GREENSBORO, N.C. – For the fifth time in six years, Notre Dame women’s basketball is your ACC Tournament Champion. The No. 4 nationally ranked Irish downed No. 3 Louisville, 99-79, in Sunday’s title game.
ACC Tournament MVP Jackie Young notched a 21-point, 10-rebound, double-double. First Team All-Tournament selection Jessica Shepard supplied a double-double as well with 13 boards and a season high 30 points.
Brianna Turner added 20 points and seven boards. Marina Mabrey supplied 12 points and seven assists. Lastly, Second Team All-Tournament honoree Arike Ogunbowale rounded it out with 12 points and six rebounds.
“We came in with a goal of bringing the trophy back to South Bend and I thought we played really well in every game of the tournament. Offensively especially, with a lot of different weapons, a lot of different people scoring,” Karen & Kevin Keyes Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw said. “That was a huge win for us and probably gets us to Chicago, which was another one of our goals.”
How It Happened
Tied at 6-6 at the 7:01 mark, Notre Dame recorded a 14-3 scoring spree over a four-minute stretch, in which all five starters found themselves on the scoreboard. Shepard went 4-for-4 from the floor in the period, leading the Irish with nine points to give her squad a 27-17 advantage after one.
Mabrey and Ogunbowale got the Irish going in the second with back-to-back three-pointers, but the Cardinals countered with a 7-0 run, cutting the deficit to 35-30. Turner ended the Irish scoring drought at 4:50 before Young went on to score seven more points before the half, including a big and-one with 35 seconds left.
Notre Dame took a 48-39 lead into half, in which 36 points came in the paint. Young nearly had a first half double-double with 13 points and nine boards. Shepard followed with 13 points and six rebounds.
The two sides traded punches into the five minute media, at which point the Irish were up only 10-8 in the quarter – six of which scored by Turner. Young produced yet another impactful and-one at the 4:04 mark, pushing Notre Dame up 64-49.
The Irish outscored the Cardinals 9-4 over the last 2:57 of the period, which included a Mikayla Vaughn buzzer beater, garnering a 73-56 lead in the process. In addition, both Shepard and Young had accomplished their respective double-doubles by the end of the third.
The Irish continued to pour it on in the fourth, scoring 26 points to bring it to the final score of 99-79. Notre Dame scored a season best 72 points in the paint and outrebounded Louisville, 44-29.
Notes
- Irish move to 17-1 all-time in ACC Tournament play.
- Notre Dame moves to 16-6 all-time vs Louisville with a 5-2 mark on neutral courts.
- The Irish, who joined the ACC for the 2013-14 season, now rank fourth all-time with five ACC Tournament titles. Maryland (10), North Carolina (9) and Duke (8) hold the top three spots.
- Five ACC Tournament titles in six years marks the second best stretch by a program. Duke won five in a row from 2000-04.
- With four assists today, Shepard surpassed 100 assists on the season. She becomes the fourth Irish starter to do so this year, joining Ogunbowale, Mabrey and Young. Four 100-assist players marks a program first.
- Louisville never led in today’s championship game.
- For the eighth time this season, Shepard and Young recorded double-doubles in the same game
- Shepard notched her 14th double-double on the year with 30 points and 13 rebounds. She tallied 15 with the Irish last season.
- Shepard recorded the first 30-point, 10-rebound, double-double since Jackie Young vs UConn in the 2018 national semifinal (32p/11r).
- Young earned her 10th double-double on the year, which continues to break the single season record for a guard at Notre Dame. Young tallied 21 points and 10 boards.
- Young’s 15 career double-doubles ranks second all-time at Notre Dame by a guard and sits two back from the record holder Lindsay Schrader.
- Shepard earned her 18th straight game with double-digit points. Her career high is 21.
- All five starters finished in double figures for the 13th time this season.
2019 ACC Women’s Basketball All-Tournament Team
| First Team | ||
| Jackie Young | Notre Dame | MVP |
| Asia Durr | Louisville | |
| Jessica Shepard | Notre Dame | |
| Tiana Mangakahia | Syracuse | |
| Elissa Cunane | NC State | |
| Second Team | ||
| Taylor Emery | Virginia Tech | |
| Arike Ogunbowale | Notre Dame | |
| Aliyah Collier | Clemson | |
| Paris Kea | North Carolina | |
| Sam Fuehring | Louisville |
–ND–