Batteast, Bustamante injured as Notre Dame blows out St. John's
By NOAH AMSTADTER
Sports Editor
Amidst Notre Dame's biggest win of the season, the team may have sustained its greatest loss.
Early in the second half of Wednesday night's 66-31 drubbing of St. John's in the Joyce Center, Irish freshman forward Jacqueline Batteast fell to the floor and had to be helped off the court.
Batteast later returned to the bench with an ice pack on her right knee. The status of Notre Dame's leading scorer for Saturday night's game at Rutgers, and the rest of the season, is uncertain, pending a MRI this afternoon.
Batteast's classmate, guard Allison Bustamante, also had to be helped off the floor after spraining her ankle under the basket with 13:19 left in the game.
Bustamante, who missed four games earlier this season with the same injury, is also questionable for Saturday.
Lost in the injuries were two more strong efforts from the team's veterans, and a surprising performance from a rookie. Senior Ericka Haney made five of eight attempts from the field, and went 4-4 at the free-throw line, for a season-high 14 points. Alicia Ratay also scored 14 for the Irish, while freshman Katy Flecky came off the bench to record a double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds in 24 minutes.
"I thought Katy Flecky had a great game," Irish head coach Muffet McGraw said. "It took her a little while to get going in the first half, but to come up with a double-double in 24 minutes, I think that's pretty outstanding."
Despite the lopsided final score — the 35-point win marks the greatest margin of victory for the Irish so far this season — McGraw was disappointed in her team's intensity against Big East cellar-dweller St. John's, who remains winless in the Big East and falls to 3-21 on the year.
"I think [the Irish players] knew what the record was," McGraw said. "They knew they hadn't won a game in the Big East. We knew we were going to win. I think a more experienced team would not have let that happen, but this team has a lot of young players, and we just really didn't come out and play hard."
McGraw was also disappointed in the effectiveness of her bench. Other than Flecky, no Irish reserve scored more than one field goal. Freshman Kelsey Wicks, who usually provides a spark off the bench, was scoreless, including a 0-6 mark from behind the 3-point line.
The Irish did succeed, though, on defense. St. John's shot just 22 percent from the floor for the game, and their 31 points were the fewest by an Irish opponent since Valparaiso scored just 27 on Jan. 21. 1982. The Irish came away with 14 steals and forced St. John's into 21 turnovers.
"Tonight we were working on a little more pressure and trying to create some turnovers," McGraw said. "I thought we did a pretty good job there. That's something that we really haven't been doing too well lately."
Another area in which McGraw thought the team could have improved was in terms of physical play. The referees allowed the athletes to play a physical game, and McGraw thought St. John's took advantage of that while her team did not.
"I think we need to play at that level," McGraw said. "We need to play a more physical game and be more comfortable in that type of game, because it was very consistent at both ends and we did not take advantage of that."
McGraw was pleased with her team's ability to distribute the basketball.
Notre Dame shot 39.3 percent from the field and rarely had to force shots at the buzzer. In transition, though, the Irish came away with only eight fast-break points.
"I thought we had the right people shooting the ball even though the shots didn't drop, and we did a pretty good job on the boards," McGraw said.
"Overall we're still doing a lot of good things, we just need to score more points in transition."
All areas will need to be improved by Saturday. Rutgers is only 8-15 this season and just 5-7 in the Big East, but traditionally plays well at home.
The Scarlet Knights also boast an aggressive defense, which poses a threat to a Notre Dame team that may come in without its leading scorer.
"To think about going into that game without Jackie, who's our leading scorer, makes it even more difficult," McGraw said. "We're going to have a lot of work to do in the next couple of days to find out who's going to replace her in the starting lineup if it comes to that and how we're going to make our changes. This is a very tough match-up for us."
All Sports Stories for Thursday, February 14, 2002
