McGraw Gets 300th Victory With Irish

Ericka Haney got off to a great start and that helped Notre Dame move out to its best start.

Haney scored 16 of her 18 points in the first half Sunday and added 12 rebounds as third-ranked Notre Dame beat Rice, 80-40, to improve to 12-0 for the first time.

It was Notre Dame’s 29th consecutive home victory, and gave Coach Muffet McGraw 300 wins at the school.

“I think it’s really a great thing for the program,” said McGraw, who was handed a bouquet of flowers by her son as she left the floor. “I don’t think you do anything in this game by yourself.”

Haney was in charge early, scoring 10 of Notre Dame’s first 13 points.

No. 9 Louisiana Tech 62, Arkansas State 59--Ayana Walker scored 17 of her 23 points in the second half as the Lady Techsters (10-3) defeated the Lady Indians in the Sun Belt Conference opener for both teams at Jonesboro, Ark.

Brooke Lassiter added 11 points, and Takeisha Lewis had eight points and a season-high 14 rebounds to help the Lady Techsters extend their Sun Belt regular-season winning streak to 37.

Jolie McKeirnan led Arkansas State (6-6) with 19 points, and Keeshia Evans had 16.

No. 11 Penn State 66, Ohio State 63--Kelly Mazzante scored 26 points and Maren Walseth’s 15 points included a tie-breaking free throw with three seconds left as the Nittany Lions (10-3, 2-0 in the Big Ten Conference) won at Columbus, Ohio.

After Ohio State (10-2, 0-2) tied the score, 63-63, on Tomeka Brown’s two foul shots, Walseth was fouled while trying to put back a missed shot.

Walseth made the first free throw and missed the second, but Lisa Shepherd got the rebound. Shepherd was fouled and made both free throws for the final margin.

No. 21 Xavier 78, Butler 67--Taru Tuukkanen had 21 points and nine rebounds to lead the Musketeers (9-1) at Cincinnati.

Jennifer Phillips, Nicole Levandusky and Reetta Piipari each added 15 points for the Musketeers. Phillips has scored in double figures in her last 20 games.

No. 24 Vanderbilt 84, Vermont 66--Hillary Hager led five players in double figures with 18 points as the Commodores (9-2) won at Nashville.

Zuzana Klimesova finished with 17 points, Ashley McElhiney added 15, Chantelle Anderson had 13 and Jenni Benningfield added 11 for Vanderbilt.