By SCOTT NOVAK
Niles Daily Star

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – For 10 minutes Tuesday night, it looked as if Vermont was building toward an upset of No. 2 seed Notre Dame.

The Catamounts built a 20-10 lead with 11:33 remaining in the opening half.

But the Fighting Irish turned up the defensive pressure, outscored No. 10 seed Vermont 32-13 in the final 11 minutes, and rolled to a 84-66 victory.

Led by standout freshman Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame was able to open up a huge lead on the Catamounts and then cruise on to Kansas City where it will face Oklahoma.

Diggins finished with a career-high in points (31) and steals (7). She also dished out six assists.

Diggins kept the Fighting Irish in it early, scoring 19 of those points in the opening half. In fact, the freshman sensation scored 15 of the Fighting Irish’s 20 points.

“I thought today was really exceptional,” Muffet McGraw said. “That was an incredible performance. She played well in the Big East tournament, but I thought for 40 minutes tonight, she was really on her game, and that was really fun to watch.”

But it was the Notre Dame defensive pressure that turned the tide for the Irish.

Kendra Seto got the Catamounts off to a good start. She canned 3-of-4 triples in the opening 20 minutes to help Vermont build a 10-point advantage and then keep them in the game as the momentum shifted in favor of the home team.

Poor shooting and turnovers plagued the Catamounts in the final 10 minutes of the opening half.

During a 14-2 Notre Dame run, Vermont was 1-of-5 from the field and had six turnovers.
The team game shifted in their favor, Diggins and the Irish finished off the Catamounts in the second half by continuing to apply the pressure and crash the boards.

The Fighting Irish forced 25 turnovers in the contest and scored 35 points off the Vermont miscues.

Notre Dame also held a 34-29 advantage in the rebounding department after trailing 15-11 at halftime.

“I knew from the jump, this team (Vermont), they won 11 of their last 12,” Diggins said. “They were going to be real pumped up to play a No. 2 seed. I really wanted to make sure I came out and tried to get us started and get into the run game. I wanted to get up and get some steals and run. Our team likes to get out in transition. We really wanted to get out and run, because that was working for us. We knew that their starting five played a lot of minutes. We just tried to use that to our advantage.”

Diggins got plenty of help from her teammates as senior Lindsay Schrader finished with 14 points and seven rebounds, while senior Melissa Lechlitner added 12 points and three assists.

Notre Dame was outstanding shooting the basketball the entire night.

The Fighting Irish finished 31-of-59 (52.5 percent) from the floor and was 19-of-29 from the free throw line.

The Catamounts shot 56 percent from the floor, but ended up just 27-of-55 (49 percent) for the game.

Vermont (27-7) placed five players in double figures, led by senior Alissa Shftic and freshman Kendra Seto, both of whom scored 14 points.

Standout guards May Kotsopoulos and Courtnay Pilypaitis finished with 12 and 11 points respectively.

VERMONT66
Alissa Sheftic 7-11 0-0 14, Courtnay Pilypaitis 4-9 1-1 11, May Kotsopoulos 4-8 2-2 12, Sofia Iwobi 5-9 1-1 11, Kendra Seto 5-13 1-1 14, Morgan Albert 0-0 0-0 0, Kristine Lalonde 0-0 0-0 0, Lauren Wheeler 0-0 0-0 0, Tonya Young 1-2 0-0 2, Lauren Buschmann 1-3 0-0 2. TOTALS: 27-55 5-5 66
NOTRE DAME 84
Erica Williamson 2-2 1-1 5, Skylar Diggins 13-21 4-6 31, Ashley Barlow 2-5 2-2 7, Melissa Lechlitner 2-6 7-8 12, Lindsay Schrader 6-10 2-4 14, Devereaux Peters 1-4 1-6 3, Kaila Turner 0-1 0-0 0, Natalie Novosel 2-3 2-2 6, Brittany Mallory 1-2 0-0 2, Becca Bruszewsk 2-5 0-0 4, Alena Christiansen 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 31-59 19-29 84

Halftime score: Notre Dame 42, Vermont 33. 3-point baskets: Vermont 7 (Pilypaitis 2, Kotsopoulos 2, Seto 3), Notre Dame 3 (Diggins 1, Barlow 1, Lechlitner 1). Total fouls (fouled out): Vermont 20 (Sheftic), Notre Dame 13 (none). Records: Vermont 27-7, Notre Dame 29-5