Syracuse University
at Notre Dame
Notre Dame Defeats SU, 54-33, in Women's Basketball
3/2/2004 9:27:00 PM | Women's Basketball
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Orangewomen basketball team lost its regular-season finale, 54-33, to Notre Dame (19-9, 12-4 BIG EAST) on Tuesday, March 2, at the Joyce Center. Syracuse (6-20, 3-13 BIG EAST) struggled through its worst shooting performance of the season with a season-low 33 points on 13-of-58 shooting from the floor (22.4 percent).
Senior Julie McBride led the Orange with 12 points, eight rebounds and three steals. She now has 199 takeaways in her career, which ranks seventh on the all-time list. Sophomore Jill Norton scored all six of her points in the first half, including SU's only three-pointer, and she finished with six rebounds, one block and one steal. Junior Chineze Nwagbo recorded five points and six rebounds.
Notre Dame junior Jacqueline Batteast led all scorers with 13 points, including eight in the first half, to go along with 11 rebounds and five assists. Le'Tania Severe scored 12 points, and Breona Gray chipped in 11 points, including eight in the second half. SU's defense held Notre Dame to 39.6 percent shooting. It was the first time a Syracuse opponent shot less than 40 percent in six games.
"I thought we competed very well tonight," Syracuse head coach Keith Cieplicki said. "It was one of our best defensive efforts of the season. We just couldn't put the ball in the basket. In reality, we need to shoot the ball well to have a chance to win and we haven't done that lately."
The first half marked SU's worst 20 minutes of shooting this season. The Orangewomen made just 16.7 percent (5-of-30) of their shots from the floor, and were 1-of-12 (8.3 percent) from three-point range. Syracuse managed to outrebound the Irish in the first half, 22-20, including 10 offensive boards. Notre Dame finished with 44 rebounds compared with 37 for the Orange. It was SU's highest rebound total since it had 43 against St. John's on January 10.
SU freshman Tracy Harbut recorded the first field goal of the game at the 15:09 mark to tie the score at 2-2. Norton hit a jumper to make the score 10-8 in favor of Notre Dame with 10:06 on the clock, then SU went 4:40 without a field goal. The Irish went on a 7-2 run during that stretch with Batteast scoring all of UND's points. Notre Dame led, 26-14, at halftime.
Each team posted just one field goal in the first 4:44 of the second half. Notre Dame led, 37-20, with 10:49 left to play. SU cut the advantage to 12, 43-31, at 5:50, but the Irish pulled away during the waning minutes of the game to earn the 54-33 win.
Syracuse will play in the first round of the BIG EAST Tournament on Saturday, March 6, at noon in Hartford, Conn. The Orangewomen are the 12th seed and will take on fifth-seeded Boston College.
