GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Defending NCAA champion and four-time Atlantic Coast Conference champion Notre Dame is again the ACC Women’s Basketball preseason favorite, according to separate polls of the league’s Blue Ribbon Panel and its 15 head coaches.
 
This marks the fifth consecutive season that the Fighting Irish have been rated the ACC preseason favorite since joining the conference prior to the 2013-14 season.
 
Notre Dame received 59 of a possible 62 first-place votes from Blue Ribbon panel members and led the overall voting with 927 total points. Louisville received the remaining three three first-place votes and placed second overall with 870 points. Syracuse (730 points) and NC State (572 points) were picked third and fourth, respectively.
 
Duke placed fifth in the voting, followed by Miami, Florida State, North Carolina and Virginia. Georgia Tech was tabbed for a 10th-place finish, followed by Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. Pitt (13th), Boston College (14th) and Clemson (15th) rounded out the voting.
 
The top four spots in the ACC Coaches’ balloting mirrored that of the Blue Ribbon panel in predicted order of finish. But Miami placed fifth in the coaches’ vote, followed by Duke, North Carolina, Florida State and Georgia Tech.
 
The coaches picked Virginia Tech 10th and Virginia 11th, followed by Wake Forest, Pitt, Clemson and Boston College. Notre Dame received all 15 coaches’ first-place votes.
 
Notre Dame senior guard Arike Ogunbowale was voted the preseason ACC Player of the Year by both the Blue Ribbon Panel and the ACC coaches.


 
The 2017-18 ACC Women’s Athlete of the Year, Ogunbowale led Notre Dame to the last season’s NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship in a junior season that culminated with game-winning shots in both the national semifinal and title games.

Ogunbowale earned All-America and All-ACC honors while leading the conference in scoring at 20.8 points per game, and the Milwaukee junior will be long remembered for her pair of clutch game-winning moments at the 2018 NCAA Women’s Final Four.

With one second left in overtime versus Connecticut in the national semifinal, Ogunbowale delivered a long-range jumper that capped a 27-point scoring performance and lifted the Fighting Irish to a 91-89 win.

Two nights later, Ogunbowale nailed a 3-point buzzer beater off an inbounds play near the Notre Dame bench to lift the Irish to a 61-58 win over Mississippi State and the program’s second NCAA women’s basketball title. Ogunbowale, who scored 18 points in the championship game, was named the NCAA Women’s Final Four Most Outstanding Player.

Ogunbowale averaged 24.2 points per game during last year’s NCAA Tournament and 22.5 ppg at the Final Four. She led the ACC with 25 games of 20-plus points and shattered the previous single-season record at Notre Dame, surpassing Jewell Loyd’s and Katryna Gaither’s 20. The 5-8 guard was at her best against ranked teams, averaging 20.3 points in the Fighting Irish’s 16 games against such opponents.
 
Ogunbowale is joined on both the 2018-19 Blue Ribbon Panel and the Coaches’ Preseason All-ACC teams by  2017-18 ACC Player of the Year Asia Durr of Louisville, North Carolina’s Janelle Bailey and Paris Kea, Notre Dame teammates Marina Mabrey, Jessica Shepard and Brianna Turner, Syracuse’s Tiana Mangakahia, Virginia Tech’s Taylor Emery and Wake Forest’s Elisa Penna.


 
The Blue Ribbon Panel’s Newcomer Watch List consists of Florida State’s Kiah Gillespie, Georgia Tech’s Elizabeth Balogun, Miami’s Beatrice Mompremier, Notre Dame’s Jordan Nixon and Syracuse’s Emily Engstler.
 
Balogun, Mompremier, Nixon and Engstler were also selected to the ACC Coaches’ Newcomer Watch List. They are joined by Georgia Tech’s Elizabeth Dixon.


 
The 2018-19 women’s basketball season tips off on Tuesday, Nov. 6, with seven ACC teams in action. The ACC begins conference play on Thursday, Jan. 3, with six league games – Duke at NC State, Syracuse at Clemson, North Carolina at Louisville, Virginia Tech at Miami, Pitt at Notre Dame and Florida State at Virginia. The 42nd annual ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament is back in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the Greensboro Coliseum Wednesday, March 6 through Sunday, March 10.