SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The Notre Dame College women's basketball team came away with its first home win of the season in 89-84 fashion against West Liberty to improve to 5-2 (3-1 MEC).
 
West Liberty (5-4, 2-2 MEC) started the game off strong, going up 8-3 in the first five minutes of the game. The Hilltoppers kept their lead through the end of the first quarter to lead 18-14, but a three-point shot from Abi Oriti with four seconds to go supplied some momentum for NDC heading into the second.
 
Oriti hit another three for the Falcons' first points of the second half on the team's way to tying things up 25-25 with 7:36 to go before the break. Oriti bookended the scoring for Notre Dame, making a jumper at before the half to go up seven. West Liberty recovered before the teams went to the locker room scoring on a three and free throw to make it 44-41 in favor of NDC at halftime.
 
The third quarter would be one of runs as WLU went on an 8-4 run to gain a lead 49-48 lead. That 8-4 run would end up a 22-12 as the Hilltoppers got out to a seven-point lead (63-56) with 4:41 to play in the third. But Notre Dame would return with a run of its own, ending the quarter on 13-2 run to take the lead back and go up 69-65 heading into the final 10 minutes.
 
The Falcons were expecting this kind of game coming into Sunday and were prepared mentally.
 
"Every time we play West Liberty it's typically a high-paced game," said head coach Lauren Macer. "With that high pace comes high energy. We've just been reminding the team to play each possession one at a time and work through possessions. We know they're going to go on runs, and we were planning on us going on some runs; that's just the kind of game you play against West Liberty."
 
Notre Dame would keep its lead throughout the fourth quarter to win its third straight game and improve to 3-1 in conference play.
 
In the second half it was Kyleigh Ramlow who took over in Oriti's place as the player to spark emotion from the team. Ramlow took a charge in the third quarter as part of NDC's run before hitting a bench-clearing three in the fourth as the team was securing its victory.
 
Ramlow and Oriti each finished with 12 points as Oriti scored 10 in the first half and Ramlow scored 10 in the second. Overall, the team was led by Seina Adachi, who scored 28 points in the game on 9-of-13 shooting, which included eight-of-nine from inside the arc. Marisa Finazzo and Jessie Stout also hit the double-digit mark with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
 
Macer said having players who can ignite the team at different moments is key for the energy of the team.
 
"I think it just shows how deep we are," Macer said. "We play a lot of different players and have a good number on our team so it's nice to know we have a lot of players who can do different things. When we are making plays they really feed off each other and it takes that momentum to the next possession."
 
Oriti led the team with six rebounds while Adachi recorded six assists and Finazzo stole the ball five times. Katie Karalic also played well on the defensive end, earning three steals. The Falcons scored 27 points off turnovers while WLU scored just 13.
 
Notre Dame will play West Virginia State on Wednesday, December 5, at 5:30 p.m.