No. 9 Notre Dame Women Look To Stay Unbeaten Against Ball State

The No. 9 Notre Dame women's basketball team plays its final home game in November when it hosts Ball State Sunday afternoon

After a Wednesday game against Northwestern in Evanston Ill, the Notre Dame women’s basketball team is back home for its second home game of the season Sunday afternoon. The game against Ball State will be Notre Dame’s last home game until they host Maryland on Dec. 1.

Where: Notre Dame, Ind. - Purcell Pavilion
When: Sunday, Nov. 20 – 4:00 PM EST
Network: ACC Network – Jenn Hildreth Riehn and Kelly Gramlich
Radio: ND Radio Network, 99.9 FM WQLQ in South Bend – Sean Stires PBP

Let's take a look at today’s matchup:

NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH (3-0, 0-0 ACC)

Head Coach: Niele Ivey (37-19 – 3rd season at Notre Dame)

The Fighting Irish beat Northwestern 92-58 on Wednesday night in their first true road game of the season. The game was marred by fouls, technical fouls and a handful of ejections, but Sonia Citron turned in her best game of the season with 24 points and 10 rebounds. The reigning ACC Freshman of the Year hit her first eight shots and finished 8 for 10 from the field overall, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range.

Olivia Miles scored 21 with six rebounds, four assists and four steals, but she was ejected in the third quarter after being assessed her second technical foul in the game. Her first came in the first half when she and a Northwestern player exchanged words near the Wildcat bench. Three Northwestern players were ejected for leaving the bench.

Texas grad transfer Lauren Ebo had her best game in an Irish uniform with 19 points and seven rebounds. Stanford grad transfer Jenna Brown also finished with three points for her first points in a Fighting Irish uniform.

Projected Irish Starting Lineup

G Olivia Miles- 5-10, Soph. - 17.0 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 6.7 APG
G Sonia Citron - 6-1, Soph – 15.3 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 2.0 APG
G Dara Mabrey - 5-7, 5th – 13.0 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 3.0 APG
F Maddy Westbeld - 6-3, Jr. - 9.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 7 Blk
F Kylee Watson - 6-4, Jr – 10.7 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 3 Blk

Ball State Cardinals (2-1, 0-0 MAC)

Head Coach: Brady Sallee (185-131 11th year at BSU– 321-243 in 19th Overall)

Ball State head coach Brady Sallee became the program’s all-time winningest coach in program history. He is the only coach in BSU history to lead the program to eight WNIT appearances.

This will be Ball State’s third straight game against teams from Indiana. The Cardinals beat Indiana University East 105-51 last Monday and then followed that with an 84-68 win over Butler. They lost 68-63 to Tennessee Tech in their season opener.

Projected Starting Lineup

F Thelma Dis Agustsdottir - Stats – 6.0 PPG, 1.0 RPG, 3.3 APG
G Anna Clephane - Stats – 16.3 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 2.0 APG
G Ally Becki - Stats – 8.7 PPG, 4.0, RPG, 3.3
F Marie Kiefer – Stats – 9.0 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 4 BLK
G Madelyn Bischoff - Stats – 8.7, 4.0 RPG, 1.3 AST

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Notre Dame’s last two games have been full of fouls. There were 48 total fouls called in Wednesday’s game at Northwestern after 59 fouls were called in Notre Dame’s game against California. The Fighting Irish are not deep, but four of the five starters are averaging in double figures and Ebo has come off the bench in all three games to average in double digits as well.

Notre Dame’s size advantage is likely to be a factor against the Cardinals. Notre Dame has two starters (Westbeld and Watson) who are 6-3 and 6-4, respectively, as well as 6-5 Nat Marshall and 6-4 Ebo coming off the bench. Annie Rauch is the only Ball State player who stands 6-3. BSU is also shooting just 19% from 3-point range. 

Fighting Irish great Katryna Gaither will also be honored before the game when she is inducted into the Notre Dame Ring of Honor. Gaither still holds the No. 4 spot in the highest field goal percentage category from her 1995-96 campaign (.633) and the No. 1 spot in single-season field goals (324) from that same year. She was a critical piece of Notre Dame’s first Final Four run in 1997, when current Irish head coach Niele Ivey was a freshman. 

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Sean Stires
SEAN STIRES

Sean Stires is a staff writer for Irish Breakdown, where he covers the Notre Dame Football beat. A long-time radio host at WSBT, Sean is also the host of the IB Nation Sports Talk Show on the Irish Breakdown channel. He is also the play-by-play announcer for the Notre Dame women's basketball team. Sean has also called games for the Fighting Irish baseball team. You can email Sean at seanstires@gmail.com. Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more. BECOME A MEMBER Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time! Follow Ryan on Twitter: @SeanStiresLike and follow Irish Breakdown on FacebookSubscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channelSubscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter