Skylar Diggins felt the pressure building during Notre Dame’s 21-game win streak. Now that it’s in the past, the guard and her teammates have their swagger back.

Diggins scored 21 points and freshman Kayla McBride added 15 to lead the No. 3 Fighting Irish over No. 16 Louisville 68-52 yesterday and move them one step closer to a Big East title.

“I think we’re finally getting back to playing with our swag, playing our style of basketball. And it feels good. We’re having fun out there again,” said Diggins, who added seven assists. “We’re smiling, we’re laughing, you know what I mean? With that tough schedule, we took it too serious, kind of lost the fun in it.”

Notre Dame (26-2, 13-1) has won two straight since losing at home to West Virginia and controls its destiny in its quest for its first regular-season league championship since 2001.

Notre Dame is a game up in the loss column on Connecticut with a game left against South Florida on Saturday before playing at Connecticut next Monday.

Antonita Slaughter scored 12 points for the Cardinals (19-8, 8-6), who lost for the fourth time in six games.

Brittany Mallory had 13 points, and Devereaux Peters added 10 points and nine rebounds for Notre Dame, which shot 61.9 percent in the second half to pull away.

“It’s contagious when one of us is hitting,” Diggins said. “It’s a point guard’s dream just to be able to pass to anybody and have the confidence they’re going to make the shot.”

The Irish struggled from the field in the first half before using a 12-4 run early in the second to take their first double-digit lead when Peters had a layup and made two free throws on the next possession to put Notre Dame ahead 44-33.

After Louisville cut it to 46-39 on a layup by Shawnta Dyer with 8:55 left, Mallory answered with a three-pointer.

Men’s highlight

Wilmington 76, Otterbein 65 — Antonio Bowman scored 25 points to lead host Wilmington (13-12) over Otterbein (9-17) in the first round of the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament.

Zach Bakenhaster scored 15 points and Chris Davis had 11 points and 14 rebounds to lead Otterbein.

It was the final game for Otterbein coach Dick Reynolds, who is retiring after 40 years and an OAC-record 653 wins.

Alabama suspensions

Alabama coach Anthony Grant suspended junior forward Tony Mitchell for the rest of the season but cleared senior JaMychal Green to return to practice.

Grant didn’t elaborate on his decisions or a timeline for Green to return, and hasn’t given a reason for the suspensions.

Mitchell has been out for the past four games while Green has been suspended for the past three. Guards Andrew Steele and Trevor Releford were suspended at the same time as Green but only missed one game.

Mitchell and Green are the team’s top scorers and rebounders. Green is averaging 14.1 points and 7.2 rebounds while Mitchell averaged 13.1 points and 7.0 rebounds.