SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame women Basketball team came in as a top seed for the NCAAW tournament, and cemented their spot with a 92-50 win over Bethune-Cookman.
The first round of the tournament saw 23 points from Irish guard Arike Ogunowale and a 22 point, 13 rebound double-double from Jessica Shepard.
Notre Dame (15-1 at home) made 54.5 percent of its shots, 36-66. Compared to BC’s 26.7 percent, the Irish compiler a highlight reel for the remainder of the games.
“March Madness is the most fun time of the year and it’s the last go around for us seniors,” Ogunbowale said. “We don’t want to leave anything behind. No regrets.”
The Lady Irish move on to the second round of the NCAAW tournament, and will take on Michigan State. MSU took out Central Michigan in an 88-87 shootout to advance. Notre Dame’s 31-3 schedule overshadows the Lady Spartans’ 21-11 season,
Notre Dame was on the board with six points before Angel Golden landed a three-point shot for the Lady Wildcats. Golden was responsible for 25 points, the most of any player in the game. She went 6-20 from outside the arc, but Bethune-Cookman only made nine of its 3s out of 34 shots.
Ogunbowale and Irish teammate Jackie Young combined for 5 three-pointers, adding up to 5/10.
A short run brought Bethune-Cookman to to 1 7-9 deficit, the closest it would come to Notre Dame. The end of the first quarter saw a 29-12 Irish lead.
The second quarter saw even more dominance from the home team. Bethune-Cookman scored seven in the period, while Notre Dame added 22.
“Their starting five’s size is about the size of our men’s starting five,” Lady Wildcats coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis said. “It was tough for us to get the ball inside to any of our players.”
Notre Dame 92, Bethune-Cookman 50
SCORE BY QUARTER
ND: 29 22 23 18
BC: 12 7 16 15
ND: J. SHEPARD 9 0 4/4 22; B. TURNER 8 0 3/4 19; A. OGUNBOWALE 6 2 5/5 23; J. YOUNG 3 1 2/2 11
BC: C. BROWN 0 0 2/2 2; A. SCOTT 3 0 0/0 6; A. BALL 0 1 0/0 3; C. HARRIS 1 1 0/0 5; A. GOLDEN 1 6 5/7 25
