No. 18 Irish Too Much for Women's Basketball

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Hot-shooting helped the 18th-ranked Notre Dame women's basketball team cruise to a 91-54 win over Creighton Saturday afternoon at the Purcell Pavilion. The Fighting Irish (8-3) made 15 of its first 17 shots to start the second half and pull away from the Bluejays (4-4) for a 91-54 victory. For the game the Irish shot 63.3 percent from the floor to improve to 7-1 at home this year.

Creighton played nearly even with the nationally-ranked Irish for the first 15 minutes of the game before the home team used a 14-2 run to end the half. The Bluejays and Irish exchanged leads three times in the first half, as the Jays took the first lead of the game on a Kellie Nelson bucket. After a pair of Notre Dame baskets, Sam Schuett answered with a three-pointer to give the Bluejays a 5-4 lead, what would prove to be their final lead of the game.

The Irish pushed ahead by nine up 22-13, before the Bluejays used an 11-6 run to get the score to 28-24 with exactly five minutes to play on Ally Jensen's second three-pointer of the game. After that three-point make the Bluejays would hit only one field goal in the final five minutes, as Notre Dame rattled off a 14-2 run to push to their largest lead of the half, up 42-26 at the break.

Notre Dame then came out of the break on fire in the second half, making 15 of its first 17 shots to pull away from the Bluejays. The Irish would settle down to shoot 19-of-29 from the field in the second half and finish 38-of-60 (.633) from the field for the game. Notre Dame knocked down 3-of-4 three-pointers in the game and out-scored the Bluejays 54-26 in the paint.

The Irish were led by 18 points from All-American Skylar Diggins, 12 of those points coming after the half. Becca Bruszewski scored 17 points for the Irish, while freshman Natalie Achonwa scored a career-high 14 points off the bench for the Big East foe.

Creighton was led by Schuett's 13 points and eight rebounds. Jensen and Kelsey Woodard each chipped in 11 points for the Bluejays, as Jensen hit 3-of-7 three-pointers in the loss.

Notre Dame out-rebounded the Bluejays 38-33 and forced 17 Bluejay turnovers. The Bluejays shot 33.3 pecent from the field, 26.9 percent from three-point range and 42.9 percent at the free throw line.

Creighton now takes a week off for final exams before returning home to start a four-game home stand. The Bluejays welcome North Dakota State to D.J. Sokol Arena next Saturday. Tipoff for that meeting in Omaha is set for 7:35 p.m.

NOTES: The loss was Creighton's sixth straight against an AP top-25 team ... The game marked just the second meeting between the schools on the women's basketball court, the first since 1982 ... Schuett moved into 22nd place on the CU career scoring list, with 1,019 points, moving by Krissie Spanheimer's 1,013 ... Notre Dame was the first Bluejay opponent to shoot better than 60 percent from the field in a game since Southern Illinois shot 61 percent on Jan. 19, 2006 ... Saturday's loss marked the first time this season the Bluejay bench was out-scored, as the Irish reserves out-scored CU's bench 34-11 ... Notre Dame entered the game leading the NCAA with 16.1 steals per game, but finished with just 11 on Saturday.

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Players Mentioned

Ally Jensen

Kellie Nelson

Sam Schuett

Kelsey Woodard