Future ND guards Risch, Hidalgo add to McDonald's All American tradition
It’s not quite as synonymous with McDonald’s as the phrase, “Would you like fries with that?”
But the Notre Dame women’s basketball program added Tuesday to its long and rich history with the all-star game that bears the name of the renowned fast food franchise.
Future Irish, point guard Hannah Hidalgo and 3-point sharpshooter Emma Risch, were named to the 24-member McDonalds girls team, giving the Irish their 26th and 27th selections since the girls game was added in 2002 to the All American Game menu, with the longer-running boys game (established in 1978).
This year’s McDonald’s All American doubleheader will be played March 28 in Houston with the girls game set for 6:30 p.m. EDT on ESPN2, and the boys game to follow at 9 on ESPN.
Notre Dame is one of five schools with two players on the girls team, joining South Carolina, UConn, LSU and Arizona. The third member of the vaunted Irish recruiting class signed in November, guard Cassandre Prosper, joined Notre Dame’s team as an early enrollee on Dec. 26.
The 5-foot-6 Hidalgo, according to MaxPreps, is averaging 31.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists, and 8.0 steals per game for Paul VI High School in Haddonfield, N.J. She is shooting 63% from the field, 26% from the arc and 79 percent from the free-throw line. She is coming off a 48-point performance against Westtown.
The 6-2 Risch is averaging 24.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 2.9 steals a game. She is shooting 46% from the field, 45% from 3-point range and 92% from the free-throw line. Earlier this month, she surpassed 2,500 career points and 800 career rebounds.
Hidalgo, Risch and Prosper are all five-star recruits and all are ranked in the top 20 of the ESPNw player rankings for the 2023 class.
Five current Irish players are former McDonald’s All-Americans — Maddy Westbeld, Sonia Citron, KK Bransford and transfers Jenna Brown and Kylee Watson. .
Sophomore Olivia Miles, a consensus prep top 10 prospect as a senior in high school, would have been a shoo-in to be, but she graduated early and joined the Irish as a pre-freshman in January of 2021 through a loophole created by the NCAA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Notre Dame men’s team does not have a representative in this year’s boys game.
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