How, exactly, do you define progress in late January for a veteran team full of stars going up against an outmanned club?
Do you search for an incremental climb in a stat here or there, or maybe something less quantifiable like favorable in-game adjustments?
The No. 3-ranked Notre Dame women’s basketball team made it look easy — eventually — Thursday night in an 89-63 victory over Boston College in front of 2,879 in Chestnut Hill, Mass., even if it looked a little choppy in spots getting there.
“We were up a lot and not feeling like we were playing our best,” Irish senior guard Sonia Citron acknowledged in a postgame radio interview.
Maybe that lack of settling, in itself, defines progress for a night.
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It was the 12th straight win for ND (17-2), which is holding on to a one game lead in the Atlantic Coast Conference with an 8-0 mark.
Boston College dropped to 12-9 and 3-5, as the Irish pushed their edge in the series to 31-9.
The Irish actually trailed by a point after the first quarter and led by just 10 at halftime.
Most of the early harm came from another bad bout with turnovers, 11 in the clunky first half and 17 for the game, a couple over the club’s average. There also was some early foul trouble for head coach Niele Ivey to steer through that kept the Irish from syncing up.
Starting point guard Olivia Miles played only four of the first 10 minutes before settling into a defensive rhythm, and Maddy Westbeld played only half a game.
The nation’s No. 2 scorer, Hannah Hidalgo, had 23 points, a bucket below her average, and started 4-for-14, before finishing 9-for-23.
“I think it's me,” she said in the postgame interview when asked about BC’s defensive approach and her off-shooting night. She came in shooting 50% from the field.
“Honestly, I don't really think it's ever the defense. I think just letting the game come to me is big, because once I let the game come to me, I was more efficient in the second half. But they're a really aggressive team, very physical. So, it takes some adjusting, too.
“Once I was able to finally get to the basket, and seeing the ball go through, it really helped me. And my bigs did a great job of holding their player off. That allowed me to get all the way through the lane.”
Most of the final offensive numbers looked good and matched up fairly well with ND’s season to date. The Irish shot 51.5% from the field for the game, 7-for-18 on 3s (38.9%) and 12-for-14 from the free throw line (85.7%). There also were 52 points in the paint to BC’s 24, and 42 rebounds to the Eagles’ 37.
Miles finished 6-for-11 and had 16 points and Westbeld had 14 on 6-for-7 shooting. Citron had nine points, nine rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block.
Defensively, the Irish were a notch above.
BC was held to 32% shooting from the field — the Eagles came in averaging 42.7 — and just 20% on 3s (4-for-20).
T’yana Todd, a 6-0 junior, had 18 points to lead BC. She came in No. 1 in the country in 3-point percentage at 50%, but did limited damage from the 3-point line (2-for-6). And leading scorer Dontavia Waggoner, a 6-0 grad student averaging 13.7 points a game, was held to six, taking only five shots.
Hidalgo was a pest with five steals amid the 20 Eagle turnovers. She also collected five offensive rebounds and three assists.
Notre Dame slowly, but steadily asserted control in the second half.
“Offensively, there were some execution points that we needed to do a better job of,” Ivey said of the halftime chat. “But mostly with defense, just adjusting, doing a better job on the boards. We had the opportunity to show them film with areas that we needed to get better. So, addressing those areas, and then they did a good job of adjusting.
“And I thought they were better defensively and got the stops that we needed. They were on the same page defensively. I thought the zone helped us out. And we did a better job of finding their shooters and rebounding out of it.”
Hidalgo had 10 points in the third quarter and Citron seven as the lead grew to 20.
The most impressive stretch of defense came late. BC’s last field goal came with 6:47 to play as the Eagles suffered an 0-for-13 closing drought.
Ivey viewed it as a solid performance.
“And again, just any road win in the ACC is really, really tough, so we’ll savor the win,” she said. “Another positive is that we came out of the game healthy. That's always number one for me. And again, just trying to improve and get better every game.”
However that’s defined.
Notre Dame is off until visiting Virginia Tech (14-5, 5-3) on Jan. 30.
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