Lady Toppers Drop Tight 78-65 Battle Against No. 6/5 Notre Dame Tuesday Evening

Tuesday, November 14

Bowling Green, Ky.

7 P.M. CT

Western Kentucky University

1-2

Notre Dame

2-0

Notre Dame

WKU

Lady Toppers Drop Tight 78-65 Battle Against No. 6/5 Notre Dame Tuesday Evening

11/14/2017 11:25:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Notes (PDF)

Clark-Heard Postgame Interview | Creech and T. Brown Postgame Interview

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) - Jessica Shepard helped Notre Dame passed its first road test of the season. She had 19 points and 12 rebounds and the No. 6/5 Irish beat WKU 78-65 on Tuesday evening inside E.A. Diddle Arena.

The Fighting Irish (2-0) powered past a Lady Toppers team that received votes in this week's AP poll. WKU (1-2) beat then-No. 16 Missouri, then took Iowa to overtime on the road last weekend.

"I think just coming into the game we knew it was going to be a tough game," Shepard said. "We knew we had to come out with a certain level of intensity."

Notre Dame flexed its frontcourt muscle, outscoring the Lady Toppers 50-32 in the paint. The Irish went to Shepard early and often, allowing her to work against WKU's front line.

Shepard transferred to Notre Dame this past summer from Nebraska and was granted an NCAA waiver Nov. 1 for immediate eligibility. The 6-foot-4 forward averaged 18.6 points and 9.8 rebounds last year as a sophomore at Nebraska.

"We started the game really trying to find her inside and we were pretty successful," Irish coach Muffet McGraw said. "We just need to find someone on our team that can get her the ball -- huge difference with her."

Arike Ogunbowale and Mikayla Vaughn scored 21 and 17 points for the four-time defending Atlantic Coast Conference champs. Notre Dame led 37-28 at halftime and then held steady in the second half, stretching the lead to as wide a margin as 73-59 after WKU got as close as 57-51 early in the fourth quarter.

Tashia Brown scored 25 points for the Lady Toppers, but was just 6-for-25 from the field. Fellow WKU senior Ivy Brown, who came in averaging 18.5 points per game, scored just two points in 35 minutes of play Tuesday and eventually fouled out.

"This is what it was about when we made the schedule to see where we're at as a program and it showed us a lot today and showed us a lot in these past three games, we're getting close," WKU head coach Michelle Clark-Heard said. "We've just got to continue to keep building and bringing players and that's our most important thing."

Head Coach Michelle Clark-Heard
On tonight's atmosphere…
"Incredible. When we stood up to do the national anthem, and you look around and there weren't hardly any seats that you could see, it's pretty cool. I was really happy for our players to be able to be in that type of atmosphere and that's what I hoped for as a coach. Before the game, I thanked Muffet (McGraw) for coming here and playing us on our home floor because a lot of people won't do it. I'm just really grateful and I think it was a great atmosphere. I think our kids played hard and I'm just sorry we couldn't figure out how to win."

On these tough first three games…
"This is what it was about when we made this schedule, to see where we're at as a program. It showed us a lot today, it showed us a lot in these past three games. I think we're getting close, we've just got to keep building and keep bringing in players and that's our most important thing."

On what Notre Dame HC Muffet McGraw said to her after the game…
"She told me I have a heck of a team. She said that our defense was incredible and that it was an awesome atmosphere."

On the opportunity tonight gave to the program…
"I'm just excited that I had the opportunity to coach against Coach McGraw and coach in this atmosphere. I just want to thank everyone again, everyone who came out, because it meant a lot to our program. Just being thankful, thanks to everyone here (in Diddle) that did everything they could to get people into seats. It was awesome."

Tashia Brown
On tonight's crowd…
"It was fun. It was good to have all the fans out here come out and support us. We couldn't get the win for them and that's what we really wanted but I'm just glad they came out and supported us. We've never been in an atmosphere like that and it was just unbelievable."

Whitney Creech
On what the team has learned over the past three games…
"This is the No. 6 team in the country. We didn't shoot the ball very well and we made some mistakes, but we were still in the game the whole time, so I think that's something we can take from it. Hey, even when we're not playing well, we can still compete and still be in games and have the chance to win… I think we've learned that we have a lot of people that can step up. Through these three games, we've had different people score a lot of points for us, get rebounds, do the little things. I think we've learned this team is pretty good right now and we have a lot of fight in us. No matter who we're playing we're going to go out there and give our best effort."