In a largely self-imposed storm that stirred up momentum Sunday for rival Louisville and stoked hope among the suddenly frenzied KFC Yum! Center crowd for a massive takedown of one of women’s basketball’s Final Four-looking teams, No. 3 Notre Dame uncovered an important piece to its season’s evolution
And touched its ceiling.
And right after the Irish flirted with regression in an 89-71 ACC road win, with a final margin that doesn’t begin to speak to the struggle and might not do the antidote justice either. Poise, precision and a whole lot of Hannah Hidalgo being key elements of the latter.
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“We have a lot of experience on this team,” Irish head coach Niele Ivey said after her team broke away from a one-point halftime lead with 66% second-half shooting and a 75% clip in the fourth quarter for the 14th straight triumph.
“So, they've all been in these moments. They've all been in these high-pressure situations. And they utilize their experience. I think in the second half, they knew that we needed to work on our composure and our poise, and they rose to the occasion.”
Hidalgo, who scored a season-high 34 points, suggested Ivey’s halftime presentation in the locker room played a part in the seismic change in the arc of the plotline.
“She comes in yelling,” said the nation’s second-leading scorer, who was one point off her career high in points. “Like, she just comes in all firepower, just yelling. You know, we see our coach just bringing the intensity, we know we have to match her intensity, especially since Louisville is such an aggressive team.
“We knew that we needed to raise our intensity, not only because they're being aggressive but because of coach Ivey. You know, she has this pretty face, but don’t let that fool you. In the locker room, she’d be all in us, so. …
“It's called encouraging motivation,” Ivey said with a smile
“There you go,” Hidalgo said, beaming. “She's encouraging.”
It was just the second loss in the last 11 games for the Cardinals (15-7, 8-3), who roared back from an early 14-point deficit to pull ahead in the second quarter and coax 10 lead changes.
Meanwhile, the Irish (19-2, 10-0) are off to their first 10-0 start in league play in nine seasons and remain unbeaten overall this season playing on American soil, with their two losses coming on a lost weekend in the Caymans in November, in losses to TCU and Utah.
Similar to the Utah loss, scads of turnovers on Sunday. Notre Dame hit a season high of 23 against the Cardinals, one more than the previous season high set against the Utes, and many of them of the unforced variety.
Sonia Citron amassed a team-high six of them, though only former walk-on guard Sara Cernugel in her 45-second cameo, went turnover-free among the nine Irish players who saw game action on Sunday.
“I'm always trying to work on different reads in practice,” Ivey said, “and I'm hoping that can help eliminate some of those turnovers. But I definitely feel that Louisville is a really good defensive team, and I thought they did a great job of pressuring us. We only had two days to prepare for that, so that's something that we're going to continue working on.”
The nation’s No. 1 team in 3-point shooting was off their game collectively there too, hitting 30 percent (6-of-20) against one of the nation’s worst 3-point defending teams (345th out of 353 Division I teams).
Hidalgo had two of the six 3s (in six attempts), as well as accruing a 12-of-22 shooting day overall, an 8-for-8 showing at the free-throw line, six rebounds, five assists and two steals. It all added up to a second straight game of 30 points or more for Hidalgo, the first time an ND player has strung together two such games since former All-American Jewell Loyd did so in 2014.
“This one right here, she led us,” Ivey said of the 5-foot-6, sophomore guard. “Put the team on her back. She's just a dog. And she came out with such fire and tenacity. Made big plays, big shots, and we really fed off of her energy.”
The Irish, No. 4 in the nation in overall field-goal percentage, shot better than 50 percent in its three-game road swing, including 55% against the Cardinals.
“I think I saw a lot of toughness,” Ivey said of three road wins, preceded by victories at Boston College and Virginia Tech. “I thought we found ways to fight. Wins look differently, and I thought we found ways to win in all three of those matchups. I think it showed a little bit of our resilience and composure.
“You know, when the game wasn't going our way, we didn't hang our heads and just give up. We just started fighting. And different players on the team did a great job of kind of helping us get out of our areas where we were struggling.”
On Sunday it was Olivia Miles, Liatu King and Cass Prosper who most prominently filled in and around the Hannah Hidalgo takeover.
Miles finished with 17 points. Prosper smothered Louisville guard Jayda Curry during her 22 minutes off the bench, contributing to Curry’s 2-of-9 afternoon from the field and keeping Louisville’s most prolific 3-point shooter from even attempting one.
And King, limited to 20 minutes of court time due to early foul trouble and a late elbow to the face, added 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting and 12 rebounds, including six on the offensive end.
The Irish took the lead for good, 41-40, on a layup by King with 8:02 left in the third quarter and were up by 11 by quarter’s end on a buzzer-beater by Citron. The lead reached 23 in the fourth quarter.
“I was just telling Liatu throughout the whole game that she's an athlete,” Hidalgo said of the Pitt grad transfer forward. “Like the way she was up there, undersized and just being able to outjump everyone, grab boards. She's so smart.
“She's very poised. She's very calm, but she'll pick up her energy when she thinks somebody's too little for her. It's so dangerous, because she has the mid-range game, where she can drive it. I think bigger people can't really guard her because of what she's able to do.
“But again, she brings that leadership and that poise that we really need. And she's a dog on the boards.”
And the hit to the face, after which King left the game?
“I hope so,” Ivey said when asked if King is going to be OK. “She was smiling. So, that was good.”
And Ivey was smiling too, with ACC newbies Stanford and 19th-ranked Cal coming to Purcell Pavilion this week on Thursday night and Super Bowl Sunday, respectively.
Louisville freshman Tajianna Roberts led the Cardinals with 17 points. Another freshman, and one ND was in a fierce recruiting battle for, Mackenly Randolph, had an impressive eight-point/10-rebound performance off the bench.
“Again, winning on the road is really tough in the ACC,” Ivey said, “and we found ways on the road to win. So, credit a lot of their toughness, experience and leadership.”
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