STARTERS MIN FG 3PT FT OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
B. TurnerF 33 11-15 0-0 2-3 1 5 6 0 0 5 1 0 24
K. WestbeldF 31 6-9 2-3 0-0 1 5 6 4 0 0 2 2 14
M. MabreyG 28 3-9 2-6 0-0 0 3 3 6 2 0 1 0 8
A. OgunbowaleG 36 7-14 4-7 1-2 2 3 5 3 3 1 3 1 19
L. AllenG 38 2-4 0-0 2-2 0 4 4 9 1 0 0 4 6
BENCH MIN FG 3PT FT OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
E. BoleyF 15 1-2 1-1 0-0 1 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 3
J. YoungG 19 1-4 1-1 2-2 1 3 4 2 0 0 0 1 5
A. PatbergG -0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
TEAM 31-57 10-18 7-9 6 26 32 24 6 6 10 9 79
54.4% 55.6% 77.8%
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Brianna Turner scored 24 points to lead No. 5 Notre Dame to its fourth straight ACC regular season title with a 79-61 win over No. 8 Florida State on Sunday.
Arike Ogunbowale added 19 points and Kathryn Westbeld had 14 for the Irish (27-3, 15-1 ACC), who will once again be the top seed in the conference tournament, which they have won every year since joining the league in 2013.
Winners of 11 straight overall, the Fighting Irish are the second ACC team to win four consecutive championships, matching Duke's run from 2001-04. After losing their first ACC game of the season on Dec. 29, 70-62 at N.C. State, they rattled off 15 straight league wins to defend their crown.
Notre Dame point guard Lindsay Allen finished with nine assists and now has 778 for her career, tying Mary Galvin's school record set in 1988.
Brittany Brown scored 16 points to lead Florida State (25-5, 13-3) and Leticia Romero added 14.
Notre Dame came out hot, hitting four of five field goals, and had a 10-point lead in the first quarter. Turner hit three straight baskets down low to begin the second quarter, part of an 8-0 Irish run that pushed their lead to 16 points.
Ogunbowale opened the second half with a jumper and a layup and the Irish lead was up to 19 less than two minutes into the third quarter.
A 10-0 Florida State run cut it to 59-50 at the start of the fourth quarter, but Notre Dame's Jackie Young stroked a 3-pointer at the other end to get the Irish advantage back to double digits.
Florida State leading scorer Shakayla Thomas (15 points per game) returned to the starting lineup after missing two games with a shoulder injury. She finished with 10 points.
BIG PICTURE
Florida State: As with most other teams in the ACC, the Seminoles have yet to solve the Irish, falling to 0-6 against them. They also missed out on winning their third ACC co-championship and first ever No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament.
Notre Dame: The Irish have won six straight conference titles, including the last two from their time in the Big East. They are now 32-0 at home in the ACC and extended their overall conference home winning streak to 42 games, dating back to their Big East days.
UP NEXT
Florida State: The Seminoles are the No. 2 seed in the ACC tournament in Conway, S.C. and will play a quarterfinal matchup on March 3.
Notre Dame: The Irish will be the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament when they play in the quarterfinals on March 3.
A'ja Wilson had 25 points and 10 rebounds, Kaela Davis added 20 points and No. 7 South Carolina earned its fourth straight Southeastern Conference title with a 95-87 victory over No. 22 Kentucky on Sunday.
The Gamecocks (24-4, 14-2 SEC) will wait to see if they're alone at top or sharing the crown with No. 3 Mississippi State, who'll take on Tennessee later Sunday to close the regular season.
Nice to get to watch the game on the regular TV.
This game showed the brilliance of our great Coach.
Just two things and I'll shut up today:
1). Muffet broke the Wild Filly, and Arike has decided to play team ball. Arike tried out her new persona all game --- astonishing. I noted that the commentators talked of ND not being typical McGraw earlier in the season, seeming "selfish." One of them hastened to say that she didn't want anyone to think that she was laying this on Arike (but it was obvious that this is what it was.) No one else on the team is anywhere near a candidate for "selfishness" anyway. Well, that (hopefully) is now downstream, and we can cheer Arike and resoundingly cheer Muffet.
2). Today's game was a genuine threat. FSU has two great players and a couple more good ones. The main player, Thomas, is seriously tough to deal with (We had to allow Romero to get hers.) Muffet, on short notice, managed to train the girls in a match-up zone (based as far I as could tell on 1-2-2 principles) and this zone was a fluid shifting so as to always have someone in front of the position usually taken by Thomas --- this could be a wing or even a post (Kat was often in there along with Marina and Arike.) Result? Thomas almost never touched the ball in the first half. My goodness Lady you're good!!! We aren't even a zone team, and THIS in just two or three days?
We still have physicality problems on the defensive boards, so how far we go in the NCAA probably depends on match-ups. But, thanks to our great Coach, we're a threat again.
4:14 PM · Feb 26, 2017This is a huge game in Starkville. A MissSt loss (which would be 2 in a row), coupled with SC's earlier W over UK slides SC to the final #1
7:06 PM · Feb 26, 2017Full bracket coming tomorrow, but some notables. #1's in order: UConn, Notre Dame, Baylor, SC. A&M's chance to host all but gone...cont
7:07 PM · Feb 26, 2017...TN up to a No. 6 seed. Last 4 in stay same Iowa St, Virginia, Indiana, Auburn
Baylor, Notre Dame, Maryland and South Carolina follow UConn. The Terrapins dropped two spots after losing to then-No. 12 Ohio State last week. The Buckeyes moved up to ninth.
Mississippi State fell to sixth after losing in overtime to Kentucky and getting routed by Tennessee. Oregon State climbed four spots to move into a tie for sixth. Florida State and Stanford round out the first 10 teams in the poll.
Kansas State re-entered the poll at No. 24 while Michigan dropped out.
RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Conn (33) 28-0 825
2 Baylor 27-2 784
3 Notre Dame 27-3 755
4 Maryland 27-2 699
5 South Car 24-4 690
6 Mississi St 27-3 619
6 Oregon St 27-3 619
8 Florida St 25-5 561
9 Ohio State 25-5 550
10 Stanford 25-5 539
11 Washingt 27-4 534
12 Texas 21-7 472
13 Duke 25-4 470
14 Louisville 25-6 411
15 UCLA 22-7 369
16 Miami 21-7 293
17 NC State 22-7 265
18 DePaul 24-6 237
19 Oklahoma 22-7 230
20 Kentucky 20-9 177
21 Syracuse 20-9 170
22 Drake 23-4 128
23 Missouri 21-9 98
24 Kansas St 21-8 66
25 Temple 22-6 49
RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Connecticut (32) 29-0 800
2 Baylor 28-2 757
3 Notre Dame 27-3 731
4 Maryland 27-2 707
5 South Carolina 24-4 638
6 Oregon State 27-3 629
7 Mississippi St 27-3 614
8 Ohio State 25-5 562
9 Stanford 25-5 536
10 Washington 27-4 517
11 Duke 25-4 460
12 Florida State 25-5 457
13 Louisville 25-6 439
14 Texas 22-7 407
15 UCLA 22-7 355
16 Miami 21-7 301
17 DePaul 24-6 280
18 NC State 22-7 258
19 Oklahoma 22-8 184
20 Syracuse 20-9 170
21 Temple 23-6 144
22 Drake 23-4 130
23 Creighton 22-6 78
24 Kentucky 20-9 53
25 Arizona St 18-11 47
NOTRE DAME, Ind. - A week’s worth of ACC postseason honors began to roll out on Tuesday and the success of the No. 3 Notre Dame women’s basketball team was duly noted. Both Lindsay Allen and Brianna Turner earned a spot on the league’s Blue Ribbon media panel’s all-ACC first team while Jackie Young was honored with a spot on that group’s all-freshman team.
More league honors will be unveiled throughout the coming week surrounding the 40th annual ACC Tournament in Conway, South Carolina, for which the Irish hold the top seed.
Allen has yet to miss a start in her 142 games at Notre Dame and, on Sunday, tied the school’s 30-year-old career assist record with 778. On the season, she has helped 219 buckets, ranking fifth on the school’s single-season chart. The two-year team captain also stands eight assists shy of breaking the ACC career assist record of 785 set from 2004-08 by Virginia’s Sharnee Zoll. Allen both leads the ACC and ranks among the top six nationally in assists, assists per game and assist to turnover ratio. She chips in 9.2 points per game and has 67 steals to place among the league leaders there as well.
Reflecting her all-around game, Turner is one of just two players nationally (with West Virginia’s Lanay Montgomery) to rank in the top 16 nationally for both field goal percentage and blocked shots. Turner leads the ACC in both of those categories as well. Just a junior, she already stands 11th in league history with 254 career blocked shots and fourth with her .621 career field goal percentage. Turner turned in six double-doubles this season and made perhaps her greatest impact when she scored a career-high 31 points in the win at No. 21 Syracuse. Turner, who leads Notre Dame at both 15.5 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game, earned ACC Player of the Week recognition Dec. 12.
Young averaged 7.1 points her game in her debut campaign for the Irish, appearing in 26 of the team’s 30 games. She averaged 4.7 rebounds per game, fourth on the squad. Her career-high 12 rebounds proved to be crucial in the narrow Feb. 19 win at No. 21 Syracuse. An athletic presence whose defense has continued to improve along with her renowned scoring touch, Young also contributed 32 assists and 23 steals while blocking eight shots. She was named the ACC Rookie of the Week twice this year, claiming the prize on both Dec. 5 and Feb. 13.
The Irish begin their quest for a fourth consecutive ACC Tournament championship at 2 p.m. on Friday when they face the winner of Thursday’s second round game between Virginia and Wake Forest. The game will be broadcast regionally by the ACC Network. For those outside of the ACC Network’s footprint (including the South Bend area), the game can be streamed live online at WatchESPN.
By Leigh Torbin
NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Brianna Turner stopped plenty of opponents for the No. 3 Notre Dame women’s basketball team this winter and the ACC’s coaches couldn’t be stopped from recognizing her as the league’s defensive player of the year, an award announced on Wednesday morning. She also won the accolade in 2015-16 and was the ACC's rookie of the year in 2014-15.
The junior center leads the ACC, and ranks 15th nationally in blocked shots with 77 on the year. Her 254 career blocked shots already rank 11th in ACC history and second in Irish lore behind only Ruth Riley's 370. Turner is eighth among all active players in blocked shots and second among her peers in the junior class. The centerpiece in a defense which held its foes to 60.9 points per game and a .389 shooting percentage while facing the nation's second-toughest schedule, Turner also has 25 steals and 7.3 rebounds per game. No slouch on the offensive end of the court either, Turner leads Notre Dame at 15.5 points per game with a .617 field goal percentage that leads the conference and ranks 10th nationally.