Westbeld scores 25, No. 7 Irish women race past Wake Forest

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Maddy Westbeld matched her career-high with 25 points and No. 7 Notre Dame bounced back from its worst offensive game of the season with an 86-47 win over Wake Forest on Thursday night.

Westbeld led the way by making 10 of 15 shots, the 10 field goals a career best, almost two years to the day she had 25 points against the Demon Deacons.

Olivia Miles had 13 points for the Fighting Irish (13-2, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who were coming off a 60-50 loss at North Carolina. Early enrollee freshman Cassan Prosper, a 6-foot-2 guard from Montreal, had 12 points in just her fourth game. Texas transfer Lauren Ebo scored 10. The Irish shot 54%.

“It started with (Miles) and Maddy),” Irish coach Niele Ivey said. “I thought Maddy was really aggressive today offensively. That really got us going. We set the tone on both sides of the ball.”

Elise Williams scored 13 points for Wake Forest (11-7, 2-5), which shot just 31% and was outrebounded by 22. Jewel Spear, who was averaging almost 16 points a game, was 2 of 11 and finished with five points.

“We need to rely on our defense when our offense isn’t necessarily going for us,” Miles said. “We had to (come back this week and) patch the holes in our defense, and I think we did that during practice.”

Westbeld dominated the first half with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting with a couple of 3-pointers and also had six rebounds and four assists. She had 10 points, including a last-second 3-pointer, to help the Irish take a 21-8 lead after one quarter. She added nine in the second as the lead increased to 44-25.

Notre Dame shot 59% (19 of 32) in the first half with a 24-13 rebounding advantage, and held the Demon Deacons to 32% (9 of 28) shooting.

The Irish play at Syracuse on Sunday.

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