Friday was a first in March Madness for this veteran Notre Dame women's basketball player
SOUTH BEND — How many hours had she spent on a basketball court as a college student?
How many early mornings? How many late nights? How many?
For someone who has played 138 career games and logged 3,397 career minutes in two of the nation’s most challenging basketball conferences, let’s just say it’s a lot. All of it. A lot.
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Notre Dame women’s basketball graduate forward Liza Karlen had come too far, had worked too hard, had given too much of herself to the game over the last five seasons to not experience what she experienced Friday afternoon.
Her first NCAA Women’s Tournament win.
During her time at Marquette, Karlen twice went to the NCAA Tournament. Both trips ended in one-and-dones. A third time would be the charm, and Karlen would make sure of it.
Notre Dame women’s basketball looked more like Notre Dame women’s basketball Friday in its NCAA Tournament opener against overmatched Stephen F; Austin. The Irish, still stung by dropping three of five to close the regular season, returned to the court with a vengeance and attacked the Ladyjacks in waves.
They got in a stance and guarded. They got out in the open floor and got easy baskets. They made sure to not have any glue on their hands (a problem late in the year) and didn’t allow the ball to stick. They passed it. They moved. They cut. They played as one in a game that ended 106-54.
“It is sooooooo nice,” Karlen said of her first good taste of March Madness. “It’s great. It’s why I’m here – to win in March. It just feels so good that I’m in the right place.”
Karlen made sure that everything flowed the way it was supposed to flow by coming in off the bench early in the first quarter and becoming a one-player wrecking crew. She wrecked SFA’s entire game plan. She wrecked any hope of the Ladyjacks sticking with the Irish for more than a quarter. She wrecked their dreams of moving on to a second-round game against Michigan on Sunday.
She wrecked everything about SFA and it was basketball beauty. The way the 6-foot-2 Karlen bulldozed her way to her first double double of the season with 13 points and a season high 10 rebounds in 25 minutes. The way she hustled down seemingly every loose ball. The way she competed. The way she battled.
Karlen had a look in her eye that was scary. Like, not today, Ladyjacks.
“She just gave us so much energy,” freshman Kate Koval said of Karlen. “She was dominant the whole game.”
Hannah Hidalgo and Sonia Citron scored more points than Karlen (each had 24), but it was the one with the long, blond ponytail bouncing around the back of her head that made sure Notre Dame (27-5) again looked like Notre Dame.
Karlen was everything for everyone on Friday at Purcell Pavilion. Why now? Simple. This is March. This is postseason, which means the next loss for Karlen will be her last as a college basketball player. The game has been a grind at times for Karlen, who missed a chunk of the early season with a high ankle sprain, but she’s not ready to pack it all in and move on to the next phase of her life.
For someone who has given so much on the basketball court, she still believes there’s more to give. This month. With this team. In this tournament.
“It’s really like a now or never situation,” Karlen said. “We have to believe in ourselves. This is really the last shot for all of us.”
That’s why Karlen played the way she did Friday. It was funny to watch her check out of the game after seven minutes of terrorizing everyone in her way. She ran. She defended. She rebounded. She scored. To the point that when she checked out after scoring seven points with five rebounds and an assist in those seven minutes, she didn’t so much as sit on the bench as collapse onto it.
She grabbed a green plastic Gatorade bottle while her lungs heaved, and her face was flushed. She needed a minute to get her bearings. It was as if she had played 70 and not seven minutes.
That was Karlen on this day — all hustle and hard work. All business. For her, there’s no other choice. It’s win or it’s all over. She doesn’t want it to be over.
“We win or it’s over; it’s all over,” Karlen said. “I’m still a college athlete right now. I’ll take it.”
Karlen insisted afterward that she knew this kind of an all-out/intense effort was coming from Notre Dame. She could sense it in workouts over at Rolfs Hall during the last week when the coaching staff got into everyone for every missed assignment or defensive breakdown or mental mistake. They had to be better then, so they could be better Friday.
“Coaches were killing us in practice,” Karlen said. “It was tough. It felt like preseason. That was exactly what we needed to get better.”
They were scary good Friday. They looked like that team that had run off 19 consecutive wins over 85 days in the regular season. That team that looked like it had Final Four written all over it. We hadn’t seen that team for too long. It was nice to see it again Friday.
We expected Notre Dame to play well, but few expected Notre Dame to play that well. Especially on defense, where the Irish forced 28 turnovers, mustered 18 steals and operate as if they had an extra defender or two or three on the floor. The Irish were everywhere. The Ladyjacks had no room to move and even less to breathe. They weren’t winning this one on this day. Stephen F. Austin wasn’t going to come close. It wasn’t close.
“We haven’t played like that in a while,” Karlen said. “It’s a great feeling to have.”
One the Irish don’t want to let get away anytime soon.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame women's basketball rolls to victory in March Madness opener
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