No. 10 Vermont Falls To No. 2 Notre Dame In NCAA Second Round

No. 10 Vermont Falls To No. 2 Notre Dame In NCAA Second Round

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Freshman Skylar Diggins poured in a career-high 31 points, handed out six assists and collected seven steals to lead No. 2 Notre Dame past No. 10 Vermont, 84-66, in the second round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at the Joyce Center on Tuesday night.

The Irish, ranked 7th in the latest AP Poll, fell behind by 10 after a three-pointer from freshman Kendra Seto (Oshawa, Ontario) put the Catamounts up 20-10 with 11:37 remaining in the first half.

Notre Dame answered, using its pressure defense and quickness, with a 27-7 run to flip the lead to a 10-point advantage in favor of the Irish. A lay up by Diggins at the 2:03 mark of the half gave UND a 37-27 lead. Notre Dame extended its margin to 12, but Seto hit another three at the halftime buzzer to slice the Irish advantage to nine at the break, 42-33.

Vermont was able to climb back within eight, 55-47, on a lay up by Lauren Buschmann (St. Catharines, Ontario) at the 14:48 mark of the second half, but that would be as close as UVM would get the rest of the way.

Another lay up by Diggins ignited a 19-4 run by Notre Dame, allowing the Irish to extend its lead to 20, 74-54, with just over five minutes remaining in the game and go on to post its 29th victory of the year (29-5).

Notre Dame forced a season-high 25 turnovers by the Catamounts and converted the miscues into 35 points.

Lindsay Schrader added a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Irish and Melissa Lechlitner chipped in 12 points to round out the leading scorers for Notre Dame.

All five Vermont starters reached double-digits, led by 14 points from both Alissa Sheftic (Essex Junction, Vt.) and Seto. May KotsopoulosCourtnay Pilypaitis (Ottawa, Ontario) and Sofia Iwobi (Fairfield, Iowa) rounded out the scoring with 11 points apiece. Pilypaitis also added seven rebounds, seven assists and seven steals. (Waterloo, Ontario) added 12 points and

The game marked the final contest in a Vermont uniform for four seniors – Sheftic, Kotsopoulos, Pilypaitis and Iwobi. Together they combined for 91 career wins, the third most in school history by a four-year class (only behind 92 wins by the Class of 1993 and 98 by the Class of 1994), and 4,664 points and 2,057 rebounds.

Vermont, which advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after picking up its first-ever NCAA victory with a 64-55 win over No. 7 Wisconsin in the first round on Sunday, closes out the year with a record of 27-7. The 27 victories are the third most in school history by a Catamount team.

GAME NOTES: This was the first meeting between Vermont and Notre Dame in women's basketball. The Irish overcame a double-digit deficit for the fourth time this season. The Catamounts fell for just the fourth time away from home this season (18-4); the 18 road wins (away and neutral) by the Catamounts are the most in Division I. With seven rebounds Pilypaitis passed Karalyn Church to finish her career in third place on Vermont's all-time rebounding list (905). She finished the year with 54 rebounds in her final five games (10.8 rpg). Pilypaitis added seven steals in the game, giving her 97 for the season and 279 for her career, which ranks second all-time at Vermont. Pilypaitis also finished her career seven points shy of the 2,000-point milestone (1,993 – 3rd at UVM). Sheftic posted seven of her nine double-figure scoring games on the season over the final 10 games of her career and finished the year averaging 11.5 points per game over the last 10 contests. Kotsopoulos closed out her career with 1,772 points, good for fifth among UVM's all-time leading scorers. Vermont allowed 65+ points for the first time since Jan. 18 (73-64 loss at Boston U), a span of 16 games.