SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Notre Dame's win over Virginia Tech came
at a heavy price Saturday.
Starting forward Kelly Siemon broke her left hand at the end of
the game and All-America center Ruth Riley twisted her right ankle
in No. 3 Notre Dame's 75-55 victory over the Hokies.
|  | | Ruth Riley's twisted right ankle gets a lot of attention on the bench. Riley was hurt with 14 minutes left and did not return for the Irish. |
Riley said she expects to play Monday against top-ranked Connecticut, while Siemon said she'd have
to wait to see what a doctor says. Trainer Mike Miller said Siemon
is doubtful, and plans to undergo surgery Tuesday.
Riley averages 26.7 minutes a game, Siemon averages 28.9 minutes
and two of Notre Dame's primary reserves, Jeneka Joyce and
Le'Tania Severe, already are out with injuries.
Coach Muffet McGraw had said she planned to play her five
starters as long as possible against the Huskies on Monday.
Siemon's injury wasn't disclosed until after McGraw had spoken with
the media, but she had no doubt Riley would be ready.
"She'll go," McGraw said. "She told me when she came out of
the game. Hopefully she'll be at least 90 percent."
Host UConn (13-0, 4-0 Big East) got 60 points from its bench Saturday night and cruised to a 104-49 win over Providence.
The Irish (16-0, 5-0) may need more than Riley at 90
percent, though, especially if Siemon is out. The Irish are 0-11
against the Huskies and 0-9 against top-ranked teams.
Against the Hokies (10-5, 1-3) on Saturday, Notre Dame quickly
answered any worries it might be looking ahead. Alicia Ratay and
Niele Ivey hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the opening minute and
the Irish jumped to a 19-4 lead.
"We know Virginia Tech is a great team. We went in there a
couple of weeks ago and they played us pretty tough. We knew not to
look ahead," said Ratay, who had 17 points and 10 rebounds.
The Irish game plan had been to try to let Riley control the
inside. But when the Irish found the outside open, they quickly
adjusted.
"We are smart enough now and a balanced enough team now to know
if she's guarded or if we have something else, we're going to go to
that," McGraw said. "That's what we did to start the game."
Riley didn't even attempt a shot until midway through the first
half.
"It's good to see when she's not in the flow of things, we can
still score," McGraw said.
Hokies coach Bonnie Henrickson said Virginia Tech wanted to
try to slow Riley, who had 27 points in a 75-64 victory over the
Hokies 10 days earlier, but not at the expense of leaving the
outside open.
"We buried ourselves early by giving up uncontested 3s for a
number of different reasons," Henrickson said. "I thought they
played at another level today from the tip and we certainly didn't
answer that."
The Irish were in control throughout,
shooting 50.9 percent and holding the Hokies to 34.5 percent
shooting. Ericka Haney added 17 points for the Irish, Niele Ivey
had 10 points and eight assists.
Chrystal Starling led the Hokies with 11 points, making all three of her 3-point attempts. Tere
Williams, the Hokies' leading scorer, was 4-for-12 shooting and
finished with nine points, six below her average.
The Hokies managed to close to nine points when Sarah Hicks made
a 15-foot jumper midway through the half to cut the lead to 27-18.
But Riley then scored nine points as Notre Dame used a 16-7 spurt
to move ahead 43-25 and led 45-27 at halftime. The lead could have
been bigger, but the Irish made just eight of 17 free throws.
The Hokies never challenged in the second half as the Irish led
by as much as 75-44 when Ratay hit a 3-pointer with 6:52 left. The
Irish didn't score again as the Hokies got the final 11 points.
"I was extremely pleased with the way we came out to start the
game," McGraw said. "That was really important for us to come out
and put to rest all the worries about us looking past this team to
get to Connecticut.
"Now we can finally talk about Connecticut."
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