Achonwa leads No. 2 Notre Dame past Virginia 79-72

Natalie Achonwa scored a career-high 26 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and No. 2 Notre Dame survived a late challenge by Virginia and beat the Cavaliers 79-72 on Sunday afternoon. Kayla McBride added 23 points and five assists for the Fighting Irish (15-0, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), and Jewell Loyd had 17. Faith Randolph led Virginia (8-8, 1-2) with 23 points and Sarah Imovbioh had 18 points and 12 rebounds. The Cavaliers were coming of a victory at Virginia Tech in which they rallied from 17 points down to win, but couldn't quite repeat the feat despite getting within 71-69 with 3:49 remaining. That's when McBride and Achonwa took over, scoring the game's next six points. Virginia was outscored 20-8 at the free throw line and outrebounded 47-39. Notre Dame led 43-36 at halftime and seemed poised to blow the game open with it opened the second half on an 8-2 run to go ahead 51-38. Achonwa had five points and Loyd hit a 3-pointer, but after a timeout, Virginia got three consec...