Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WOMEN'S BASKETBALL everything," said Mabrey with a laugh about her father. "I also had to take a lot of criticism from them. They would tell me, 'You're not doing this, you're not doing that.' "They were trying to help me, but of course I'd be mad and tell them an- grily, 'I did it just like you!' They really pushed me to another level." During Notre Dame's 23-1 start, Ogunbowale was third in scoring at 11.5 points per game, while Mabrey was right behind at 11.3 — with Ogun- bowale averaging only 19.7 minutes per game off the bench and Mabrey 20.2. Their "Instant Offense" impact has enabled Notre Dame to weather the surprising losses of two 2015 start- ers, All-America guard Jewell Loyd (turned pro early) and forward Taya Reimer (personal reasons). Mabrey came blazing out of the gates —posting a triple-double at Valpo, scoring 18 points and mak- ing six steals in an overtime win over ranked UCLA on Thanksgiving week- end, and awing No. 1 UConn's head coach Geno Auriemma with a 10-of-13 shooting performance from the floor for 23 points in a 91-81 defeat. The ambidextrous and 5-11 Mabrey, the co-MVP in last spring's McDon- ald's All-America game in which Ogunbowale also played, can take peo- ple off the drive to either side, converts 42.9 percent of her threes, and is first in steals (44) and third in assists (50). Despite her 5-8 frame, Ogunbowale is comfortable in the low post, where she played power forward or center on her AAU teams. Her game is reminis- cent of 1974-76 All-American Adrian Dantley in that despite a shorter frame she is resourceful in her ability to score inside or get to the foul line (her 98 free throw attempts were 17 more than anyone else on the squad). When Ogunbowle enters the con- test, the mandate from head coach Muffet McGraw is clear: drive, slash, score and open up the defense. It usu- ally takes Ogunbowale less than 30 seconds to put up her first shot, and her 237 attempts are the most on the team. Although many attempts are still forced, she has gradually improved her shot selection, and the green light from McGraw remains. In thrilling fourth-quarter comeback victories at Duke (Feb. 1) and Louisville (Feb. 7), Ogunbowale prevented the games from getting out of hand by convert- ing her first four field goals each time, and finishing with 16 and 15 points (team high), respectively, on 11-of- 22 shooting from the field and 7-of-8 from the line. With teams sagging off, she's de- veloped a full repertoire of pull-up jumpers and running floaters, and is shooting 43.3 percent from three (13- of-30) — plus an assist now and then. "She wants me to get to the basket," said Ogunbowale of McGraw. "The scouting report on me was, 'Stay in the lane and take the charge on her,' so it forced me to work on the other parts of my game. … If I see them sagging off and they don't think I can shoot it — I'm shooting." Fear is not an option with either freshman. Their families saw to it. ✦