A star was born Monday night in Paris, France, for the 10th-ranked Notre Dame women’s basketball team.
But so were a lot of glitches that fourth-year coach Niele Ivey is now challenged with finding answers for following a season-opening 100-71 drubbing from a reloaded sixth-ranked South Carolina team that looks in November every bit the part of a Final Four team that last three Gamecock squads have been.
She’ll build that response around freshman point guard Hannah Hidalgo, who never wilted in one of the most spectacular debuts in Irish women’s basketball history — 31 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals in 37 minutes.
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Last year’s star point guard, junior All-American Olivia Miles, remains a spectator coming back from April knee surgery. And, along with an announced crowd of 3,203 at Halles Georges Carpentier Arena, she watched the 5-foot-6 fellow New Jersey product eclipse the 30-point mark for the first time in an Irish women’s hoops debut since at least 1999.
“She plays with a fearlessness that is just unreal,” Ivey said. “So super-proud of her. Collectively, we're going to get better, get back — back to work, back to the grind. Got to work on a lot of different things.”
Like being dominated 70-20 by South Carolina in points in the paint and 30-10 in fastbreak points, and a 54%-33% shooting deficit from the field.
Senior center Kamilla Cardoso, a 6-7 Brazil native, led the way for the Gamecocks with 20 points and 15 rebounds, while freshman guard MiLaysia Fulwiley provided the flash with 17 points, six assists and six steals.
Once South Carolina, trailing 27-24 early in the second quarter, concocted a 22-4 run, the Irish had no antidote for the combination of size, speed, depth and ball movement.
“I learned a lot,” Ivey said of the game. “We got hit with some adversity. So, we’ve got to find a way to fight through adversity. That's something that you can't practice. You’ve just got to be in it. So that's what I learned.
“And that's what they're going to take away from this game. Film don't lie. So, we're going to come back and watch the film, learn from it. We're going to learn from our offense. We're going to learn from our defense. We're going to get better with our zone. We're going to get better with our man to man.
“Putting ourselves in a situation like this, you learn a lot. This is a Final Four team. When you play against a team like that, it just measures you up against them, and so you can realize what areas you need to work on. You’ve got to be in these types of games, because it's only going to make you better. So that's why we schedule the way we schedule.”
The Irish hit NJIT on the road on Sunday after a pit stop back in South Bend for a few days, before a home opener Nov. 15 against Northwestern. Then it's a venture back into the Top 25 for a neutral-site game with No. 23 Illinois Nov. 18 at the Citi Shamrock Classic in Washington, D.C.
“We have to defend without fouling and be more disciplined,” Ivey said. “We have great practice guys. We have practice guys that are 6-5, 6-6. So, we're always constantly trying to simulate these types of scenarios in practice with the teams that we're going to see.
“We have an incredible [non-conference] schedule, and our conference is incredible in the ACC. So [we’re] just putting them in these types of situations, scenarios, working on this in practice, [because this] is something we're going to see all the time. It's something that we just have to get better at and be disciplined. Defending without fouling is something that we have to get better at.”
Perhaps Nat Marshall’s efficient 14 minutes off the bench Monday offers a future option. The held her own defensively in the past, while contributing eight points, on 4-of-5 shooting, and six rebounds.
“I commented on her in the locker room,” Ivey said. “She came in with great energy. She gave us a spark off the bench. She did exactly what I was asking of her. I thought she was physical. I thought she played really hard, set great screens, and she was just ready to shoot and shot the ball well.
“Came in with a lot of confidence. She's coming back from injury, so I was really, really happy with her production. I think she's going to continue to contribute to our team in a positive way.”
Maddy Westbeld and Sonia Citron added 12 points each, but like most of the Irish, they struggled shooting.
“I thought we started off the way we wanted to,” Ivey said. “This team was ready. In the second quarter, I felt like South Carolina's pressure and the way they got the ball to Cardoso, [they were] just clicking on all cylinders. Hats off to them. I thought they played fantastic, but the second quarter was a little bit of a struggle for us. I mean, we never really adjusted to it.”:
Except Hidalgo, who was 10-of-24 from the field, 3-of-6 from the 3-point arc and 8-of-12 from the free-throw line.
“I had a lot of confidence coming in. I trusted my team,” Hidalgo said. “I knew we were going to come out and bring all the energy. But I pray before every game. I asked the Lord to just give me peace. So, I wasn't nervous at all. Like leading up to it, I was really anxious, really excited to play. But then when I stepped on the court, once the ball went up, I was just ready.”
The game was the first-ever in men’s or women’s college basketball ever to be staged in Paris. It’s also the first regular-season game for the Irish women’s hoops program to be played outside of North America.
“I was never going to pass this up,” Ivey said of the tough opponent draw on foreign soil. “This is something that's going to be legendary for our team, to realize and know that they were the first to be in this type of matchup.
“But when you're playing these teams, and you're playing South Carolina and Tennessee and all the teams that we’re getting ready to play, it can only help you down the road.”
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