College basketball

Women: Notre Dame awakens in time

By wire services
Published February 13, 2005

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame is having trouble focusing against lesser opponents.

The Irish nearly squandered a 17-point lead to Georgetown before beating the Hoyas 72-58 Saturday for their ninth straight win.

"We were running our offense and doing whatever we wanted to do," said Jacqueline Batteast, who led the Irish with 20 points and eight rebounds. "Once we got the big lead, we lost the focus we had."

Against Providence, winless in the Big East, the Irish trailed by six points Wednesday before winning by 18.

Notre Dame (22-3, 10-2 Big East) led 31-14 early, but Georgetown (9-13, 4-7) got within 35-30 early in the second half. The Hoyas closed to 42-39 when Mary Lisicky hit a 3-pointer, and she closed the gap to 43-41 on two free throws with 12:41 left.

Irish coach Muffet McGraw was disappointed the Irish let the Hoyas get back in the game.

The Irish regained their composure after that. Batteast dribbled around a crowd in the lane and drove the baseline to spark a 17-4 run by the Irish. Batteast and Charel Allen scored six points each during the spurt. Megan Duffy, who had 17 points and seven assists, capped the run with two free throws to give the Irish a 60-45 lead with 6:34 left.

Batteast moved into fourth place on Notre Dame's all-time scoring list with 1,765 points, two points ahead of Alicia Ratay. Ruth Riley, who led the Irish to a national championship in 2001, is third with 2,072 points.

NO. 7 BAYLOR 87, OKLAHOMA STATE 51: After two close road victories, Baylor got the breather it needed.

Sophia Young had 24 points and 10 rebounds and Steffanie Blackmon added 12 points and 13 rebounds for the host Bears.

Coming off a 52-49 win over Texas Tech and a 73-72 victory over Oklahoma, Baylor charged to a 22-5 lead.

NO. 22 BOSTON COLLEGE 75, SYRACUSE 50: For a brief moment, Syracuse seemed poised to beat a ranked team for the first time in 14 tries. Then Boston College clamped down defensively and dashed the Orange's hopes.

Brooke Queenan scored 16 and Clare Droesch had 15 points and seven assists to lead the visiting Eagles, who snapped a three-game skid.

UCF 64, MERCER 59: Ali Roberts had 17 points for visiting Central Florida, which improved to 13-2 in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

FLORIDA TECH 68, SAINT LEO 57: Visiting Florida Tech erased a 19-13 deficit in the first half with a 28-4 to spark the victory. Rosetta Little had 12 points and 13 rebounds for Saint Leo.

NOVA S'EASTERN 65, ECKERD 58: Host Nova set a school record with its 15th victory of the season. Freshman Ryan Trettevik led Eckerd with 17 points.

[Last modified February 13, 2005, 01:08:17]