Ogunbowale helps Irish beat Louisville in a 1-2 showdown
SOUTH BEND, IND. >> As far as Arike Ogunbowale and coach Muffet McGraw were concerned, No. 1 Notre Dame’s 82-68 victory over No. 2 Louisville Thursday night was just another Atlantic Coast Conference game in January.
“Any game in the ACC is a big win; there’s a lot of great teams and a lot of upsets going on,” Ogunbowale said after scoring 26 of her game-high 30 points in the second half to help the Fighting Irish overcome 18 turnovers to beat the Cardinals in the 59th No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in women’s college basketball history and the second involving Notre Dame this season.
“That was just a great basketball game,” McGraw said after her Fighting Irish (15-1, 3-0) won their eighth straight and first game since regaining the top spot from Connecticut, which beat then-No. 1 Notre Dame 89-71 on Dec. 2 in the last meeting of the top two teams. “For 1 vs. 2, it was everything you wanted to see. It was a great win in terms of the conference, but it’s still early and we’ve got a lot of games to play.”
It was Ogunbowale’s 36th straight double-digits game — she had just five points in Notre Dame’s
100-67 loss at Louisville (14-1, 2-1) on Jan. 11, 2018.
Brianna Turner, who missed Notre Dame’s two losses last season to Louisville while recovering from ACL surgery, added 16 points on
7-of-11 shooting, six rebounds and three blocked shots. Jackie Young had 14 points and five assists for the Irish, who got 15 rebounds from Jessica Shepard to win the battle of the boards, 48-32.
(8) NC STATE 63, PITTSBURGH 34 >> Kiara Leslie had 16 points and eight rebounds and North Carolina State beat Pitt (9-2) to improve to 16-0.
(16) KENTUCKY 73, (13) TENNESSEE
71 >> Maci Morris scored 27 points before fouling out and Kentucky
(15-2, 2-1 SEC) withstood an injury to Taylor Murray to beat Tennessee (12-3, 1-2).
(21) SOUTH CAROLINA 71, FLORIDA
40>> Bianca Cuevas-Moore hit four
3-pointers, two as South Carolina
(11-4, 3-0 SEC) opened with a 19-0 run, and scored 16 points to lead the Gamecocks to their seventh straight victory. OHIO STATE 55, (25_ INDIANA 50 >> Carmen Grande scored 19 points, including four free throws in the last 20 seconds, and Ohio State (5-8,
1-3 Big Ten) outscored Indiana (142, 3-1) 25-14 in the fourth quarter.
Men
(2) MICHIGAN 79, ILLINOIS 69 >>
Zavier Simpson scored 16 points, Ignas Brazdeikis had 15 and Michigan (4-0 Big Ten) beat Illinois (412, 0-5) to improve to 16-0.
Michigan and Virginia are the only unbeaten teams in the country. The Wolverines jumped to a 7-0 lead and easily held off the overmatched Illinois.