Jan. 24, 2001
By JOHN RABY
AP Sports Writer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – As tentative as Notre Dame appeared to be in its first game at No. 1, coach Muffet McGraw said it was a simple case of lack of effort.
Notre Dame struggled early before All-American Ruth Riley and Alicia Ratay took over in the Irish’s 87-64 victory over West Virginia on Wednesday night.
Riley scored 28 points on 11-of-14 shooting despite being double-teamed. Ratay scored 24 and had a team-high eight rebounds. The pair combined to hit 12-of-14 free throws.
McGraw didn’t like the way the Irish got into a point-for-point shootout with West Virginia.
“I’m very disappointed in our defensive effort. Basically, the team on the floor decided that we would outscore (them) today. It certainly wasn’t my plan,” McGraw said.
The coach said her team wasn’t trying to live up to its ranking.
“Our goal is to play whoever we are playing with the same intensity,” she said. “We’re just didn’t do that tonight.”
Notre Dame (19-0, 8-0 Big East) never trailed but had trouble establishing its offense early, scoring just six points in the first five minutes.
Notre Dame also was sloppy in transition and had 15 turnovers. On defense it guarded West Virginia loosely. The Mountaineers’ 64 points were the fourth most given up by the Irish this season.
When they couldn’t get the ball inside to Riley, the Irish missed numerous open jumpers.
Against the Mountaineers (4-13, 2-4), it didn’t matter. Notre Dame made winning look easy.
West Virginia, which dressed just nine players, shot just 29 percent from the floor in the first half and the game essentially was over at halftime with the Irish ahead 44-23.
“When you’re number one, you do what you have to do to win a game, even if you’re not on,” West Virginia coach Alexis Basil said. “They might not all have been on at the same time like they were against Connecticut, but they did what they had to do and that’s the mark of a champion.”
Notre Dame beat then-No. 1 Connecticut on Jan. 15 to snap the Huskies’ 30-game winning streak and knock the defending national champions from the No. 1 spot for the first time in 30 weeks.
The switch in the poll marked the first time in Big East women’s basketball history that the top two spots are held by Big East schools.
Riley said the Irish aren’t paying too much attention to any of that.
“It’s nice to have for our program,” she said. “It’s not like we were unranked before this game. We still were a target when we were ranked at three. It’s just a little bigger now at number one.”
After her team’s lackluster effort early, Riley scored 15 points from the inside over a 10-minute stretch that saw the Irish grab a 33-16 lead with 4:35 left until halftime.
She started the second half with a nice spin move for a layup and scored three of her team’s first four baskets for a 52-26 lead with 16:32 remaining.
Riley sat out the final seven minutes after the lead reached 30 points.
Niele Ivey added 10 points for Notre Dame.
Darya Kudryavtseva led West Virginia with 21 points and freshman Kate Bulger had 18.
Notre Dame leads the series with West Virginia 8-0. The last time West Virginia played a No. 1 team, it suffered the second-worst loss in Big East history, falling 100-28 to Connecticut last February.
A crowd of 364 watched the game, the smallest to see the Irish play this season.