Olivia Miles Sends Notre Dame Women's Basketball To Overtime Win Over Louisville

Miles' buzzer-beater snaps losing streak to Cardinals and keeps Irish ACC title hopes alive

When opportunity presented itself, Olivia Miles was ready for the moment Thursday night. Just seconds after an inbound pass had slipped through her fingers to allow Louisville to tie her team 76-76, Notre Dame’s do everything point guard took an inbound pass with 3.8 second left and proceeded to sink the game-winning shot to give the Fighting Irish (21-4, 12-3) a 78-76 overtime win over Louisville (19-9, 10-5).

The shot left Miles’ hands with one second to play and capped a game that saw 13 lead changes and 14 ties. The biggest lead the Irish ever had was four points. It came with :15 seconds to play in overtime, but evaporated after a Hailey Van Lith layup was followed less than six seconds later by an Olivia Cochran layup after Miles mishandled the inbound pass.

Miles finished her night one assist shy of a triple double. She scored 18 points and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds with nine assists. Her ninth double-double of the season helped the Irish snap a six-game losing streak to the Cardinals. Notre Dame’s last previous win over their ACC rival was on March 10, 2019 in the ACC Tournament’s championship game.

Van Lith, the ACC’s third-leading scorer at 19.1 points per game, started the game on fire. She hit all three of her 3-point attempts in the first quarter to lead all scorers with 11 points in the first 10 minutes to finish with 19 points.

The Irish trailed by nine points in the second quarter before Sonia Citron hit a pair of 3s to help get Notre Dame’s offense on track. She scored 10 of her 15 points in the first half.

Meanwhile, Chrislyn Carr came off the bench for Louisville to hit a pair of her own treys to help the Cardinals start 5 for 5 from behind the 3-point arc. Carr was Louisville’s only other player to finish in double figures with 15 points.

Notre Dame went on a 9-0 run to tie the score at 31-31 but went scoreless over the final 3:05 of the half to trail 35-31 at the intermission.

The Fighting Irish once again got surprising but much needed impact play from Kylee Watson. The junior forward had just matched her season-high with 15 points against Syracuse on her 21st birthday Sunday. She topped that with 20 points, just one off her career-high, with 12 of it coming in the fourth quarter and overtime. Watson hit all eight of her field goal attempts and was 4 of 7 at the free throw line.

Maddy Westbeld was quiet most of the night but gave the Irish a five-point flurry late in regulation. She was fouled on a short jumper and converted a 3-point play with a free throw to tie the score at 68 WITH 1:13 to play. She hit a layup on the next possession to give the Irish a 70-68 lead with :44 seconds to play in regulation. The five points on consecutive possessions were Westbeld’s only points of the night.

The win keeps the Irish on track for a chance at the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament. Duke lost 61-45 to Virginia Tech Thursday night to fall into a tie atop the conference standings with the Irish.

With three games to play in the regular season, Duke owns the tiebreaker due to its head-to-head win over the Irish. The Blue Devils’ three remaining games are against Virginia, NC State and North Carolina. Notre Dame closes with Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech and a Feb. 26 rematch at Louisville. 

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