SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The Notre Dame College women's basketball program had only three NCAA games with a shooting percentage above .550 before this season. In the last eight days, the 2017-18 team has done it twice.
 
The first, on December 2, came in a close 98-94 loss at West Liberty (.576 field goal percentage), but the second, on Saturday afternoon resulted in a 20-point win against Charleston (5-4, 4-2 MEC).
 
The Falcons (8-3, 5-1 MEC) shot .564 in their final home game before winter break to take over as the sole team in second place in the Mountain East standings behind Glenville State (8-1, 6-0 MEC).
 
Going into halftime, Charleston was only able to make 10 of its 27 attempts as NDC played tough defensively to match their offensive success. The Falcons stole the ball eight times in the first half and ended the game with 14 as they pressured the Golden Eagles throughout the competition.
 
With those 14 steals, and 20 total turnovers by UC, NDC was able to score 29 points off turnovers. Head coach Lauren Macer spoke after the game on the importance of playing well while the other team has the ball.
 
"It's important for us to communicate on defense and make sure we're all rotating and talking and playing with our hands up. It's great because we're making good decisions in transition as well so we can convert on those steals."
 
Macer, in her first season as a head coach, is 6-2 when her team steals the ball at least 10 times. This has been a key for Notre Dame teams as the program is 52-16 in games with double-digit steals since joining the MEC in 2013-14.
 
Overall, the Falcons scored 34 points in the paint and 33 points off 11 three-point shots.  Shooting from distance, the team made over 45 percent of its shots with Kim Cook making five of her six attempts from beyond the arc.
 
Cook led the team with 19 points while Maggie King and Seina Adachi had 11 and 10, respectively. As the team's starting front court, Cook, King and Katie Karalic (nine points) combined for 39 points while making 16 of their 26 shots.
 
"It's really important for us to take good shots," King said. "When we aren't hitting, we tend to get down on ourselves so the better shot selection we have, the higher percentage we have. Moving the ball quickly tonight really contributed to that."
 
As the forwards for Notre Dame, the group is often outsized in conference play, but they overcome that mismatch more often than not with intelligent play.
 
"They were big so we have to make sure and use our pump fakes, take good shots and not force anything that isn't there on offense," King said. "Defensively, we talk every game about making sure that we out-rebound every team. With us being a smaller team in the post we have to make sure we box out every possession."
 
Cook and King led the team with seven and five rebounds, respectively while Cook and Ciara Reed led with three assists each. There were six total players with two or more assists. Defensively, Adachi and Marisa Finazzo each had three steals.
 
NDC will hold their spot in second place in the Mountain East until conference play begins again in 2018, but Macer knows there is a lot left to the season so the team can't be satisfied yet.
 
"There are a lot of teams in our conference and we have a lot of games left," Macer said. "We have to keep the mindset of going day-by-day and game-by-game, preparing for things as they come. We know a lot can happen quickly so we have to focus on what's in front of us."
 
Notre Dame will not compete next week, but travels to Honolulu, Hawaii for two games on Sunday and Monday, December 17 and 18 against Drury and Chaminade.