coming back with a victory over #15 ranked Oregon St.

We get MSU on Thursday and #2 ranked UCONN on Sunday. I don’t think we have a consistent enough offense to beat UCONN unfortunately. But I’m definitely curious to see how we match up.

 

[BrownerandFry]

Ended up splitting last week’s invitational by losing in OT to Georgia but coming back with a victory over #15 ranked Oregon St.

We get MSU on Thursday and #2 ranked UCONN on Sunday. I don’t think we have a consistent enough offense to beat UCONN unfortunately. But I’m definitely curious to see how we match up.

Hey, I appreciate what you are doing with this squad.

thanks for putting in the work, and I will start following this.

Appreciate ya!

 

[BrownerandFry]

The women’s basketball team kicked off the second season under Nielle Ivey tonight. Their opponent was Ohio, a team they lost to last year who returned all five starters from a year ago.

Tonight was a different story. We got our revenge with a 36 point thrashing with a score of 105-69.

Transfer Maya Dodson looked really really good. Looked like Jess Shepherd on offense and Brianna Turner on defense. If she can play like this consistently along side what Brunelle and Westbeld as the other bigs, then we could have a great year. Sonia Citron had herself a debut as well.

As a team we had a 3:1 assist to turnover ratio. Great to see. That’s obviously pretty hard to maintain but would love to see the turnovers continue to stay down.

Can’t wait to see what this team can do!

Please don't be bashful about inserting your opinions and observations. Please

 

[BabyIrish]

ND won again Thursday against MSU 76-71 to improve to 7-1 on the season. Freshman Sonia Citron exploded for 29 points. Up next is #2 UCONN. I think we’ll keep it close for a while with UCONN pulling away in the fourth. But we’re gonna need all hands on deck. We need Westbeld and Dodson to really dominate the paint. That’s where we can take advantage. Miles Mabrey and Citron are gonna have their hands full with Bueckers and Fuzz.

But I’m excited to see how they stack up. And quite frankly everyone needs to watch this team. Because Ivey can coach and Brey cannot.

 

[BrownerandFry]

A couple of questions, and each of them may be premature.

What is your (early) judgement on Ivey's coaching, program management.

and are Westbeld, Miles and Citron the trio around which a contending program can be constructed?

Again, if these are "too early to call" that is cool.............................

 

[BabyIrish]

A couple of questions, and each of them may be premature.

What is your (early) judgement on Ivey's coaching, program management.

and are Westbeld, Miles and Citron the trio around which a contending program can be constructed?

Again, if these are "too early to call" that is cool.............................

Last year, the team was 10-10. So far this year 7-1. So for sure the team is making improvements. Defense has looked consistent throughout the year. The offense not so much so that’s my one concern.

In terms of recruiting she got off to a hot start with the Miles Citron class but since then there hasn’t seemed to be a lot of momentum so that’s a concern as well. Has the shine worn off?

In terms of your last question: Yes I absolutely believe you can build a championship team around those 3. Olivia is one of the smoothest PG’s I’ve seen in the women’s game. Great handles and vision. Citron isn’t flashy but she can score and defend. Both will get better with each game. And Westbeld also isn’t elite in one area but is very good in all areas.

 

[BrownerandFry]

Wow! Irish ladies are young, but I had heard about Miles, including from our maven Baby Irish, and was astounded.

She is Chris Paul!

Go lady Irish!

 

[BabyIrish]

ND won again Thursday against MSU 76-71 to improve to 7-1 on the season. Freshman Sonia Citron exploded for 29 points. Up next is #2 UCONN. I think we’ll keep it close for a while with UCONN pulling away in the fourth. But we’re gonna need all hands on deck. We need Westbeld and Dodson to really dominate the paint. That’s where we can take advantage. Miles Mabrey and Citron are gonna have their hands full with Bueckers and Fuzz.

But I’m excited to see how they stack up. And quite frankly everyone needs to watch this team. Because Ivey can coach and Brey cannot.

Basically was spot on with my prediction. It was a seven point lead heading into the fourth and then UCONN exploded and it was all but over. I said that we needed our bigs to dominate to have a shot and it didn’t happen. Not only did Dodson and Westbeld struggle scoring points but they couldn’t rebound. We lost the rebounding battle by 13 and gave up way too many offensive rebounds. That has not been the case in the previous matchups and it cost us big time. This team is still very young besides Dara and I hope they are able to learn from it. I think they could compete for an ACC championship.

Citron had 19 points. She’s the real deal. She’s probably going to replace Peoples pretty soon in the starting lineup.

 

[BabyIrish]

Despite going 1-1 last week with a loss to UConn, we move up two spots to #22 this week. Played lowly Valpo last night. I was worried about this game as it was our fifth away game when we had just played four top 30 teams in a row. We struggled through the first 25 minutes and then pulled away late.

Olivia Miles had flirted with a triple double the last two games and hit it last night with 11 points, 13 boards, 13 assists. She’s really special.

Citron while has fewer points was able to grab 10 rebounds herself. The freshman class is going to be the cornerstone of this team.

Transfer Maya Dodson has really disappeared since the first game. We really need to get her going as we get close to entering ACC play.

 

[BabyIrish]

Irish win another one 85-59. Led by the big 3 of Citron, Miles and Westbeld. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Olivia Miles win POTY honors at some point in her career if she stays healthy. She’s that good.

I wonder how long we’ll have to wait for Citron to replace Peoples in the starting lineup. Maya Dodson also played her lowest minutes of the season. I wonder if Brunelle and Marshall will start seeing more time as well.

Still some questions to be answered but you’ve got a great three headed monster to build with. We should be competing for a title with Louisville, NC St and Duke.

 

[BabyIrish]

ND at DePaul on FS1. DePaul is another top 30 team. Going to be a good one.

 

[BabyIrish]

First official timeout. DePaul 14 ND 13. DePaul pushes everything. They can score in a hurry. Going to be every entertaining.

 

[BabyIrish]

End of the 1Q
Depaul-22 ND-20

We’re rebounding pretty well. Free throws only 2-5.

 

[BabyIrish]

Official timeout
ND- 31 DePaul- 28

 

[BabyIrish]

End of the 1st half:
ND- 44, DePaul- 33
Miles with a 3 at the buzzer. Defense was spot on I’m the second quarter.
We continue to dominate the boards. It’s Peoples best game of the season so far which she needed because Citron has been coming on strong.
It’s also Dodsons best game since Ohio. The score could be a lot more. She’s missed a couple easy baskets but still playing great ball.

 

[BabyIrish]

ND-86 DePaul- 81 with 1:45 left.
Maya Dodson is owning the second half.

 

[BabyIrish]

Finall
ND-91 DePaul- 86
Great win! On to league play.

 

[BabyIrish]

ND- 25, Duke-22
Duke is ranked #15, we’re ranked #17. This is a huge game. Would love to see us win this. Because up next is NC St. A top 5 team.

 

[BabyIrish]

ND- 40 Duke-37
Olivia Miles is so freaking good. You’re really missing out if you haven’t watched her play.
Dodson having a second straight great game. Good to see her getting comfortable.

 

[BabyIrish]

At the end of 3
ND-55 Duke-48
That was the Mabrey and Dodson quarter. Finish off strong ladies!

 

[bcole2]

Great to see the Lady Irish starting to build back up after those tough couple years in transition from Muffet to Niele.

 

[BabyIrish]

Duke-72 ND-70
Was hoping for the W. Duke won by hitting 10 threes. On to NC St