SOUTH BEND, Ind. – There were two ways to look at Skylar Diggins tumbling head first into a stanchion Tuesday night. One view was sheer, undiluted terror over
Notre Dame losing an All-American guard to debilitating injury during an
NCAA tournament run.
The other was that nothing worse was going to happen to the top-seeded Irish by then. Diggins popped up from the hard foul, and her team had done likewise from earlier ugliness, blowing up No. 8 seed California with a torrid second half en route to a 73-62 win.
A rugged halftime tie turned into a 17-point lead not eight minutes after intermission thanks to the Irish's revitalized scoring touch and suffocating defense. That sent them to Raleigh, N.C., for a third straight Sweet 16 with eyes on a second straight title game appearance down the line.
The Irish (32-3) face No. 5 seed St. Bonaventure (31-3) on Sunday, tipoff to be determined.
Natalie Novosel led Notre Dame with 28 points, with Diggins contributing 21 and Devereaux Peters adding 11 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks.
What might have been mere sparring on its home floor was an all-out scuffle by halftime. The kinetic Notre Dame offense fired at a mere 34.5 percent clip and coughed up six turnovers. Only 17 first-half points from Novosel and a steady diet of free throws (11 in all) preempted thorough calamity.
Cal's late 8-0 first-half run erased a six-point deficit – Notre Dame's largest lead to that point – and officially stamped matters as interesting. Then came the all-too-predictable frenzied unraveling by the lesser team on hostile ground.
Notre Dame forced nine turnovers in the eight minutes of the second half and rattled off the 23-6 run that created a 17-point lead and, basically, erased all doubt. California closed to nine with 76 seconds left, but Novosel hit six straight free throws to quell the uprising.
bchamilton@tribune.com
Twitter @ChiTribHamilton
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