@MiamiWBB Knocks Off Fourth-Ranked Notre Dame

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) – The last thing Miami coach Katie Meier said in the pregame address to her players was that she would not be surprised when they beat Notre Dame.

And she wasn’t.

Adrienne Motley scored a career-high 32 points, Jassany Williams blocked a school-record nine shots and the Hurricanes snapped No. 4 Notre Dame’s record-tying 30-game road winning streak by running out to a big lead and then pulling away again late to upset the Fighting Irish 78-63 on Thursday night.

“We knew that we would have an opportunity, and then we would have some adversity, and then we would have to come back,” Meier said. “So we scripted the game in their minds.”

That the Hurricanes (12-3, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) did, right down to the perfect ending.

Miami led 40-20 at the half, saw the lead whittled to six and then closed the game on a 23-14 spurt. Motley made 13 of 19 shots, Suriya McGuire added 11 points and Williams added six points and eight rebounds to her nine-block night. Plus, Miami’s bench outscored Notre Dame’s 21-7.

“It just so happened I had 32,” Motley said. “But it was everybody tonight.”

Jewell Loyd scored 27 points for Notre Dame (14-2, 2-1), which got 17 points and 10 rebounds from Brianna Turner. Notre Dame’s last road loss was March 6, 2012, at Connecticut, which set the Division I women’s record with 30 straight road wins from 2008-10.

Notre Dame was 21-0 in ACC regular-season and tournament games since joining the league, not including an NCAA tournament win over Maryland, plus lost to an unranked opponent for the first time in 62 games going back to Feb. 12, 2012, against West Virginia.

“You never like to lose, but we’re just so darn young sometimes that we needed maybe a kick in the pants to kind of say we need to come out ready,” said Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw. “I don’t know mentally what they were thinking before the game but we were uncharacteristically bad in the first half. Credit their defense, that really set us back on our heels.”

The Hurricanes went on a 20-4 run to end the half, with Motley and Necole Sterling combining for 16 of those points. Notre Dame shot just 24 percent in the first 20 minutes, its six field goals matching the total Motley had herself by intermission.

Notre Dame, which came in averaging nearly 86 points per game, roared back.

Turner was almost unguardable down low after halftime, and her three-point play with 8:28 left got the Fighting Irish within 55-49. But every time the Hurricanes looked to be on the ropes, they would counter.

Laura Quevedo hit a 3-pointer and punched the air in celebration to push the lead back to nine, and her three-point play about 4 minutes later extended Miami’s edge to 69-55.

TIP-INS

Miami: The Hurricanes became the second team to lead Notre Dame by at least 20 points this season, with Connecticut being the other. … Miami wears an “ES” patch on its jerseys to pay tribute to Edna Shalala, who died late last year. Edna Shalala is the mother of University of Miami president Donna Shalala.

“MILD” DIFFERENCE

The temperature when Notre Dame’s bus arrived at the Bank United Center was 68 degrees –a mere 57 degrees warmer than it was back on their campus at South Bend, Indiana, at the same time.

PAST VS. FUTURE

Notre Dame was recently an Adidas school, before it switched to Under Armour. Thursday’s game was played hours after Miami announced that it will no longer be a Nike school and will be playing in Adidas apparel for 12 years starting in September.

UP NEXT

Notre Dame: Host Boston College on Sunday.

Miami: At Virginia Tech on Sunday.

MIAMI HURRICANES POSTGAME NOTES

• This is Miami’s first ever win over a team ranked in the top four of both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll.
• The last time the Hurricanes defeated a top-five opponent was with a 69-65 victory at home over No. 5/4 Duke Feb. 28, 2013.
• Miami’s last victory against a ranked team was at No. 6/6 North Carolina Feb. 2, 2014 by a score of 83-80.
• The Hurricanes are the first team to defeat Notre Dame in ACC play.
• Notre Dame entered tonight’s game with 30 consecutive road wins, tied for an all-time Division I women’s college basketball record.
• Miami has defeated a top five opponent in three of the past four years after having never done so previously.
• The all-time series between Miami and Notre Dame now favors the Fighting Irish by a margin of 14-4. Miami’s last win over the Fighting Irish came at Notre Dame Jan. 11, 2003. The Hurricanes won 80-70 over the No. 16/17 Irish.
• Notre Dame was ranked first in the RPI.
• Katie Meier’s career record is now 251-169 in 14 seasons as a head coach.
• Meier moves to 175-124 in 10 years at Miami.
• At least 10 Hurricanes have now played in all 15 games this season.
• Miami’s starting lineup consisted of Suriya McGuire, Adrienne Motley, Laura Quevedo, Jessica Thomas, and Jassany Williams. This was the eighth time in the last nine games the Hurricanes used that starting five.
• Miami limited Notre Dame to its lowest first half field goal percentage of the season, 24 percent (6-of-25).
• Miami’s bench outscored Notre Dame’s 21-7.
• Adrienne Motley scored a career-high 32 points. Her previous high was 27 at North Carolina (2/2/14) and that was the last time Miami beat a ranked opponent.
• Motley is the first Hurricane to score 30-plus points since Riquna Williams had 34 in a win vs. No. 5/5 Maryland (1/12/12).
• Adrienne Motley has scored in double figures in 14 of Miami’s 15 games, including each of the last 13. She has scored 16-plus points 12 times and over 20 points six times.
• Motley set a career high with 13 made field goals (previous 11, vs. Georgia Tech, 2/9/14) and her 36 minutes played matched her career best (previous vs. Georgia Tech, 2/9/14).
• Adrienne Motley‘s 10 free throw attempts were a career high (previous eight, multiple times, most recently vs. Wake Forest, 2/24/14).
• Motley surpassed 600 points in her college career and also tied a season high with seven rebounds (previous vs. Wisconsin, 12/4/14).
• Jassany Williams had nine blocks to set a University of Miami record (previous eight by Sylvia Bullock vs. Houston, 11/24/09).
• Williams’ nine blocks are a career high (previous seven vs. Duke, 11/18/11, while at Auburn). Six of her blocks came in the final six minutes of the game.
• Williams is the first Hurricane with five-plus blocks in a game since she did so when she had six vs. New Mexico Dec. 29, 2013.
• Redshirt junior guard Michelle Woods made the 50th three-pointer of her college career.
• Laura Quevedo played a career-high 36 minutes (previous 27 vs. Arizona State, 11/25/14).