KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- Senior guard Casey Rost led Western Michigan with 29 points in her season debut but No. 15 Notre Dame would escape with a 71-68 win in front of 2,116 at University Arena Sunday afternoon. Rost hit seven three-pointers for Western Michigan, just one shy of tying the school record.
After falling behind by 12 points, 42-30, less than a minute into the second half, WMU (0-1) fought back to cut the lead to one, 49-48, on Rost's sixth three-pointer with 11:55 remaining. Notre Dame (2-0) answered with a 10-2 run to take a nine-point lead with 8:48 to go in the game and eventually built the lead to 10, 67-57, with only 2:40 remaining.
The Broncos made a rally in the final minute to cut the lead to four points on two occasions, but Notre Dame's Megan Duffy hit 4-of-4 free throws to secure the victory for the Fighting Irish.
The Broncos scored the first basket of the game on a driving layup by freshman point guard Tiera DeLaHoussaye, but Notre Dame responded with a 7-0 run in 63 seconds to take a five-point lead with 17:31 remaining in the first half. WMU came back and cut the lead to one, 15-14, on a Rost jumper with 13:42 left in the half. The Fighting Irish responded again with a 9-3 run over five minutes to assume a seven-point lead, 24-17, with 8:42 to go.
Western Michigan answered by cutting the deficit to three points, 26-23, on a Carrie Moore jumper with 5:55 remaining, but Notre Dame never allowed the Broncos to come any closer. The Fighting Irish ended the half with an eight-point lead, 38-30, on two Megan Duffy free throws with only two seconds to go in the half.
Lindsey Brown and DeLaHoussaye both finished in double figures for the Broncos with 16 and 11 points respectively. DeLaHoussaye dished out a game-high seven assists and Amanda Parker pulled down a game-high nine rebounds for the Broncos.
Duffy led the Fighting Irish with 19 points and seven rebounds while Lindsay Schrader and Courtney LaVere added 11 and 10 points each.
The Broncos will travel to the Florida International Thanksgiving Classic (Nov. 25-26). They will face host Florida International on Nov. 25 at 5:00 p.m. (EST).
