It took a whole five minutes to know what the L.A. crowd of almost 8,000, as well as a national TV audience, must have been thinking.
“Those guards are good.”
In back-to-back plays, Notre Dame stars Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo exchanged slick assists on each other’s 3-point shots, setting the stage for a big show and, eventually, an impressive 74-61 road win for the 5-0, No. 6 Irish over No. 3-ranked Southern Cal (4-1).
Hidalgo even took a moment to turn to the crowd after her 3 from the corner and strike a brief pose.
It was time to have some fun.
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She never let up. Playing 40 minutes, the 5-foot-6 sophomore guard led all scorers with 24 points (9-of-21 from the field), adding eight assists, six rebounds and five of Notre Dame’s 17 steals.
“I think for my team, I'm that energy,” Hidalgo said in the postgame press conference. “And I know my team feeds off of that.
“I know they feed off of it when I'm diving on the floor, I'm getting stops, when I'm running in transition. I know my team feeds off of that, and I know they need that. And then everyone else raises their level of intensity.”
The stars were in the Galen Center stands too. Michael B. Jordan, Snoop Dogg and Jason Sudeikis were in the seats, along with several WNBA players.
And Notre Dame, which improved to 9-2 in the series, impressed.
There was Miles, who finished with 20 points that included a career-tying four 3s in five attempts, eight rebounds and seven assists.
There was Sonia Citron and Cass Prosper, who took on the heavy lifting of defending highly decorated USC star JuJu Watkins. They limited her to five points in the first half, and she got a chunk of her eventual 24 points after the Irish were in command.
The crowd saw a team in great condition that played at almost a frenetic pace from start to finish, using primarily only six players. That pace helped force 21 USC turnovers and 1-for-13 shooting from the 3-point line.
They saw mature freshman Kate Koval, a 6-5 center, handle the bright lights and the physicality of the moment to deliver a solid performance of eight points, seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals, along with strong defense in the lane before fouling out late.
She was going up against future WNBA player Kiki Iriafen, the Stanford transfer, and made her work for her 15 points (5-for-15 shooting). Iriafen came in shooting over 50% from the field.
Containing Watkins, who was 0-for-5 on 3s and 10-for-25 overall, at least early in the contest, helped set a physical tone and had USC scrambling early.
“We kind of went back and forth and utilized both for their size,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said about the 6-1 Citron and 6-2 Prosper harassing the 6-2 Watkins, who came in averaging 21.5 points a game.
“They're both versatile guards, just throwing multiple [looks] at her. … And it's something we've talked about, having a defensive identity … That's something that we've been focusing on and working on all season, and something that we came in the season saying we want to be a great defensive team. Just having the effort and relentlessness to do that and the discipline to do it, and I thought they did that today.
“I think we have capable defenders. I do feel like this group is a really great defensive team. But I think we're still growing. … I think we have great senior leadership and experience, and just to see them follow the game plan and adjust [was encouraging].
"So, I'm really happy with that defensive effort, and knowing that we set the tone with our defensive intensity.’’
Notre Dame never trailed, but a seven-point halftime lead remained at seven after three quarters, primarily because of seven Irish turnovers in the third quarter.
The Irish found another defensive gear in the fourth quarter and shut out the Trojans for the first three and a half minutes to slowly pull away.
The lead reached 21 a few times, the first at 68-47 on a Citron fastbreak layup with 4:20 to play. Buckets by Miles and Koval kept it at 21 before the Irish lost a little focus over the final two minutes.
It wasn’t a perfect performance by Notre Dame. The Irish finished with 20 turnovers, 13 in the second half, and Ivey thought the “offensive execution could have been a little better.”
There also were 12 offensive rebounds for USC against seven for ND.
The return of forward Liatu King, who missed a game after suffering an injury in the fourth quarter of the Nov. 13 win over James Madison, was a big boost.
She came in averaging 17 points and almost 10 rebounds. She was hampered some by foul trouble in 27 minutes and had just five points, but brought down 11 of Notre Dame’s 41 rebounds to USC’s 38.
USC, which came in averaging 91 points a game, was without one of its starters, Kennedy Smith, who was averaging 10 points a game. USC’s best win has come against No. 20 Ole Miss, 68-66.
Next up, Notre Dame will travel to the Cayman Islands next week to play TCU (Friday) and Utah (Saturday).
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