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Notre Dame Women’s Basketball: Irish face Cuse in ACC semifinal

By Jordan Small

COLUMBUS, OH - MARCH 30: Arike Ogunbowale #24 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish attempts a shot against the Connecticut Huskies during the second half in the semifinals of the 2018 NCAA Women's Final Four at Nationwide Arena on March 30, 2018 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OH - MARCH 30: Arike Ogunbowale #24 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish attempts a shot against the Connecticut Huskies during the second half in the semifinals of the 2018 NCAA Women's Final Four at Nationwide Arena on March 30, 2018 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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The Notre Dame women’s basketball team will play Syracuse on Saturday in the ACC Tournament semifinals.

On Friday afternoon, Notre Dame took on North Carolina in the third round of the ACC Tournament The Irish defeated the Tar Heels 95-77. Arike Ogunbowale led all scorers with 28 points and Brianna Turner added a double-double in the win. The Irish will now take on the Syracuse in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, NC.

The Irish

On Friday, the Irish played really well offensively. They shot 58 percent from the field and only turned the ball over 11 times. It was a much better performance than the first time that they played North Carolina. In their second game of the tournament, they are going to need to dig a bit deeper and power through fatigue. It has been a few months since they played games this close together, so they will need the bench to step up as well.

The big thing that the Irish will need to improve on is the defense. While they played great defense against Syracuse just last week, it is important that they up the level from what they played on Friday against North Carolina. The Orange hit an ACC Tournament record 14 shots from beyond the arc on Friday in their upset win over Miami. If the Irish are going to win this game, they will need to play strong perimeter defense.

Syracuse

Syracuse comes into Friday’s matchup at 24-7. They are 11-5 in regular season conference play and beat Virginia on Thursday in the second round of the tournament and Miami on Friday. One player to keep an eye out for is Tiana Mangakahia. She had 25 points and 13 assists in the win over Miami on Friday. Against Notre Dame at the end of February, she scored 17 points and had seven assists.

Next. NDWBB Regular Season Review. dark

How to watch

Tip-off for the matchup is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.