BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - Too many weapons for No. 7 Notre Dame, and too few answers for Virginia Tech did in the Hokies on Thursday night.
Arike Ogunbowale had 16 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and Notre Dame pulled away after halftime to beat the Hokies 76-59. Kathryn Westbeld added 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists and Brianna Turner and Marina Mabry scored 13 each as the Irish (21-3, 9-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) won their fifth in a row.
Notre Dame led by just 34-29 at halftime, but Ogunbowale scored seven in a 15-4 run to start the second half and the Hokies never got closer than 11 again.
The Irish finished with 22 assists on 33 baskets.
“That’s the way we like to play,” coach Muffet McGraw, in her 30th season, said. “I thought Arike had a really nice spurt in the third quarter. She did so many really good things and we were able to find a seam in the zone and get some easy looks for layups.”
Chanette Hicks had 14 points and seven assists for the Hokies (16-6, 3-6), who lost for the sixth time in seven games. Regan Magarity added 13 points and 10 rebounds, but the Hokies missed 17 of their 24 3-point shots and finished 23 for 65 from the field, just 35.4 percent.
“Down by five at halftime, .. we were still right there,” first-year Hokies coach Kenny Brooks said. “Started off in the third quarter and we just didn’t make some of the plays that we needed to make to change momentum. A lot of the momentum plays we didn’t take advantage of and they came back down and they did.”
The Irish used a 19-4 run spanning the first and second quarters to open a 25-13 lead, but Virginia Tech closed the half on a 16-9 burst.
Ogunbowale had seven points in the big run after the intermission, and the Irish led by as many as 22 in the final quarter.
“She was driving the ball. She’s really hard to guard when she drives the ball,” McGraw said.
BIG PICTURE:
Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish can be sloppy with the ball, averaging more than 14 turnovers, but they more than make up for it with their fluid play and unselfishness. They also average more than 19 assists and shot 54.1 percent (33-61) and got 42 of their points in the paint against the Hokies.
“We have stretches where we’re as good as anybody in the country,” McGraw said. “We’re waiting to put a game together where we look that way. . We have to get smarter. It’s all turnovers and rebounding. That is the key for us. We turn the ball over way too much because we shoot it pretty well. So if we can get possessions, we’re going to score. So I would say turnovers, that’s our Achilles heel right now.”
Virginia Tech: The Hokies are clearly struggling since their 15-0 start to the season, and first-year coach Kenny Brooks has to hope that having essentially been in the game against one of the nation’s top teams into the final quarter helps rebuild some of that good feeling from the fast start to the year.
“We’re not a good basketball team right now,” Brooks said. “I think we have the capabilities of getting back to being on track to being a good basketball team but at the moment we’re just not a good basketball team.”
The Irish won last year 80-41 on their home floor, holding the Hokies to just 11 first-half points.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame returns home but gets a visit from No. 9 Louisville on Monday night.
Virginia Tech goes on the road to face Georgia Tech on Sunday.
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