WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Irish roll over Alcorn State in 98-49 victory
By ANDREW SOUKUP
Associate Sports Editor
All it took for the 8,553 fans in the Joyce Center to erupt into cheers was the Irish removing their warm-ups.
They saw the Irish wearing green uniforms.
"There must have been some luck of the Irish when we unpacked those uniforms," said Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw.
No.1 seeded Notre Dame was simply too tall, too deep and too good for No.16 seeded Alcorn State as they rolled to a 98-49 victory Saturday afternoon.
The Irish were allowed to wear their green uniforms thanks to a special arrangement with the NCAA. Normally, the higher-seeded team must wear home jerseys and the lower-seeded team must wear away jerseys. But Alcorn State's away uniforms and Notre Dame's home uniforms were both gold, so the NCAA allowed the Irish to wear green, fittingly on St. Patrick's Day.
It was obvious from the opening tip that Notre Dame had a huge height advantage. The Irish had six players as tall as Alcorn State's tallest player, Cherea Wood. Notre Dame completely dominated the inside game. They had 54 points in the paint — led by Ruth Riley's 16 — compared to just four for Alcorn State and the Irish out-rebounded the Braves 62-34.
"The height was a big disadvantage," said Alcorn State head coach Shirley Walker.
The Braves tried to take away the Irish size advantage by pulling away from the basket, forcing Notre Dame to guard the perimeter. But the strategy backfired as Alcorn State, who took more three-point shots than two pointers, shot a dismal 21 percent from the field, finishing 15-71 and 9-41 from three-point range.
"We just missed a lot of shots," said Wood, who shot 4-for-24 from the field and was 0-for-6 from three-point land. Wood, the Braves' top scorer, entered the game averaging 17.7 points per game. She finished with just nine points Saturday.
The Braves gave the Irish an early scare when they jumped out to a 10-6 lead early in the first half. Notre Dame then went on a 20-3 run to jump ahead, but the Braves, relying on Taresha Coleman's shooting, kept the game close. Coleman led the Braves with 15 points.
"We jumped out pretty good in the first few minutes," Walker said.
The Irish took control with 6:57 left in the first half when they switched from their traditional 2-3 zone defense to a man-to-man defense. The Braves managed only one free throw the rest of the half and didn't hit a field goal until 14:24 remained in the second half. During that span, the Irish outscored the Braves 29-3.
"Their shooting really surprised us and forced us out of the zone, which we didn't really want to come out of," said McGraw. "When we went man-to-man I thought we stepped up defensively better. I was a little disappointed I didn't go to it earlier."
The Irish had far too much depth for the Braves to handle. Five players scored in double-digits and nobody played more than 30 minutes for the Irish. All 12 players on the Irish roster scored at least two points.
Sophomore Amanda Barksdale had the best game of her career. She registered a double-double by scoring 10 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. The Irish also got some quality minutes from freshman Le'Tania Severe, who finished with four points.
"It is fun to watch the bench," Riley said. "We see how hard they work in practice everyday, and it was good to see them be able to show that on the floor."
Nowhere was this more obvious than when sophomore walk-on Karen Swanson made a difficult five-foot baseline shot. As Swanson, who finished with a career-high four points, ran down the court arms in the air, the Irish bench was on their feet laughing.
The Irish finished shooting 54 percent from the field. Kelly Siemon finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, while Ericka Haney and Alicia Ratay chipped in 14 points and 13 points, respectively. Niele Ivey led the Irish with nine assists.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, March 20, 2001
