Notre Dame Fighting Irish at North Carolina Tar Heels

Turner helps No. 6 Notre Dame beat North Carolina 77-55

It certainly was a priority against a North Carolina team lacking much of a post presence.

The 6-foot-3 junior had 24 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks to help the Fighting Irish beat the Tar Heels 77-55 on Sunday, a win that gave McGraw her 750th victory at the school.

Marina Mabrey added 13 points for the Fighting Irish (18-3, 6-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who blew open a close game in the second quarter and improved to 53-2 in ACC regular-season games since joining the league for the 2013-14 season.

"I thought I could use my size in the game today," Turner said. "They have a lot of quick guards so I followed in transition, just trying to post their guards up would be effective for me."

Paris Kea scored 15 of her 21 points in the first quarter for the Tar Heels (12-8, 1-6). But Notre Dame ran off a 10-0 burst to build a double-digit lead early in the second, then a half-closing 9-0 run to pull away.

Notre Dame outscored UNC 23-6 in the second quarter.

BIG PICTURE

Notre Dame: The game offered a reminder of how dominant Turner can be on a high-scoring offense that also has plenty of 3-point shooters to space around her. She had no trouble operating inside against UNC's wing-heavy lineup, repeatedly getting easy putaways on lobs, entry passes and stickbacks.

"We want to do that every single game," McGraw said. "But we have some people that are also open on the perimeter. So we were trying to get them to maybe look inside first. I think that's something we can work on."

PAINT STRUGGLES

Notre Dame outscored UNC 46-20 in the paint and took a 43-32 rebounding advantage.

"There's times when we can cut loose and look pretty good," Hatchell said. "But again, the inside play is where we're just struggling a little bit right now."

INJURIES

Watts left the game after injuring her right knee when she fell on a drive to end the third quarter, but she came to the postgame news conference and said she was OK with what she described as a minor hyperextension.

Notre Dame played without junior forward Kathryn Westbeld (8.6 points) for the second straight game because of an ankle injury.

UP NEXT

Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish return home to host No. 15 Duke on Thursday.

UNC: The Tar Heels visit No. 14 Miami on Thursday night.

---

Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap

How can I watch Fighting Irish vs. Tar Heels?

• TV Channel: Fighting Irish vs Tar Heels 2021 College Basketball, week 11, is broadcasted on ESPNU.
• Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Venue: Carmichael Arena

Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Attendance: 3,159 | Capacity: