2016 ACC WBB Tournament: Miami and Notre Dame to meet in semifinal

Orin Day, Triangle Sports Network

GREENSBORO, N.C. – It was an electric atmosphere during the first session of ACC Tournament quarterfinal play at the Greensboro Coliseum on Friday.

Tied at 37 apiece at halftime, the fifth-seeded Miami Hurricanes (24-7) took over for the final 20 minutes of play and topped fourth-seeded Florida State (23-7) by a score of 74-56 and advanced to the semifinals to face two-time defending tournament champion Notre Dame on Friday.

Jessica Thomas led the Hurricanes with a 21-point performance with three others joining her with double-digit finishes.

Emese Hoff posted 15 points while Adrienne Motley and Keyona Hayes scored 13 points each to help power Miami’s 47-percent shooting performance that included an 8-of-15 finish beyond the arc.

Shakayla Thomas and Leticia Romero each scored 14 points to lead Florida State’s offense.

Top-seeded Notre Dame (29-1) made easy work of eight-seed Duke (20-12) as five scorers finished in double digits for the 10th time this season in an 83-54 win that advanced them into the semifinal round to face the Hurricanes.

Marina Mabrey and Arike Ogunbowale led the Fighting Irish with 14 points each while Michaela Mabrey and Madison Cable added 11 apiece.

Briana Turner’s 10 points went along with her team high seven rebounds as Notre Dame held a 44-32 edge on the boards.

Playing in her second game in as many days following a seven-game absence, Duke’s Azura Stevens scored a game-high 19 points, and with her 10 rebounds recorded another double-double in tournament play.

Playing once again without guard Rebecca Greenwell (back), Kyra Lambert ended up as the Blue Devils’ only other player to finish in double figures with 12 points.

#5 Miami 74, #4 Florida State 56

Scoring leaders

Miami: Jessica Thomas 21 pts. (8-13/5-6 3 pts.), 5 assts.; Emese Hof 15 pts. (7-10); Adrienne Motley 13 pts. (4-14/4-4 FT); Keyona Hayes 13 pts. (5-8)

Florida State: Shakayla Thomas 14 points (5-15); Leticia Romero 14 pts. (5-9)

Rebounding leaders: FSU – Ivey Slaughter (12)

Turning point

It was a game of runs and whichever team finished last, won.

Florida State extended its lead to nine points and put together an 8-0 run to lead 25-16 with 7:51 to play in the second quarter.

Miami then scored 10 straight points to reclaim the lead two minutes later.

With the score tied, it was with 5:02 in the third quarter when the Hurricanes’ 8-0 run led by Motley put the Seminoles behind 48-39, and presented them with a deficit that couldn’t be overcome.

Miami’s efficient all-around shooting – inside, outside, and from the free throw line – topped that of Florida State’s and earned the Hurricanes their first win over their in-state rival this season.

What they said

Miami head coach Katie Meier: “Well, I mean, I’m not up here without these two (Jessica Thomas, Adrienne Motley) to my left. Without their play today, we don’t win that basketball game. I thought they were amazing. I thought Jessica had total command for every second of the game. We did some things to sort of move her off the ball, too, and be a secondary outlet in that second half, and I think that really pushed our tempo when Jessica released down the court. We got some great flow, and then brought her back to the point and really had her controlling the game in crunch time, and huge shots, I thought.”

Miami’s Jessica Thomas (on what is needed to be successful for remainder of tournament):“Stay consistent. We’re playing really well. We’re rolling on offense. We’re doing big things on defense. These two games we’ve got to just keep it rolling, keep it going, stay consistent.”

Florida State head coach Sue Semrau:”Upsets happen, and certainly the old adage is that it’s tough to beat somebody three times in a season, and we knew it was going to be tough, and I didn’t think we played tough enough to win. Credit Miami; I thought they did a tremendous job. They made it tough to guard in their transition, and I just wish them all the best moving forward.

I think it was in our transition D. I thought that we didn’t score as well as we wanted to and couldn’t get our defense set, and even when we did, I thought that they just drove it down our throats. We just didn’t do a good job of communicating. That’s something that sometimes your team assumes that, well, we’ve done this before, we can do it again without a lot of communication. Certainly you never want that to be the case, but that’s what it looked like today.”

Florida States’ Leticia Romero (on Miami’s defense and turnovers):”Well, we know they are aggressive. They are aggressive every single game that we play against them, and we knew it. We work in practice, every practice, to handle that, and I think especially in the second half we didn’t do a good job of taking care of the ball, and I don’t know, credit to the defense because it was really good. And I feel like we have to fix all the mistakes that we did today in order to keep getting better and playing better in the NCAA Tournament.”

Up next

#5 Miami (24-7) vs. #1 Notre Dame (29-1) – Noon, Sat.

#1 Notre Dame 83, #8 Duke 54

Scoring leaders

Notre Dame: Marina Mabrey 14 pts. (5-9/3-3 FT); Arike Ogunbowale 14 pts. (6-13); Michaela Mabrey 11 pts. (4-8/3-7 3 pts.); Madison Cable 11 pts. (3-9/3-5 3 pts.); Briana Turner 10 pts. (5-11)

Duke: Azura Stevens 19 pts. (7-17/2-5 3 pts.); Kyra Lambert 12 pts. (4-12/3-7 3 pts.)

Rebounding leaders: Azura Stevens (10)

Turning point

Duke played the opening quarter with an offensive plan to possess the ball and hold for appropriate shot selection which put the Blue Devils ahead 9-8 with 3:54 to play.

Notre Dame figured it out and put together a 6-0 run that established a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish for the rest of the game.

The Fighting Irish continued to build on their advantage by outscoring the Blue Devils 21-4 during the first seven minutes of the second period.

What they said

Notre Dame head coach Muffett McGraw: “Really happy with the way we were able to score. I thought we moved the ball well. No turnovers in the first half is probably some kind of record for us, but it was really a great half and I thought we executed well today.

We don’t like the deliberate pace. I thought we were playing their pace. They controlled the tempo in the first half, they were going to move the ball, and wait for good shots, and work the zone a little bit, and we want to score quickly and have an up-tempo game. We thought we had an advantage running the floor, and we needed to rebound to do that. We didn’t rebound as well in the first half, and I think that was probably a bit of the problem, but I thought in the second half we got the transition going, we got some steals, got some rebounds.”

Notre Dame’s Marina Mabrey (on wanting to win the ACC Tournament:”It’s just as important. It’s just as important as the NCAA Tournament to me and our team. Obviously we want to win this. We’re one step closer with this win today. Miami is a very tough team. They’re playing out of their mind right now. They’ve got great guards, so it’s going to be a tough match-up for us.”

Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie:” It’s a tough one. I’m very proud of this team, but we know we could have played better. It’s not the feeling that we want to have. Obviously the points in the paint were a big story there, and the biggest story was us not defending. I know they’re an excellent three-point shooting team, but that really wasn’t it, either. It was the points in the paint and just the way that we let them score pretty easily. So we’ll take our lessons from this and we’ll move forward with those lessons.”

Duke’s Azura Stevens (on turnovers in second quarter):” We gave them the ball practically, and you can’t do that especially against a team that convert on turnovers every single time. Every single time you turn it over, they’re scoring. It’s not like a chance of them scoring, they’re going to score. So I think we just had to take better care of the ball, and we didn’t do that.”

Up next

#1 Notre Dame (29-1) vs. #5 Miami (24-7) – Noon, Sat.