Before Saturday night, Skylar Diggins was the only Notre Dame player in history to collect a triple-double in the NCAA tournament. That wasn’t true by the end of the fifth-seeded Irish’s game against No. 12 UMass.
Freshman Olivia Miles played like an experienced veteran against the Minutewomen, posting a triple double with 10 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists en route to an 89-78 win over UMass in the opening round of NCAA tourney in Norman, Okla.
Notre Dame’s Maddy Westbeld led her team with 19 points while Dara Mabrey and Maya Dobson scored 18 points apiece.
UMass’ Sam Breen tied a career-high with 31 points and Sydney Taylor knocked down 21, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a first-quarter offensive clinic by Notre Dame.
“The first half, especially in the first [quarter], we just did a lot of things that were uncharacteristic of who we were,” UMass head coach Tory Verdi said. “They kind of hit us right off the bat and we were on our heels and I just thought that defensively we were dysfunctional at times.”
Stunned but not out of it, UMass got to work whittling away at Notre Dame’s 15-point lead.
“We’re definitely a team that never quits. We know they’re gonna make their runs, we’ll make our runs. (We knew) that the game wasn’t even close to over and we had so much more to play.”
Despite their improvement, the Minutewomen couldn’t get the stops they needed against the Irish to close the gap. They stayed close, pulling within six points off a clutch triple by Taylor with 27 points to make it 65-59, but they were never able to tie the game back up.
Notre Dame opened the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run to jump up to a 76-59 lead. Sensing a victory within their grasp, the Irish didn’t let up for the remainder of the final period.
Despite the loss, getting the opportunity to play on the biggest stage UMass women’s basketball has seen in 24 years was something that nobody on this team will forget any time soon.
“It’s definitely been a dream, since I feel like all of us were little,” Breen said. “Obviously the outcome isn’t what we wanted. But just being here and being on this stage was an amazing experience. There’s just no other group of people that I would have wanted to be here with.”