GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Miami made history Saturday afternoon at the Greensboro Coliseum beating Notre Dame 57-54 in the semifinals of the 2022 Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament to advance to its first championship game as a member of the ACC.  The Hurricanes knocked off No. 10 seed Duke on Thursday, scored the biggest upset of the tournament Friday with a win over No. 2 Louisville, and held off No. 3 Notre Dame in today’s second semifinal behind 18 points from guard Kelsey Marshall.

“We came into this tournament being sick of the almost,” said UM head coach Katie Meier. “That's really what we've been talking about, the almost. This much, this six inches, and they hit a three in your face. We've given up offensive rebounds, threes against teams when we could have won the game, and we just grabbed the ball, almost. All these almosts that we went through. It was not going to be an almost today. It was not going to be one. We were going to win.”

The Hurricanes (20-11) stormed out to an early 12-4 lead after the first quarter, holding the Irish scoreless for nearly the first seven minutes of the game.  Notre Dame (22-8) rallied in the second quarter and the game was tied at 26 at halftime.  Miami led for most of the second half, increasing the lead to as much as nine before holding off another Irish run. ND senior Dara Mabrey hit a three-pointer with 36 seconds remaining to cut Miami’s lead to 56-54.  After a Mykea Gray free throw, Mabrey’s three pointer with four seconds left found the back of the rim and Destiny Harden pulled in the final rebound to secure the Hurricane’s eighth win in their last nine games.

Miami will face NC State in Sunday’s championship game at noon on ESPN.