WEST LAFAYETTE | When Notre Dame woke up, it was over for Purdue.

The 16th-ranked Irish rallied from a sluggish first half to beat the Boilermakers 61-48 on Saturday.

Notre Dame entered the game ranked third nationally with 84 points per game, but the Irish trailed 25-20 at halftime after shooting 35 percent from the field.

Notre Dame guard Ashley Barlow said Purdue's defense took the Irish out of their game plan early.

"They kind of lulled us to sleep in the first half, and we kind of stood around," she said.

Barlow provided the jolt the Irish needed by scoring 19 of her career-high 22 points after halftime.

"Shots just started falling," she said. "I was getting more confidence as the shots were going in."

Notre Dame forced 13 turnovers in the second half and held the Boilermakers to 26 percent shooting.

"That's how we play," Barlow said. "Get steals, get aggressive on the defensive end. That's how we scored some easy points."

Notre Dame won its sixth straight and claimed its first win over the Boilermakers in nine tries at Mackey Arena. It came in front of a crowd of 9,533.

"It was huge for us," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "It was a hostile environment, we'd never won here, it's always a tough place to play. And they played really good defense against us."

Charel Allen scored 10 points for the Irish (8-1), who shot 52 percent from the field in the second half.

Danielle Campbell had 13 points, seven rebounds and six blocks for Purdue (3-5), but she was 5-for-13 from the field.

Purdue led 36-32 early in the second half before Barlow made back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Irish a 38-36 edge with 12:07 to play.

Barlow made another 3-pointer to give Notre Dame a 47-41 lead, then Devereaux Peters scored on a putback to make it 49-41 with 5:46 to play. The Irish led by at least six points the rest of the way.

"There's no question Barlow was the player of the game for us," McGraw said. "She hit those back-to-back threes, but she did some good things on defense, too."