Lindsay Schrader’s 12 points lead No. 7 Notre Dame over Seton Hall 72-47
By Tom Canavan, APSaturday, February 27, 2010
No. 7 Notre Dame beats Seton Hall 72-47
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — Lindsay Schrader scored 12 points and No. 7 Notre Dame dominated in the paint in a 72-47 victory over Seton Hall on Saturday.
Melissa Lechlitner added 10 points and the Irish (25-3, 12-3 Big East) closed both halves with big runs in sending the Pirates (9-19, 1-14) to their sixth straight loss and 15th in 16 games.
The win sets up a key game for Notre Dame on Monday night against No. 1 Connecticut, which improved to 29-0 with an 84-62 win over No. 13 Georgetown.
The Irish need to beat the Huskies or get help in the form of a loss by No. 18 St. John’s in order to avoid slipping to the No. 5 seed for the conference tournament. The top four seeds get double byes and the No. 5 only gets a single bye.
Kandice Green had 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Pirates. Ebonie Williams had 13 points and Terry Green added 11.
The Irish, who snapped two-game losing streak with win over Marquette on Tuesday, had a 12-point run at the end of the first half to build a 12-point lead and they scored 13 in a row late to blow open the game.
Most of the points in both runs came in the paint, where the Irish piled up 50 points and finished the game with 56-percent shooting from the field.
Schrader returned for the Marquette game after missing two games because of a sprained ankle. The Irish were upset by Georgetown and St. John’s in Schrader’s absence, but she was the catalyst in the first run with six points. Becca Bruszewski had six of her eight in the late run.
Ten of the 11 players who got on the court for Notre Dame scored, with Skylar Diggins and Ashley Barlow (9 rebounds) adding nine points apiece and Devereaux Peters adding eight points and eight rebounds.
The final score was not indicative of how hard Seton Hall pushed Notre Dame, which last won 25 games in 2004-05.
Maybe using the motivation from senior day, Seton Hall played Notre Dame surprisingly close for the opening 15 minutes, drawing within 24-22 with 5:08 to play on a layup by Kandice Green.
Notre Dame’s pressing defense suddenly started forcing turnovers and the Irish ran off 12 straight points with the final 10 coming from in close.
Lechlitner started the run with a foul-line jumper and Schrader scored inside for a 28-22 lead. The Irish then forced consecutive turnovers. Diggins scored on a fastbreak off a Lechlitner pass on the first and Peters followed a Lechlitner miss for a 32-22 lead.
Schrader closed out the run with layups off nice assists by Bruszewski.
