Notre Dame To Face Syracuse For ACC Title: 3-Point Play

The ACC Tournament hasn’t gone exactly as anticipated by Notre Dame, other than maintaining pace to win its third title in as many years in the league.

Head coach Muffet McGraw’s Fighting Irish were “supposed to” face No. 4 seed Florida State in the semifinals, but the Seminoles, on the fringe of the top 10 all season, lost to Miami. The No. 21 Hurricanes gave the Irish all they could handle most of the contest before Notre Dame prevailed Saturday afternoon in Greensboro, N.C., 78-67.

McGraw and Co., were also “supposed to” face No. 7 Louisville, the No. 2 seed, on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. on ESPN2 for the championship. But the Cardinals, whose lone ACC defeat was to Notre Dame in a fourth-quarter rally, were knocked off by No. 17 Syracuse, 80-75 in the second semifinal.

For a while, Notre Dame (now 30-1 with 23 straight wins) also appeared to be teetering on elimination versus Miami (24-8). The confident and surging Hurricanes converted five three-pointers in the first quarter, trailed only 39-38 at halftime and took a 47-44 lead in the third quarter. From there, the Irish went on a decisive 25-8 run in which they converted six straight field goals while Miami made only one in a nine-minute stretch from about 6:30 left in the third quarter until nearly the seven-minute mark of the fourth.

After sophomore guard Mychal Johnson’s three tied the game at 47, junior point guard Lindsay Allen (14 points, eight assists) and grad student Madison Cable (14 points) propelled the run with their play on both ends of the court. Sophomore post Brianna Turner led the Irish in points (17, including 7-of-12 from the line in the first half) and rebounds (9), while classmate Kathryn Westbeld was rounding better into form from an ankle injury with 10 points, including a jumper as the shot clock was about to expire during the game-changing run.

Notre Dame shot 14 of 24 (58 percent) after halftime.

''We need to be challenged like that,'' McGraw said. ''I think it forces us to really be at our best, to see who's going to step up, who's going to get a big defensive stop, who can we count on to get a big rebound. I think it's an opportunity for everybody to shine a little bit more.''

Three-Point Play

1. Senior Reliance — Freshmen Arike Ogunbowale and Marina Mabrey have provided stellar double-figure scoring off the bench, but when the game was on the line in the second half, McGraw entrusted the senior tandem of Michaela Mabrey and Hannah Huffman (along with grad student Cable) to secure the win — often a prevalent theme in tournament play.

The elder Mabrey (nine points, with two threes) ran the offense efficiently when Allen had to sit for a spell because of foul trouble, while Huffman (six rebounds) played 22 minutes and has provided spark and energy on defense, an area that is a work in progress for the rookies. After mainly zoning Duke a day earlier, the Irish were a little better in man-to-man versus the Hurricanes, and that falls into Huffman’s wheelhouse.

The frosh Mabrey played only seven minutes (still had seven points) while Ogunbowale was 1-of-5 from the field and saw her streak of nine straight double-digit scoring games snapped. Both will continue to flourish in the future, but in this game senior stability had to carry the show and bring home the win.

2. Forcing The Fouls — A conspicuous stat was Notre Dame converted 21-of-28 from the foul line while Miami was 8-of-9, and didn’t take its first free throws until the final minute of the first half. The easy assumption to make just looking at the box score is the game was called unevenly, but dribble penetration and a concerted effort to get the ball inside to Turner created or forced the fouls, whereas Miami relied more heavily on its hot shooting beyond the arc (8-of-16 in the first half on threes, but only 1-of-7 in the second) and played mainly along the perimeter. The Irish began the first quarter 11-of-12 from the charity stripe while taking a 23-17 lead.

3. Sigh Of Relief? — No disrespect intended to Syracuse, which is enjoying a stellar season… but the Irish catch a break not having to play Louisville in the final. The Cardinals are a fringe Final Four team that had been playing outstanding, winning 22 of their last 23 games, with the lone loss to the Irish after rallying from six points down midway through the fourth quarter. Louisville had a bad start against Syracuse, which is ranked No. 17 and a bona fide Sweet 16 contender, and it was one of those days.

The Orange is deep (nine players played double-digit minutes against Louisville), but it’s a better matchup for Notre Dame. The Irish won 90-62 against Syracuse in January despite a ridiculous 28-8 rebounding advantage on offense for the Orange.