No. 3 Notre Dame 92, Longwood 26

By foxsports
Published

Longwood coach Bill Reinson could see the benefits of hiring former Notre Dame All-American Lindsay Schrader as an assistant. The coach also believes losing in a laugher to her alma mater will provide his players a valuable lesson.

Deveraux Peters scored 19 points and the No. 3 Fighting Irish opened with a 27-0 run before going on to beat the Lancers 92-26 on Wednesday.

The Irish forced turnovers on eight of Longwood's first nine possessions and pushed the lead to 27-0 before Mieke Elkington scored Longwood's first basket on a 15-footer with 11:37 to go in the opening half.

''For us, it was more of a chance for our kids to see how teams do it right, to see how teams recruit the right student athlete, how their coaches prepare them, and see how they compete,'' said Reinson, who has said hiring Schrader was the best decision he's made as a head coach. ''It is nice to point to teams like Notre Dame and say that that is what we aspire to be.''

Brittanni Billups scored eight points to lead the Lancers (2-12).

Peters eclipsed 1,000 points for her career on a layup 3 minutes into the second half - and was innocently unaware of it.

''I didn't even know what was going on,'' said Peters, who joins teammates Skylar Diggins and Natalie Novosel, among others, in achieving the milestone. ''I was confused when the crowd got all excited and Brittany (Mallory) yelled something to me as I went back upcourt, but I could not hear her. It is just an indication of how much support I get from my teammates.''

Diggins added 11 points and 10 assists, Novosel also scored 11 points and Fraderica Miller had 10 for the Irish (12-1), who converted 33 Longwood turnovers into 42 points.

Notre Dame took 87 shots, the sixth-most in team history, and pulled down 58 rebounds. The Irish scored 58 points in the paint and got 40 points from the reserves. Every player on Notre Dame scored.

''I was really happy with the game,'' Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. ''I thought we played with a lot of intensity in the second half. We came out of the locker room and played a good half-court man-to-man. I was pleased with our execution although we did not shoot it particularly well, but I thought we did a good job rebounding.''

The Irish, who led 45-14 at halftime, opened the second half with an 18-0 burst.