LEXINGTON, Ky. — Notre Dame delivered on one promise by Coach Muffet McGraw to look different without injured Brianna Turner, shifting from lobbing the ball inside to their star forward to throwing up perimeter shots with success.
The strategy certainly suited sophomore guard Arike Ogunbowale, who thrived from all over the court as she helped the top-seeded Irish maintain their dominance against Ohio State.
Ogunbowale scored a career-high 32 points, Lindsay Allen added 16 and Notre Dame easily beat Ohio State 99-76 on Friday night in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Playing five days after losing star forward Brianna Turner to a season-ending left knee injury, the Irish posted their third-highest output this season while also scoring the most points against the Buckeyes. Ogunbowale seemed almost unstoppable in making 11 of 22 from the field to top her previous high by two points.
“It’s evident that we don’t have Bri in the paint, so it’s spaced out a little bit more,” said Ogunbowale, who made four 3s. “Coach told us to shoot our shot and be confident in what we were trying to do, and that’s what we did.”
The Irish also got 14 points and a career-high nine rebounds from freshman forward Erin Boley, a Kentucky native who started in Turner’s place. Notre Dame tied one season best with 12 3-pointers on a season-high 24 attempts and made 19 of 20 free throws for a thorough win.
Notre Dame (33-3) used a 30-point third quarter to build an 80-65 lead that wasn’t seriously threatened as it advanced to the regional final Sunday against No. 2 seed Stanford.
“Our young players just really stepped up in such a big game,” McGraw said. “I thought Erin played the best game of the season, (and) Arike had a career high in a huge game without Bri. It was a struggle for us this week trying to overcome that, and I’m just so proud of the resilience of this team.”
Kelsey Mitchell had 18 points for No. 5 seed Ohio State (28-7), which was outrebounded 42-30 and outscored 38-34 inside.
The Buckeyes initially shot well and handled their business inside but couldn’t match Notre Dame’s pace and aggression, especially on the boards. While their bench had a 34-13 scoring edge, they couldn’t make up for the Irish’s collective effort.
STANFORD 77, TEXAS 66: Erica McCall had 23 points and 12 rebounds, Karlie Samuelson scored 15 points and second-seeded Stanford (31-5) advanced to the regional final.
Ariel Atkins scored 18 points for the third-seeded Longhorns (25-9).
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