On a night where Hannah Hidalgo struggled to make shots and fellow Notre Dame women’s basketball standout Maddy Westbeld labored even to stay on the court, the second-ranked Irish showed off — and even flexed — what makes them so different than the team that hit a dead end in the NCAA Sweet 16 last season.
Better balance. Better depth. A better mindset. Oh, and a healthy and evolved Olivia Miles.
The senior point guard, a year removed from a seemingly lost season spent rehabbing a February 2023 ACL tear, on Thursday night tied Sheila McMillan’s 27-year record for most 3-pointers in a game. And she did all the other typical Olivia Miles things as well in an 88-57 ACC road win over plucky Pitt at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh.
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Her bottom line: a season-high 28 points — two off her career high — to go along with seven rebounds and five assists as Notre Dame (22-2, 13-0 ACC) racked up its 17th straight victory and its 31st in 35 series games with the Panthers (11-15, 3-10).
“I love making opponents’ fans mad,” Miles said. “But in this case, I think they were cheering for me, and I think that they were supporting me. And it only gives you more motivation to hit those shots and make big plays.”
Senior Sonia Citron made her share too, contributing 22 points and 10 rebounds. She was 8-of-9 from the field with four 3s. As a team the Irish knocked down 14 (on 25 attempts), the third-most in a game in school history, with the top two totals coming earlier this season against non-conference foes Eastern Michigan (16) and Lafayette (15).
Pitt transfer Liatu King added 11 points and six rebounds against her former team, while Hidalgo managed to crack double figures, but finished with a season-low 11 points on 3-of-17 shooting from the field.
And yet the sophomore and nation’s second-leading scorer (25.9 ppg), whose career-low is 10 points (twice last season), managed five assists and a season-high seven steals and helped shut out the Panthers over the final 5:55 of the game.
“Hannah had a tough night, but we still have so much confidence in her,” Miles said. “I’ll throw her the ball every time regardless whether she's making it or missing it. So she just does a great job.”
Miles did as well, especially in an area in which she used to struggle. She was 8-for-13 from the arc against Pitt, hiking her season 3-point percentage on the nation’s best 3-point-shooting team to 44.9%. She came into the season a career 24.6% shooter from 3.
MIles had said recently that her ACL rehab left her only able to work on her shooting during certain stages of it. But her 3-point-shooting improvement, she said, is due to more than just extra practice repetitions.
“I think a lot of it is just my confidence,” MIles said. “You know, my injury kind of changed my perspective on a lot of things. I learned to not take missing shots too seriously.
“So, that really helped me to, obviously, get in the gym and work harder, but [also] change my perspective on the game and get over things a lot quicker.”
The Irish quickly got over a modest 22-21 lead Thursday night after the first quarter with an 11-2 surge to start the second period, fueled by back-to-back 3-pointers by Citron and Miles to ignite it.
The Irish led 49-33 at the half and weathered a 14-2 Pitt run late in the third quarter to smother the Panthers 19–7 in the final quarter. Pitt was 3-for-19 in that period and shot 34% for the game.
Three Panthers combined for 51 of Pitt’s 57 points, led by 6-4 center Khadija Faye, a Senegal native who started her college career at Texas Tech and transferred into Pitt from her second school, Texas, this past offseason.
She had 23 points, 16 rebounds and four steals, which helps explain some of Westbeld’s woes. The 6-3 grad senior forward was limited to 14 minutes of gametime by foul trouble (4) and a bloody nose caused by a collision with Faye.
Irish freshman center Kate Koval, in 10 minutes off the bench, probably had the most success against Faye among the defenders who rotated into that role against one of the nation’s most improved players. Koval was able to grab seven rebounds as well in that relatively brief cameo.
“Every win, we’re super grateful [for]. I’m super grateful,” ND coach Niele Ivey said. “This team is really special. We’re playing really great basketball right now. Being able to have this type of victory on the road is huge for us. … Excited to get back home and with our opponent on Monday night.”
That would be No. 13 Duke (20-5, 11-2), which bludgeoned ACC bottom feeder Wake Forest on the road on Thursday night, 72-47. And perhaps the Irish will be playing that next game as the nation’s No. 1 team, after No. 6 USC rallied in the fourth quarter at home to knock off No. 1 and previously unbeaten UCLA, 71-60.
The Trojans (22-2) outscored the Bruins, 24-8, in the final quarter. Notre Dame handed USC one of its two losses this season, 74-61, back on Nov. 23, in Los Angeles.
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