Top-ranked Tennessee grinds out victory over Notre Dame

The only thing normal about Tennessee’s victory over Notre Dame was the fact that the Lady Vols won.

Top-ranked Tennessee shot 33 percent from the field and was outscored in the second half but beat No. 12 Notre Dame 62-51 Saturday in South Bend, Ind.

Tennessee (12-0), which entered the game averaging 83 points, won by outrebounding the Irish 50-35 and holding Notre Dame to 31 percent shooting.

“Our philosophy has always been you better pack your defense and your board work on the road,” Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said, “because those ugly nights and those poor shooting nights, you just have to grind games out. Today, we just had to grind it out.”

Alexis Hornbuckle had 15 points and eight rebounds, Nicky Anosike added nine points and Candace Parker had eight points and 11 rebounds for the Lady Vols.

Megan Duffy led Notre Dame (9-2) with 19 points, including eight in the last 4 minutes.

Tennessee led 47-25 with 13:09 left, but Notre Dame went on a 16-4 run to cut the lead to 51-41 with 6:16 remaining. Duffy’s jumper trimmed the deficit to 57-51 with 2 minutes left, but Tennessee went 5 of 8 from the free-throw line to end the game.

Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw liked how hard her Irish played before a crowd of 11,418, just the third sellout in Joyce Center history.

“I was really proud of our effort,” McGraw said. “I felt we really battled. I thought we came out and we were a little nervous in the first half. We’re just trying so hard with the crowd.”

Tennessee’s Shanna Zolman, the Lady Vols’ top scorer with 17 points per game, was held to five on 1-of-7 shooting.

“I felt we did a nice job on Zolman, we did a pretty good job on Parker, then Hornbuckle steps up and has a great game,” McGraw said. “They just have so many weapons. We tried to limit a couple of them.”

Duffy struggled until late in the game. She shot 5 for 18 from the field and 3 for 10 from 3-point range, but scored 14 points in the second half.

“We talked about being aggressive and driving to the basket,” Duffy said. “Both teams were in the one-and-one, and we figured we could get some free throws and try to get some points that way. I just tried to look for my shot. We ran a couple of plays to get me free.”

The Lady Vols forced 15 first-half turnovers to take a 29-14 lead. The Irish (9-2) barely avoided their lowest-scoring half thanks to Courtney LaVere’s 3-pointer with 1:09 left before the break. Notre Dame’s all-time low of 12 was set in 1981.

(5) North Carolina 101, College of Charleston 48: At Chapel Hill, N.C., Ivory Latta had 14 points in 16 minutes to lead the Tar Heels in a rout over the Cougars.

North Carolina (13-0) made 9 of 20 3-pointers and won its 26th straight in Chapel Hill. Heather Claytor added 12 points on four 3-pointers and LaToya Pringle had 11 points.

Erica Irick led College of Charleston (3-6) with 12 points.

The Tar Heels jumped to an 18-2 lead after College of Charleston turned the ball over on six of its first eight possessions.

(8) Connecticut 84, Army 46: At Hartford, Conn., Ann Strother scored 21 points and Barbara Turner had 16 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Huskies to their fifth straight win.

Strother had five of UConn’s season-high 12 3-pointers to move to 18th on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,386 points. Turner picked up her fourth double-double of the season and helped invigorate a sluggish inside game for UConn (11-1).

Mel Thomas made three 3-pointers and finished with 16 points. She and Strother combined for four 3s in a 17-0 run midway through the second half.

Cara Enright led the Black Knights (5-7) with 17 points and Alex McGuire added 10.

(24) Boston College 73, Colgate 54: At Boston, Brooke Queenan had 23 points and Kindyll Dorsey scored 10 of her 16 points in a 15-2 game-opening run to lead the Eagles over the Red Raiders.

Queenan had 10 rebounds and Sarah Marshall had nine assists for the Eagles (12-2), who gave coach Cathy Inglese her 350th career win.

Meghan Curtin had 16 second-half points and Megan Ballard finished with 11 points for Colgate (2-9).

The Eagles made eight of their first 11 shots and pushed the lead to 28-4 on Queenan’s basket. BC led 41-17 at halftime after holding Colgate to 21 percent shooting.