It’s a special time of the year. With the changing of the calendar, college basketball changes it’s style of play. There is nothing better than conference play. Yes, it’s ACC schedule time. The out of conference match-ups are done for the most part and the team works towards another ACC Conference Title and a march towards NCAA tournament play. Before all that can happen, the first conference game of the season has Pitt coming into Purcell Pavilion.
There was also a player stat alert before the ball was even thrown up for tip-off. Coming into Thursday nights game, Jackie Young, Junior was sitting at 994 career points. The only question that remained was, how long would it take to achieve the 1,000 career point?
First Quarter
Arike Ogunbowale opened the Irish scoring with a quick two points. Pitt’s Danielle Garven responds with her own two points moments later. Bu that, would be the last scoring Pitt would have until 2:50 left in the first quarter. The eyes of the Irish faithful were on Young. Young got the ball early and on all of her attempts she was successful. Her first basket came from an assist by Jessica Shepard, and the next two baskets came on assists from Marina Mabrey. At 6:46 Young got her 1,000th career point. When asked about making the list of 1,000 point scorers, she was happy that Marina got her the ball early.
With Young with the milestone achieved. The Irish played even harder as a team. Pitt had absolutely no answer for ND. Pitt First Season Head Coach in the post game press conference, “My first ACC game, and I get Notre Dame.” Notre Dame had a first quarter for the stat books. They were 12-20 on field goals, 7-9 on free-throws, 8 offensive and 8 defensive rebounds, 9 assists and 3 steals. Coach McGraw was not upset with those numbers. ND wins the first quarter 32-10.
Second Quarter
The second quarter was very similar to the first. This the Fightin’ Irish opened with a 28-2 run that lasted 9:16, that’s an absolute eternity in a basketball game. If there was an athletic play of the quarter, The play would have to go to Ogunbowale. At 7:18 she goes coast to coast and lays the ball in the basket. Arike was on a mission. The team had another amazing quarter. The smothering Irish defense only allowed 4 points. The defense forced 9 turnovers over a 9:16 span of time. As a whole the team added another 15 rebounds to the stat sheet and 6 assists. The Irish went to the locker room with a score of 60-14.
Third Quarter
The third quarter saw the point scoring being shared amongst the team. Eight different players contributed to the 25 points scored in the quarter. The Irish as a team continued to crash the boards offensively and defensively. The team added another 15 rebounds to the evenings impressive numbers. Mabrey caught fire in the third quarter hitting on 2-3 from beyond the arc. Coach McGraw also used the opportunity to get the bench players in to get some game time experience. ND continues to build on their lead with a 25-10 third quarter with a score of 85-24.
Fourth Quarter
With the game in hand Coach McGraw sat the starters and let the bench defend against the Pitt players. Danielle Cosgrove lead the Irish scoring for the quarter with five points that included a crowd rousing three-pointer. This would be the only quarter that Pitt would outscore the Irish. Pitt scored a game high 20 points in the quarter. While the Irish offense scored 15 points.
The Irish were just so dominant as a team. 32 points from turnovers, 40 points in the paint, 23 second chance points, 25 fast break points and 31 points from the bench. As a team they had 49 rebounds 30 defensive and 19 offensive, 24 assists, and 12 steals. They Irish played Pitt tough and Coach McGraw said “this is the best we have played all year.” With all that said, Coach McGraw now has 901 wins!
Game Balls
🏀🏀🏀 Arike Ogunbowale- 7-9 Field Goals, 2-2 3 Point Range, 3 Rebounds, 3 Assists and 2 Steals
🏀🏀 Marina Mabrey- 8-14 Field Goals, 4-9 3 Point range, 4 rebounds, 7 Assists and 3 Steals
🏀 Jackie Young-6-9 Field Goals, 4-7 Free Throws, 6 rebounds, 2 Assists and 1 Steal *reached 1,010 career points
Next Up
The Irish head to Georgia. They will take on Georgia Tech at 3 PM EST. Click here to find out how you can watch the Irish take the Yellow Jackets.
Cheers and Go Irish!!! ☘🏀⚡