Notre Dame comes-from-behind to defeat UConn in NCAA Semifinal Game

POSTED: April 6, 2019 -- 9:59 a.m. CDT

TAMPA BAY, FL (Amalie Arena) -- The Notre Dame Fighting Irish erased a 9 point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the UConn Huskies 81-76 Friday night in an NCAA semifinal game. Notre Dame (35-3), the defending NCAA champs, will face the Baylor Lady Bears (36-1), Sunday night in the championship game.

Both teams clanged shots in the first quarter. Notre Dame shot 1 for 8 from the floor; but, UConn failed to expand on an 8-4 lead. UConn led Notre Dame 16-12 at the end of the first quarter. Neither team set the world on fire from the floor in the opening quarter: UConn 7 for 20 field goals (2/7 threes); ND 6 for 20 field goals (0/5 threes).

Notre Dame's offense began to awaken from a slumber and went on a 10-0 run to take an 18-16 lead.

UConn's Christy Williams hit a pull up jumper to end the 1st half to put UConn up 30-29 over Notre Dame. Williams scored 8 points on 3 for 10 field goal shooting in the half. Napheesa Collier's scored 11 points to lead the Huskies. Jessica Shepard scored 12 points in the opening half to lead Notre Dame.

"The first half, you can't defend them any better than we defended them that first half," Geno Auriemma, UConn Head Coach said. "They probably went in the locker room saying, We played lousy and we're down one. We went in the locker room saying, We played lousy, but we're still up one.

Auriemma added, "That should have been a 15-point game at halftime."

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After a scoreless first half, UConn's Katie Lou Samuelson scored 15 pts in the third quarter on 5 for 6 field goal shooting including 2 for 3 threes; and 3/3 free throws. UConn led Notre Dame 52 after the third quarter.

UConn began the fourth quarter with hot shooting going 3 for 3 from the floor, including 2/2 from three, in the first 1:42 of the quarter. Notre Dame was ice cold going 1 for 7 from the floor. UConn stretched its lead to 64-55 with 7:52 remaining in the quarter.

"Well, when we got up nine, two things we knew were going to happen," Auriemma commented. "One, they're going to pass it to Arike and she's going to go one-on-one and score. Two, they're going to throw it into the post, whoever Megan is guarding, because there's a huge mismatch in there. That's exactly what they did.

"I've always said coming in here, all the time, there's certain things that when you have a certain kind of team, there's certain things that the other team can do to you that you don't have anything that you can come back with and say, Well, I know how we can get a stop, we'll trap them."

Notre Dame's Jackie Young sank a three-point shot to end Notre Dame's scoreless drought. Brianna Turner added two foul shots to slice UConn's lead to 64-60.

Napheesa Collier scored layup for a 66-60 lead; but, Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale answered with a three to cut the lead in half (66-63).

Next, a key turning point in the game took place: Katie Lou Samuelson missed a layup. Ogunbowale missed a three-point shot attempt; but, Turner grabbed the offensive rebound and passed to teammate Marina Mabrey. Mabrey sank a three to tie the game at 66.

"When was the last time you saw Lou (Katie Lou Samuelson) miss a wide-open layup in the lane?" Auriemma commented after the game.

Ogunbowale knocked down a jumper for a 68-66 Notre Dame lead. Megan Walker scored lay-up to tie the game at 68.

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Williams split two free throws for a 69-68 UConn lead. The lead changed back-and-forth the next few minutes. Jess Shepard made a jumper near the top of the key for a 74-73 lead with 89 seconds left in the game. UConn's Crystal Dangerfield missed a tough driving layup; and, Ogunbowale sank two foul shots for a 76-73 lead with less than 1 minute remaining.

After UConn called a 30-second timeout, Turner made a huge defensive play and blocked a layup attempt by Collier. Turner finished the game with 5 blocked shots to go along with 15 points and 15 rebounds.

Ogunbowale was fouled and made two more foul shots for a 78-73 lead.

In the closing seconds, Samuelson missed two three-point attempts and Turner went 3 for 4 from the foul line. Notre Dame led 81-73 before Williams made a three-point shot with three seconds remaining for the final points of the game.

Ogunbowale scored a game-high 23 points. Shepard added 20 points, 13 boards, and 7 assists.

"Jess is indispensable to what we do," Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame Head Coach said after the game. "She fits perfectly into our system. She is someone that loves to pass the ball. She probably wants to be a point guard. She went coast-to-coast on a steal. She is a great facilitator on who the post is. Over a hundred assists throughout the year. She makes our offense go. Bri can go down and be on the block, not worry about anything else because Jess is a great high-post player."

Coach McGraw added, "That was an amazing second half. First half I thought we really struggled to score. The second half really just caught fire. I think we played our normal game in the third quarter."

Samuelson led UConn with 20 points. Williams added 19 points. Collier was next with 15 points and a team-high 13 rebounds. Walker finished with 14 points and 8 boards.

"They still had to win it," Auriemma commented. "They (Notre Dame) still had to make those shots. When they were down nine, they could have missed the next five shots, we would have went up 17; but, they didn't. Why? Because they're defending national champions, they have five All-Americans who are really, really good.

Like I said, I remember being in that situation a couple times (smiling)."

NEXT:

National Championship game: Baylor versus Notre Dame Sunday, April 7, at 5 p.m. Central Time, ESPN.

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