By JEFF FISHER
Niles Daily Star

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Others already had a glimpse of what Notre Dame freshman Skyler Diggins can do.

Now it’s time Big East teams see her for themselves.

Diggins scored 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting and was 3-for-3 from the charity stripe in her Big East debut, leading No. 3 Notre Dame to an 81-46 win over visiting Villanova on Saturday.

She was among seven Irish players with at least two steals.

“I thought Skyler had one of her best games of the year in terms of efficiency in a short amount of minutes.  I thought she did a great job,” Irish coach Muffet McGraw said.

One of the top recruits in the country, South Bend’s Skyler Diggins has been rounding out her game into the complete package over the first 14 games. Before Saturday, Diggins came in averaging 13.1 points per game and scored a season-high 21 points against San Diego State back in November.

Another South Bend product, Melissa Lechlitner, added 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting added three assists and one turnover.

The victory improves the Irish to 14-0 and 1-0 in the Big East. The Irish are in the midst of their best start since the 2000-01 national champion Irish started off 23-0.

Villanova drops to 10-4 overall.

The telling tale of the game was turnovers. Villanova came into the game second in the nation in fewest turnovers committed at 12.6 a game. But at the end of this contest, the Wildcats recorded 34 turnovers – 17 in the first half, with the Irish keeping a firm grip on the ball, only having nine for the entire game, matching a season low.

The Irish scored 40 points off of turnovers.

“That may have been one of our best defensive games of the season,” McGraw said. “I thought we played well today, especially our guard play. It was a good first game in the Big East.”

“You saw one team with talented players and another short on talent for now, because of injuries and we have very inexperienced players,” Wildcats coach Harry Perretta said. “Usually when that happens, that’s going to be the result. We were not ready for the experienced Irish.”

Villanova has lost two starters to season-ending knee injuries.

“I tried to tell the kids that when you are playing against a team like Notre Dame, Connecticut, Rutgers, if you are going to turn it over, throw it in the stands or walk with it,” Perretta added. “Because when you turn it over for the steals then we can’t stop their transition baskets. When the game was in half-court, we had it somewhat under control.”
Maria Getty led the Wildcats with 10 points, after she scored her team’s first seven points.

Lindsay Schrader’s two baskets gave Notre Dame a 10-9 lead in the early going. A Lechliter 3-pointer opened up an Irish 32-20 lead with four minutes to go in the first half, but after a Devereaux Peters’ hoop, the home team was suddenly up 16 points, 36-20 and opened up a 43-22 lead at the intermission.

The Wildcats trimmed the Irish lead down to 17 points early in the second half, but Notre Dame came back with a 23-3 run to thwart any comeback hope by the visitors.

Villanova out rebounded the Irish 29-25 for the game and that is something that McGraw says they have to work on.

“We got out rebounded and that is something that should not have happened,” she noted.

Notre Dame hosts South Florida on Tuesday night.  Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.