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  Thursday, Dec. 21 8:00pm ET
Riley leads way for Irish
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Ruth Riley made it a quick and easy night for No. 3 Notre Dame.

Riley scored the first nine points of the game and Notre Dame beat Marquette 75-56 Thursday night.

Crystal Weaver
Marquette's Crystal Weaver and Kristi Johnson battle for a loose ball with Notre Dame's Ruth Riley.
Riley finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. She led a strong inside effort all night for Notre Dame (10-0).

"The first five minutes were key," Riley said. "We wanted to match their aggressiveness, getting the ball in the paint was key, too. We really opened up the outside for our shooters."

Ericka Haney added 21 points. She was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field in the first half and 10-of-12 for the game.

Marquette (4-6) did not score for the first three minutes. The Golden Eagles missed their first five shots and ended up shooting 31.7 percent from the field to Notre Dame's 47.5 percent.

Notre Dame led 47-32 at halftime, and Marquette never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

"I thought offensively we did a lot of good things," Notre Dame coach Muffett McGraw said. "Ruth was able to get going early and that was a good start for us. Erika stepped up and had a good game for us, as did Ruth."

Heidi Bowman finished with 13 points to lead Marquette, even though she missed her first start of the season after catching an elbow from teammate Katie O'Grady during pregame warmups.

"I was frustrated when it happened, I was really looking forward to this game, but I got back in right away," Bowman said.

"They are a great team, top five in the country, and we weren't hitting shots," Marquette coach Terri Mitchell said. "If you take away those first five minutes, we're in the ballgame."
 


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