Devereaux Peters, Skylar Diggins fuel No. 3 Notre Dame's rout

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- With things going so smoothly for Notre

Dame, you'd think Devereaux Peters would have had time to realize

how close she was to a milestone.

Peters scored 19 points, eclipsing 1,000 for her career, and the

No. 3 Fighting Irish opened with a 27-0 run before going on to beat

Longwood 92-26 on Wednesday.

Peters eclipsed the mark on a layup 3 minutes into the second

half -- and was innocently unaware of it.

"I didn't even know what was going on," said Peters, who joins

teammates Skylar Diggins and Natalie Novosel, among others, in

achieving the milestone. "I was confused when the crowd got all

excited and Brittany (Mallory) yelled something to me as I went

back upcourt, but I could not hear her. It is just an indication of

how much support I get from my teammates."

Diggins added 11 points and 10 assists, Novosel also scored 11

points and Fraderica Miller had 10 for the Irish (12-1), who

converted 33 Longwood turnovers into 42 points.

Brittanni Billups scored eight points to lead the Lancers

(2-12).

The Irish forced turnovers on eight of Longwood's first nine

possessions and pushed the lead to 27-0 before Mieke Elkington

scored Longwood's first basket on a 15-footer with 11:37 to go in

the opening half.

Notre Dame took 87 shots, the sixth-most in team history, and

pulled down 58 rebounds. The Irish scored 58 points in the paint

and got 40 points from the reserves. Every player on Notre Dame

scored.

"I was really happy with the game," Notre Dame coach Muffet

McGraw said. "I thought we played with a lot of intensity in the

second half. We came out of the locker room and played a good

half-court man-to-man. I was pleased with our execution although we

did not shoot it particularly well, but I thought we did a good job

rebounding."

Former Notre Dame All-American Lindsay Schrader is in her first

season as assistant to Longwood head coach Bill Reinson. For

Reinson, who said that hiring Schrader was the best decision he has

made as head coach, it was a matter of being outmatched.

"For us, it was more of a chance for our kids to see how teams

do it right, to see how teams recruit the right student-athlete,

how their coaches prepare them, and see how they compete. It is

nice to point to teams like Notre dame and say that that is what we

aspire to be."

The Irish, who led 45-14 at halftime, opened the second half

with an 18-0 burst.