Notre Dame WBB: Irish women defeat Syracuse 72-70 in Pink Zone game

The Notre Dame women’s basketball team defeated Syracuse 72-70 in their annual Pink Zone game to raise cancer awareness, improving to 11-17 on the year.

The Notre Dame women’s basketball team improved to 11-17 on the year with their 72-70 win over Syracuse on Sunday afternoon. The Irish women pulled off the victory in their annual Pink Zone game, which helps promote cancer awareness.

The Irish were able to get off to a hot start shooting, which carried over throughout the game. While their shooting kept them in the game, it was a strong defensive effort that would seal the victory for the Irish, as they made two critical stops with under a minute remaining in the game.

Leading the way for Notre Dame was Mikki Vaughn, who had a career-high 21 points to go with 5 rebounds in the game. Included in the 21 points were two free throws with 1:02 remaining in the game to put the Irish ahead permanently.

Sophomore guard Katlyn Gilbert added 12 points and six assists, while graduate student and guard Destinee Walker added 16 points, six rebounds and six assists in the Notre Dame victory over Syracuse.

Freshman phenom guard Sam Brunelle contributed15 points and nine rebounds in the game. Additionally, she hit three three-point shots, tying her for second place in Notre Dame school history for most three-point shots made by a freshman with 47.

Brunelle will need to make 27 more three-point attempts on the season if she hopes to break the current school record of most three-pointers made by a freshman (73), which is held by “The Silent Assassin” Alicia Ratay, who set the school record as a freshman during the 2000 season. Ratay would go on to record 262 three-point attempts made, a record that she held until Marina Mabrey broke it last season.

Kiara Lewis led all Syracuse scorers with 24 points, she also grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists. Guard Gabrielle Cooper would add 17 points and 10 rebounds in a double-double for the Orange.

The Notre Dame women finish up their regular season with a home game against North Carolina on Thursday and an away game season finale against Florida State on March 1st. They will look to finish strong before kicking off the ACC Tournament on March 4th.