Many believe that the loss came from the Fighting Irish missing star forward, Brianna Turner. But even with the junior, Notre Dame wouldn’t have had much better luck with the dominant performance Stanford had from the beginning.
With the performance Brittany McPhee had in this Elite Eight matchup, 27 points, five rebounds, four assists, and five three-pointers, Stanford was a team led by a player no one could stop. Add Karlie Samuelson and Alanna Smith who had 15 points each, and the Cardinals had everything they needed to top Notre Dame.
Brianna Turner would’ve helped the Fighting Irish, but when you have players performing as well as these three, it wouldn’t have made enough difference to give Notre Dame the win.