Notre Dame WBB: 9th ranked Louisville dominates Notre Dame 82-49

The struggles of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team continued on Saturday, with the Irish being dominated 82-49 by 9th ranked Louisville.

Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw led her Notre Dame women’s basketball team into battle with perhaps the toughest opponent the Irish would play all season in 9th ranked Louisville. The difficult season would continue for Notre Dame, as Louisville would hand them an embarrassing 82-49 loss on Sunday.

After a decade that saw the Notre Dame women’s basketball team reach the Final Four of the NCAA tournament for 7 out of 10 years, the 2019-2020 season has been a disappointing one for the Irish women, who fell to 10-16 on the season with the loss to the Cardinals.

Meanwhile, Louisville looks every bit the part of a legitimate contender for a National Championship this season, as Jeff Walz’s team improved to 23-3 on the year. Junior guard Dana Evans led the way for the Cardinals, scoring 18 points and dishing out seven assists in the win.

Guard Elizabeth Balogun contributed 11 points and 3 rebounds in her return from her hiatus away from the team to play with the Nigerian National Team. Forward Kylee Shook also chipped in 11 points while adding seven rebounds and guard Yacine Diop scored a season-high 15 points and grabbed five boards in the victory.

The Irish were led by center Mik Vaughn, who had a team-high 16 points in addition to grabbing six rebounds. The only other Notre Dame player to score in double digits was junior guard Destinee Walker, who had 12 points and three assists in the game.

With the loss, the Irish fall to 5-9 in the ACC and into 12th place in the conference. Notre Dame will look to bounce back from this difficult loss when they host Virginia Tech next Thursday night. They currently have three games remaining on their regular-season schedule.