March 27, 2015
Recap | Box Score | Quotes | USATSI Photo Gallery 
Inside The Game: #2 Notre Dame 81, #14/17 Stanford 60 (NCAA Championship – Oklahoma City Regional Semifinal)
March 27, 2015 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Chesapeake Energy Arena)
It Was Over When: Junior guard Hannah Huffman canned a jumper from the left elbow with 7:03 remaining to give Notre Dame a 67-52 lead. The basket capped a 6-0 spurt in a span of 72 seconds during which time Huffman, a native of Diablo, California (45 minutes from the Stanford campus) scored twice and delivered an assist on a layup by freshman forward Brianna Turner.
Game Ball Goes To: Sophomore guard Lindsay Allen, who rang up a career-high 28 points on nine of 17 shooting, including four of seven from three-point range. Allen scored 24 points in the first half alone, tying her previous career high for an entire game, set on Jan. 15 in a win at No. 12/10 North Carolina.
Unsung Hero: Huffman did a bit of everything on Friday, finishing with four points, five rebounds, three assists, a blocked shot and a steal in 20 minutes of action. It was the fourth time this season Huffman filled every column on the box score.
Unofficial Play of the Game: Notre Dame capped off its game-defining 14-2 second-half run in style, as Allen fired a long outlet pass to a leaping junior guard Jewell Loyd. As Loyd’s momentum carried her towards the baseline, she alertly flipped a drop pass to sophomore forward Taya Reimer, who converted the transition layup for a 75-54 Fighting Irish lead with 5:06 to play.
Stat Of The Game: Notre Dame earned its 11th win in 12 games against ranked opponents this season, with this being the largest margin of victory for the Fighting Irish over a Top 25 team to date (previous was a 92-72 win over No. 15/10 Maryland, the top seed in the Spokane Region of this year’s NCAA Championship, back on Dec. 3 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at Fort Wayne, Indiana).
Additional Notes: The Fighting Irish advance to the NCAA Elite Eight (regional final) for the fifth consecutive season and the seventh time in program history … Notre Dame is the lone school to reach the Elite Eight the past five seasons, although Connecticut could do likewise with a Sweet 16 win Saturday against Texas … Notre Dame is 7-6 all-time in Sweet 16 games, and has won its last five by an average of 27.4 points per game … the Fighting Irish post their 20th consecutive win, tying the fifth-longest winning streak in program history — it’s also the fourth consecutive season Notre Dame has put together a winning streak of 20 games or more … the Fighting Irish are 22-0 all-time in NCAA Championship games when scoring at least 80 points … conversely, Notre Dame is 25-2 (.926) all-time in the NCAA tournament when holding its opponents to 60 points or fewer, including an active 11-game winning streak in such contests … the Fighting Irish earn their first win in three series games against Stanford, with the two women’s basketball powers meeting for the first time since Nov. 24, 1991 (an 88-76 win for the Cardinal at Purcell Pavilion) … Notre Dame has won eight of its last nine games against teams from the state of California … the Fighting Irish are 6-1 all-time against California schools in the NCAA Championship … Notre Dame has won 26 of its last 33 games against current Pac-12 Conference schools, including eight in a row … the Fighting Irish are 7-2 all-time against current Pac-12 teams in the NCAA Championship and have won their last five in a row in the tournament against Pac-12 members … Notre Dame shot a season-best 13 of 13 from the free-throw line, the second-best performance without a miss at the charity stripe in school history, topped only by an 18 for 18 effort at Valparaiso on Nov. 30, 2004 … Notre Dame had two 20-point scorers in the same game for the first time since Allen’s previous career scoring high on Jan. 15, when Allen’s 24 points and Turner’s career high-tying 29 points helped the visiting Fighting Irish past No. 12/10 North Carolina, 89-79.
Up Next For The Fighting Irish: Notre Dame will play No. 5/6 (and second-seeded) Baylor in the NCAA Championship’s Oklahoma City Regional final at 8:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. CT) Sunday at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The NCAA Elite Eight game will be televised live on ESPN, as well as ESPN3/WatchESPN (blackout rules may apply). In addition, radio coverage will be available in South Bend on Pulse FM (96.9/92.1), nationally on the Westwood One Radio Network (check local listings for availability) and free of charge worldwide online through the official Notre Dame athletics multimedia platform, WatchND (watchnd.tv).
— Chris Masters, Associate Athletic Media Relations Director