Notre Dame women’s basketball scores 90-79 win over Cal
Paced by a blistering first half when No. 9 Notre Dame shot 61 percent and built a nine-point lead over Cal, the Irish kept the Bears at arm’s length in the second half and won 90-79 at the Citi Shamrock Classic in St. Louis.
Cal (1-1) pulled to within three points twice in the fourth quarter, but terrific foul shooting and great work from the Irish bench provided Notre Dame (2-0) a wire-to-wire victory.
Balance and poise were the keys for the Irish.
Cal wouldn’t go away and pulled to within 65-62 early in the fourth quarter.
Notre Dame calmly responded and finished the game on a 25-17 run.
The Irish went 20-of-24 foul shooting in the fourth quarter, including 10 straight to finish the game.
Led by graduate guard Dara Mabrey with 16 points — who tied her older sister Marina Mabrey in the game as the career leader at Notre Dame for all-time three-pointers made with 274 — all five Irish scored in double-figures.
Junior forward Kylee Watson added 15 points, sophomore guard Sonia Citron had 14, junior forward Maddy Westbeld had 12.
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Sophomore guard Olivia Miles added 13 points with 10 assists, for the 11th double-double of her career.
Foul trouble forced Irish head coach Niele Ivey to go to her bench early, late and often, and her reserves responded, even with some mixed-and-matched lineups.
Miles and Westbeld spent much of the fourth quarter sitting next to Ivey while the Irish backups kept Notre Dame in front and panic-free.
Junior forward Natalija Marshall was clutch with 9 points on 4-of-5 field-goal shooting and 6 rebounds off the bench.
Notre Dame returns to action Wednesday at Northwestern (0-1) (9 p.m., ET, Big Ten Network).
