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Michelle Harrison's career ended Saturday night, but before it did, the Orem native turned in her best performance as a Ute.

In her first season with Utah after transferring from Stanford, Harrison scored 10 points to go along with a season-high 16 rebounds, including nine offensive boards.

"Getting nine rebounds at all is amazing," interim head coach Anthony Levrets said. "But getting nine offensive boards, well, that's just an amazing night."

Harrison's highest rebound total before Saturday was 13, which she notched twice: against BYU in the Mountain West Conference Tournament and at Air Force earlier this year. Harrison only scored more than 10 points once this year, 14 in a loss against her former team in November.

Overall, the Utes outrebounded Notre Dame 41-34, despite the Irish's general size advantage.

Harrison was enough of a force to draw praise from Irish guard Natalie Novosel after the game.

"A lot of times we wound try to get the rebound and [Harrison] was in the paint," Novosel said, "which made it hard for us."

Trusty rusty

Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said Friday she expected the Fighting Irish to be a "little rusty" against the Utes.

The No. 2-seed Irish, after all, hadn't played in nearly two weeks, not since their 73-64 loss to Connecticut in the Big East Tournament championship game.

McGraw was proven right, as the Utes managed to stick with Notre Dame longer than the coach would have liked.

"We have been waiting for a couple of weeks to play," Novosel said, "so we had a lot of practicing. I think we just came out a little anxious, a little excited, and our adrenaline was pumping us up too much."

McGraw wasn't necessarily pleased that she had been so prophetic, especially after the Utes were still within two points with less than 15 minutes left in the game.

"I thought it would be a half like that, but not longer than that," McGraw said. "But we didn't really seem to get in a flow."

The Irish won't be concerned about time off before their next game, since they will face Temple in the tournament's second round Monday at the Huntsman Center.

boram@sltrib.comTwitter: @oramb