Karen & Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey is confident she has an incredibly deep roster, and that assessment held true in Notre Dame’s first, though unofficial, outing this season.
On Monday, the Irish hosted Truman State for their sole exhibition game heading into the 2022-23 season. Ninth-ranked Notre Dame came away with a dominant 92-47 victory, and all nine scholarship players scored on the night.
The evening was jump-started by a lights-out first quarter during which Notre Dame was 14-22 from the floor. The Irish had a 32-14 lead after 10 minutes.
Sonia Citron, the 2022 ACC Rookie of the Year, picked up right where she left off, leading the team with 17 points and 14 rebounds. She crashed the glass at nearly every turn, often tossing the ball back up or making acrobatic passes back outside to her teammates.
Texas graduate transfer Lauren Ebo had an impressive first showing in an Irish uniform, coming off the bench and scoring 14 points. Had Monday’s contest been a regular season game, it would have been her 25th career performance scoring in double figures.
“It was really exciting,” Ebo said of her inaugural public appearance at Notre Dame. “I love being out there with my teammates. I’m looking forward to bright things as we move forward this season.”
Ivey picked up another forward this offseason with the departure of former Irish big Maya Dodson: Oregon transfer Kylee Watson. The 6-4 junior made the start down low, shooting 7-12 on the day and finishing with 14 points and eight rebounds.
Thanks in large part to both Ebo and Watson, Notre Dame had 58 points in the paint.
Freshman newcomer KK Bransford played nearly 23 minutes and showed she can make an immediate impact. A fierce competitor, her physicality showed as she fired up shot after shot down the lane, seemingly unphased by contact. Bransford also hit a three-pointer for the first time in an Irish uniform, one which unsurprisingly was met with an explosion of cheers from the bench.
“She’s done a really great job with her transition to our program,” Ivey said. “She has a very high IQ, she’s just trying to figure out her spots, find herself and get a rhythm within the offense. I felt like she found it in the fourth quarter.
“Every game, she’s going to get more and more comfortable.”
On the defensive side, Ivey was happy with her team’s performance. Defense has been a huge focus for the group this offseason, and a suffocating 47-point performance from the Bulldogs showed Ivey progress is being made. Truman State shot the three relatively well on the night, going 9-28 from beyond the arc.
Notre Dame’s first formal appearance of the 2022-23 campaign will come on Monday, Nov. 7, as the Irish host Northern Illinois at 7 p.m. The game will be streamed on ACCNX.
The full box score can be found here.