No. 4 Notre Dame bounces back from UConn loss with 78-60 win over Louisville

No. 4 Notre Dame runs by Louisville 78-60

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Skylar Diggins scored 20 points and Ashley Barlow added 18 to lead No. 4 Notre Dame to a 78-60 victory over Louisville on Tuesday, giving Fighting Irish coach Muffet McGraw her 600th career victory.

Melissa Lechlitner chipped in 14 points and Lindsay Schrader had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Irish (16-1, 3-1 Big East), who bounced back from a loss to No. 1 Connecticut by dominating the second half.

Notre Dame held Louisville (10-8, 2-3) without a field goal for more than eight minutes to turn a 46-43 deficit into a 56-43 lead. The Cardinals would get no closer than nine the rest of the way.

Monique Reid led Louisville with 23 points and nine rebounds, but the Cardinals shot just 37 percent in the second half and turned it over 20 times.

Louisville has struggled one year after making the national championship game and was involved in an ugly pregame fight against Georgetown last Saturday.

Coach Jeff Walz hasn’t taken and disciplinary action yet, saying he was still reviewing the tape.

If the Cardinals were still angry, it didn’t show. Louisville played arguably its best 15 minutes of the season to start the game, opening a 12-point lead behind Reid and Keshia Hines.

It was exactly the kind of scenario the Irish were trying to avoid three days after falling behind UConn by 22 in the first half.

Yet the Irish steadied themselves after Louisville freshman walk-on point guard Shelby Harper went to the bench with her third foul.

Louisville had just four turnovers at the time, but turned it over six times in the final minutes of the half as Notre Dame went on a 16-4 run to tie the game at 22 at the break.

The Cardinals briefly led by five in the second half before running out of gas.

Notre Dame’s defense had plenty to do with it. Gwen Rucker hit a layup to give Louisville a 46-43 lead with 16:50 to go, but the Cardinals wouldn’t score again until Reid converted a 3-point play with 8:14 remaining.

By then Notre Dame had reeled off 13 straight points and the undermanned Cardinals couldn’t keep pace. Reid, who was brilliant in the first half made just 2 of 8 shots in the second half.

The Irish had no such problems. Executing crisply in the halfcourt, Notre Dame found easy baskets for Schrader, Diggins and Lechlitner.

The lead ballooned to 20 in the final minutes, allowing McGraw to celebrate her milestone win.

She is the 19th women’s coach to reach the 600-victory plateau and the 10th-fastest to hit the mark. She has collected 512 of those wins with the Irish. The first 88 victories of her career came while she coached Lehigh.

Tennessee coach Pat Summitt is the all-time leader with 1,021 wins through Tuesday.