Dec. 11, 2002
* Notre Dame fielded the same lineup it had started in three of the four previous games this season — Jacqueline Batteast and Katy Flecky at the forward spots, Teresa Borton at center, and Le’Tania Severe and Alicia Ratay at the guard positions. The Irish are 3-1 with that starting lineup this season.
* Notre Dame wrapped up a four-game, 12-day road trip this evening with a 3-1 record on the journey. The last time the Irish tackled a four-game regular-season road trip was Dec. 19, 1998-Jan. 2, 1999, when they also compiled a 3-1 mark (wins at South Florida, Michigan State and Georgetown; loss at Boston College).
* Tonight’s loss snapped Notre Dame’s nine-game winning streak against current Conference USA members. Ironically, the last C-USA school to defeat the Irish was also DePaul, which logged an 96-87 win in Chicago on Jan. 16, 1995. Despite the setback, Notre Dame is 44-21 (.677) all-time against the current C-USA alignment.
* The loss at DePaul also broke a 14-game winning streak for Notre Dame against teams from the former North Star Conference (of which the Irish were a member from 1983-87). Prior to this evening, the last time Notre Dame lost to an NSC alum was March 10, 1995, when Northern Illinois dealt the Irish an 87-64 setback in the semifinals of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Tournament. Nevertheless, Notre Dame still is 103-23 (.817) all-time against former North Star schools.
* Notre Dame suffers its first regular-season road loss since an 80-53 defeat at top-ranked Connecticut on Jan. 21, 2002, breaking a streak of seven consecutive regular-season wins. The Irish now have won nine of their last 12 regular-season road games since beginning last year with an 0-5 mark outside the Joyce Center.
* Entering tonight’s game, Notre Dame had never trailed by more than nine points at any time in its first four contests.
* Notre Dame shot a season-low 37.7 percent from the floor, and allowed an opponent to top the 40-percent mark from the field for the first time this season. In addition, tonight’s game was the first time in five outings the Irish didn’t have four players score in double figures (they had three vs. DePaul). This evening also marked the first time all year that Notre Dame came out on the short end in the rebounding column (36-33).
* Senior guard Alicia Ratay started the 102nd game of her career, passing Sandy Botham (1984-88) and tying current Irish assistant coach Letitia Bowen for seventh place on Notre Dame’s career games started list.
* Ratay scored 10 points tonight, moving her past Niele Ivey and into eighth place on the Irish career scoring list with 1,435 points. Ivey had 1,430 points in her career at Notre Dame from 1996-2001. Next up for Ratay is Sheila McMillen, who tallied 1,439 points from 1995-99. Ratay also is close to passing McMillen on the Irish career free throws list — with two charities made tonight, Ratay has made 280 free throws in her career (eighth all-time), two less than McMillen, three less than Danielle Green (1995-2000) and six less than Ivey.
* Freshman forward Courtney LaVere came off the bench to score 11 points, the second time this season she has cracked double figures.
* Freshman guard Megan Duffy scored a season-high three points, tied her season best with two steals and played a season-long 27 minutes.
* Notre Dame returns to action Saturday at 1 p.m. (EST), opening a three-game homestand against defending Atlantic-10 Conference Tournament champion Temple at the Joyce Center.