Notre Dame women's basketball: Short-handed Irish still get lop-sided win in European tour

LONDON - Sophomore guard Michaela Mabrey scored a game-high 24 points, including a sizzling 6-of-12 from the three-point line, and freshmen Taya Reimer and Lindsay Allen scored 16 points each to power the Notre Dame women’s basketball team to a 101-54 victory against Barking Abbey on Tuesday in an exhibition basketball game.

Barking Abbey is the English Basketball League runner-up.

Tuesday’s result was even more noteworthy considering Notre Dame’s three seniors — forwards Natalie Achonwa and Ariel Braker and guard Kayla McBride — were held out of the starting lineup due to a curfew viola-tion the previous night, while sophomore guard Jewell Loyd remains sidelined with an ankle injury suffered in a practice prior to the start of the tour.

Reimer had 12 rebounds and Allen had 12 assists.

Junior guard Madison Cable chipped in 13 points off the bench, while junior guard Whitney Holloway added 11 points and a game-high eight steals.

Notre Dame shot 52.4 percent from the floor, including 10-of-17 (.588) from the 3-point line. The Irish also held a 56-37 rebounding edge and forced 26 turnovers, while holding Barking Abbey to a .259 field goal percentage (3-of-23 from the 3-point line).

“This trip is a learning process for us in a number of different ways, but I was really pleased with the way we played tonight,” Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw said. “(Mabrey) was hot and she probably could have even shot it a little bit more than she did. I also thought we got some great minutes from Maddie (Cable) and Whit (Holloway), and our freshmen, especially Lindsay (Allen) and Taya (Reimer), also made some nice contributions for us.

“What I liked most was seeing how others stepped up to fill the voids we had in our lineup, and now we’ll move on and see how much we can gain from this going into the rest of the tour.”

The Irish will enjoy a final day of sightseeing in London before taking a late-afternoon flight to Barcelona, Spain, for the second leg of their 10-day odyssey. Notre Dame’s next game is scheduled for 1 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. local) Thursday when the Irish take on the French Junior National Team at Pavelo El Moli in Lloret de Mar, Spain (located about 50 miles northeast of Barcelona).

NOTRE DAME (101): Taya Reimer 8 0-0 16, Markisha Wright 1 0-4 2, Whitney Holloway 5 0-0 11, Madison Cable 6 0-0 13, Michaela Mabrey 9-18 0-0 24, Kristina Nelson 3 0-0 6, Lindsay Allen 6 3-3 16, Kayla McBride 4 0-0 9, Hannah Huffman 2 0-0 4, Diamond Thompson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 44 3-7 101.

BARKING ABBEY (54): Roz Mason 2 4-4 8, Ella Clark 2 1-2 6, Alicia Gallagher 0 0-0 0, Melita Emanuel-Carr 3 4-8 10, Josephine Salmon 3 2-6 10, Chantel Charles 2 2-4 6, Julia Colley 1 0-0 2, Ellie Shaxon 0 3-4 3, Sarah Wagstaff 1 5-6 7, Millie Watkins 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 15 21-34 54.

Halftime: Notre Dame 44, Barking Abbey 19. Three-point goals: Notre Dame 10-of-17 (Mabrey 6, Holloway 1, Cable 1, Allen 1, McBride 1), Barking Abbey 3 (Salmon 2, Clark 1). Shooting: Notre Dame 44-of-84 for 52 percent, Barking Abbey 15-of-58 for 26 percent. Rebounding: Notre Dame 56 (Reimer 12, Huffman 11, Wright 7, Mabrey 7, Nelson 7), Barking Abbey 37 (Mason 10). Assists: Notre Dame 27 (Allen 12, Holloway 4, Reimer 3, Huffman 3), Barking Abbey 1. Turnovers: Notre Dame 20, Barking Abbey 26. Steals: Notre Dame 12 (Holloway 8), Barking Abbey 3.