Hurricanes

The 14th-ranked Miami women’s basketball team falls to No. 7 Notre Dame.

CORAL GABLES — Two years to the day, on this same floor, Miami notched one of its biggest upsets.

That afternoon, an unranked Hurricanes women’s basketball team stunned fourth-ranked Notre Dame.

This time around, in a nationally-televised matchup between two top-15 teams, there was no upset.

Instead, the seventh-ranked Irish used a strong stretch to close out the third quarter and open the fourth to pull away from the Hurricanes and secure a 67-55 win over No. 14 Miami, which has now lost back-toback games against ranked opponents on its home floor at the Watsco Center.

In each of those games — against then No. 7 Florida State on Dec. 29 and against Notre Dame on Sunday — the Hurricanes struggled in the second half and were outrebounded by their higher-ranked opponents, a trend Miami’s players and coaches understand has to change, especially with its upcoming schedule.

The Hurricanes are set to face a pair of ranked opponents in their next two games, hosting No. 18 Virginia Tech on Wednesday before traveling to play at No. 8 Louisville on Sunday.

“There are eight teams in our conference that are Top 25 in the nation and we’ve got them all early,” Miami coach Katie Meier said. “We’ve got them all early, so we’re going to deal with it. Virginia Tech is playing great. I just want to make sure the next time we play at home, we have tremendous personality and tremendous passion for the game and the fans can see how hard these kids work. I don’t think if you were a fan tonight, you’d think we really bust our butts, but we do. We didn’t look like we did tonight, but we do. … I’m not going to say much in practice [Monday], but my leaders will.”

Added Jessica Thomas, who finished with a teamhigh 15 points for Miami, “We have to focus. That’s where it starts. I know I keep mentioning focus, but that’s what it’s all about. … We’ve got to do a better job and I’ll take it as one of the leaders as well. I have to do a better job of getting on my teammates.”

Though Notre Dame (15-2, 3-1 ACC) held the lead for all of the first half, the Hurricanes adjusted their rotation to start the third quarter and scored on their first two possessions in the third quarter to take a brief 33-32 lead when Adrienne Motley connected on a pair of free throws.

But the Miami lead lasted all of 57 seconds with Notre Dame answering with a 9-2 run to quickly regain control. And though the Hurricanes did a nice job defensively on All-American Brianna Turner, holding the junior forward to a seasonlow seven points, she had a game-high 10 rebounds. Notre Dame finished with 39 boards to Miami’s 28, scoring 14 second-chance points and dominating in the paint.

The Irish — who said they didn’t speak much about what happened here two years ago, dealing with that instead last season when Miami (13-3, 2-2) visited South Bend — then opened the fourth quarter on a 12-2 run to distance themselves from the Hurricanes in what was ultimately an ugly game in which both teams combined for 39 turnovers.