March 1, 2015
Inside The Game: #4 Notre Dame 67, North Carolina State 60
March 1, 2015 – Raleigh, North Carolina (Reynolds Coliseum)
It Was Over When: Senior guard Madison Cable buried the last of three three-pointers in a 79-second span, giving Notre Dame a 52-39 lead with 11:11 remaining. The Fighting Irish would stretch the margin to as many as 17 points with less than six minutes to play before North Carolina State trimmed the lead late after the outcome largely had been decided.
Game Ball Goes To: Cable, who ignited Notre Dame’s 15-3 second-half run with her trio of triples and finished with 12 points on four of five shooting from beyond the arc. For good measure, the Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, native drew her team-leading 16th charge of the season on the Wolfpack’s ensuing possession 18 seconds after her final three-pointer.
Unsung Hero: On a day when play got a bit ragged at both ends, junior guard Hannah Huffman provided a stabilizing influence for Notre Dame, playing 10 quality minutes and collecting two points, an assist and a career-high two blocked shots. Huffman also contributed solid defense in the second half on N.C. State’s Dominique Wilson, holding her to five points on two of six shooting after Wilson had 10 points on four of seven shooting in the first half.
Unofficial Play of the Game: With time winding down in the first half, junior guard/tri-captain Michaela Mabrey drove into the lane and flipped in an off-balance shot just before the horn, giving Notre Dame a 37-31 lead at intermission while taking some of the wind out of the sails of an N.C. State club that had gotten a steal and score from Len’Nique Brown-Hoskin moments earlier.
Stat Of The Game: Notre Dame clinched its fourth consecutive outright conference regular-season title (second in as many seasons of ACC membership), the first time in the program’s 38-year history the Fighting Irish have won four league crowns in a row (let alone all four coming outright). In fact, prior to this current run, Notre Dame had won three conference regular-season titles in a row just once, doing so from 1989-91 in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now the Horizon League), but even in that case, the first of those three championships was a shared crown with Loyola-Chicago.
Additional Notes: Notre Dame is 35-1 against ACC opponents since joining the conference prior to last season (31-1 regular season, 4-0 postseason) … on the way to their current run of four consecutive conference regular-season titles, the Fighting Irish have posted a combined 62-2 record in regular-season BIG EAST and ACC play, going 16-0 in 2012-13 (BIG EAST) and 2013-14 (ACC) and 15-1 in 2011-12 (BIG EAST) and 2014-15 (ACC) … when factoring in conference and NCAA tournament games, Notre Dame has won 70 its last 74 games against league opponents … the Fighting Irish now have won 45 of their last 46 road games … Notre Dame is 100-5 (.952) overall since the start of the 2012-13 season … the Fighting Irish now have won 16 consecutive games decided by single digits and/or in overtime, dating back to the 2011-12 season … Notre Dame has held its last 10 opponents to 63 points or fewer, after doing so 10 times in its first 20 games of the season … the Fighting Irish move to 4-0 all-time against North Carolina State, including a 2-0 record at Reynolds Coliseum … Notre Dame is 26-2 (.929) all-time against North Carolina schools (9-1 in true road games) and has won 16 in a row against teams from the Old North State … Loyd has scored 621 points this season, pushing her into ninth place on the school’s single-season scoring list, passing Katryna Gaither, who scored 613 points in 1995-96 … Cable scored in double figures for the seventh time this season … Notre Dame players wore patches on their jerseys and staff members wore black ribbons in memory of the late former University president Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., who passed away Thursday night at age 97.
Up Next For The Fighting Irish: Notre Dame has earned the No. 1 seed and a double-bye for the ACC Tournament, with the Fighting Irish set to face either No. 8 seed Miami or No. 9 seed Virginia in the quarterfinal round at 2 p.m. (ET) Friday at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. The quarterfinal will be televised live on the ACC-Regional Sports Networks, which includes Comcast Channel 101 in South Bend, as well as ESPN3/WatchESPN and numerous Fox Sports regional affiliates around the country (visit theacc.com for a full list of presenting outlets). In addition, radio coverage will be available in South Bend on Pulse FM (96.9/92.1) and free of charge worldwide online through the official Notre Dame athletics multimedia platform, WatchND (watchnd.tv).
— Chris Masters, Associate Athletic Media Relations Director