SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Wake Forest (11-7, 2-5) has never beaten Notre Dame (13-2, 4-1). That streak remains alive after an 86-47 drubbing at Purcell Pavilion on Thursday night.
The seventh-ranked Irish paced the game from start to finish, beginning on a 7-0 run and never looking back with the help of junior Maddy Westbeld. The forward had a career night, finishing with 25 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. She has hit 25 points only once before, and it was her freshman season. It is the highest point total any Notre Dame player has amassed this season.
“It started with Liv [Miles] and Maddy,” Karen & Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey said after the game while flanked by the two players. “I thought Maddy was really aggressive today offensively. That really got us going. We set the tone on both sides of the ball.”
Notre Dame took a 21-8 lead into the second quarter and was up 44-25 at the break. The team went 19-32 in the first half (59.4 percent). The Irish did anything but let up in the third quarter, ending the period on a 12-0 run.
Just a few weeks into her Irish career, early enrollee Cass Prosper had another eye-catching performance with 12 points and 5 rebounds in just 17 minutes of play. She hit a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter that brought the crowd to its feet.
Ivey asked her team to bring defensive intensity to the floor after a loss at North Carolina last week, and the group delivered. Wake Forest star guard Jewel Spear was averaging nearly 16 points per game entering Thursday night. She went just 2-11 with 5 points, 2 rebounds and an assist against the Irish.
“We need to rely on our defense when our offense isn’t necessarily going for us,” Miles said of what she learned after Sunday’s disappointing outing. “We had to [come back this week and] patch the holes in our defense, and I think we did that during practice.”
The Irish out-rebounded the Demon Deacons 49-27 and did not allow second-chance shots on Wake Forest’s end of the floor; 35 of those 49 rebounds were defensive. Dara Mabrey tied her season-high with 6 of them.
“I’m really proud that we had a complete game for 40 minutes,” Ivey said.
Notre Dame is back on the road this weekend as the Irish head to Syracuse (13-4, 4-2). The game will tip off at 2 p.m. ET on the ACC Network.