Where Notre Dame women’s basketball fell in Associated Press Poll after loss to UNC
One team was rolling. The other, rolling out of control down a steep hill. The former: Notre Dame. The latter: North Carolina. And it was the Tar Heels that stopped their slide and put an end to the Fighting Irish’s recent run of success.
Sunday wasn’t a good outing for head coach Niele Ivey’s team, which went into Chapel Hill. N.C., on a six-game winning streak that included triumphs over two ranked teams; then-No. 3 UConn and then-No. 6 Virginia Tech. Notre Dame (12-2, 3-1 ACC) was held to less than 60 points for the first time this season in a 60-50 loss to North Carolina (10-5, 1-3).
With the defeat, Notre Dame dropped from No. 4 to No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25. The Irish also dropped from No. 4 to No. 7 in ESPN’s women’s basketball power rankings. Last week, Notre Dame was projected to be one of four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament per ESPN analyst Charlie Creme’s bracketology predictions. The Irish will likely fall to a No. 2 seed after the loss.
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Nobody runs the table in a Power Five college basketball slate. A slip up was inevitable. And it wasn’t an entirely terrible one for the Blue and Gold, either. North Carolina was ranked No. 22 at the time of tipoff despite four consecutive losses. The Tar Heels have a talented team. A home win over a top-five team was just what they needed to get back on track, and they went out and got it with a 21-point fourth quarter.
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Notre Dame is not going to shoot 2 of 22 (9.1 percent) from behind the three-point line in many games. That might be the only time all season the Irish shoot less than 10 percent from deep with at least 10 attempts. The team’s previous low for three-point shooting percentage was 12.5 in a 1-of-8 showing versus Virginia Tech. It is worth noting, however, that Notre Dame is now 7 of 46 (15.2 percent) from beyond the arc in three ACC road games. The Irish are a 33.5 percent three-point shooting team all told in 14 games.
Holding opponents to 60 points will win a lot of games. Only scoring 50 will not win many at all. Considering the Irish rank ninth nationally at 84.1 points per game, odds are Sunday was more of a one-off than a sign of things to come. Notre Dame hosts Wake Forest (10-6, 1-4) at Purcell Pavilion at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Week 10 NCAA women’s basketball AP Poll
- South Carolina (16-0)
- Stanford (16-1)
- Ohio State (17-0)
- UConn (13-2)
- LSU (16-0)
- Indiana (14-1)
- Notre Dame (12-2)
- UCLA (14-2)
- Maryland (13-3)
- Utah (14-1)
- NC State (13-3)
- Iowa (12-4)
- Virginia Tech (13-3)
- Arizona (14-2)
- Iowa State (10-3)
- Duke (14-1)
- Michigan (13-3)
- Baylor (12-3)
- Oklahoma (12-2)
- Gonzaga (16-2)
- Oregon (12-4)
- North Carolina (10-5)
- Kansas (12-2)
- Illinois (14-3)
- Villanova (14-3)
