SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin lamented that the Hannah Hidalgo who so impressed her on game tape was perhaps actually inferior to the version that showed up Monday afternoon at Purcell Pavilion.
“I think one of the things that I appreciate with her is just her competitive spirit, and that's not something that you can teach,” McPhee-McCuin said after her seventh-seeded Ole Miss came up against Hidalgo and 2 seed Notre Dame in the second round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
“That's something that was born inside of her. She was completely relentless the whole time. Yeah, she can pass and she can score, but you can't teach what's inside of you. I think that's her greatest strength.”
And as Ole Miss found out in Monday’s matinee 71-56 drubbing by the Irish, the freshman first-team All-American is surrounded by kindred spirits in that regard, even if there are only eight of them left healthy enough to suit up.
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Because of that, Notre Dame (28-6) is dancing into the Sweet 16 for the third time in the last three seasons and for the 20th time in the school’s 29 NCAA Tourney runs. The Irish get No. 3 Oregon State (26-7) in Friday’s regional semis at Albany, N.Y. at 2:30 p.m. EDT (ESPN).
No. 1 and unbeaten South Carolina, which clobbered ND 100-71 in the Nov. 6 season opener in Paris, will play in the other semifinal of the first of two regionals staged in Albany against 4 seed Indiana (26-5) at 5 p.m. (ESPN). Friday’s survivors clash Easter Sunday for a ticket to the Final Four in Cleveland.
A persistently loud crowd that included former Irish coach and Hall-of-Famer Muffett McGraw saw the Rebels lead for all of 19 seconds on Monday. The Irish took the lead for good, 4-2, on a Nat Marshall jumper early in her career-high 35 minutes played. Notre Dame’s 2-3 zone defense then took over and was ferocious, harassing the Rebels into 4-of-17 shooting and 10 turnovers as the ND took a 21-9 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Ole Miss was never able to whittle the lead to single digits the rest of the way,
“I thought that they came prepared for a fight,” McPhee-McCuin offered. “And I don't think we fought. When someone is prepared for a fight and then you don't fight, someone is going to get beat up.
“I was expecting a game where both teams would get beat up. I expected it to be low scoring. I expected it to be a grind-out type of game. Two teams that take pride in their defense — they're more zone, us more man — and they just got the better of us today.”
It was the 10th straight time Notre Dame got the better of somebody since a team meeting called by senior forward Maddy Westbeld following a 59-43 home loss to fellow Sweet 16 qualifier NC State back on Feb. 15.
“We just needed to make sure we were all on the same page,” Westbeld said of her message. “We know what this name on our chest means, and I think we just needed a reminder of what that was.
“It's grit, it's toughness. It's the little things that we need to do, and it started with practice. It was just everybody being a little bit tougher in practice and just setting the tone, and I think we all just got on the same page since then. It took everybody from top to bottom.”
On Monday it started with Westbeld, who led all scorers with 20 points, added five rebounds, two steals, two blocked shots and stayed out of foul trouble long enough that she never had to tone down the aggressiveness on her defense.
“My mindset was to attack,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said. “That was my mindset. At this point, anything can happen in March. I wanted to be the aggressor, and I was really proud of this group for having the confidence to do that.”
Hidalgo added 19 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals — leaving her eight away from breaking the ACC’s 37-year-old record for steals in a season. Virginia's Donna Holt is still sitting on 164, atop of that list, for now
Junior guard Sonia Citron, coming off a career-high-tying 29 points Saturday against Kent State, contributed 17 points and 10 rebounds on Monday.
Marshall, who’s been extending her career high in minutes since starting post Kylee Watson went down with a torn ACL on March 9, contributed four points, three rebounds, five assists — including a nifty whip pass for an Anna DeWolfe transition 3 — and 0 turnovers.
“Nat does things that don't show up on the stat sheet,” Ivey said. “She doesn't have to score 20 points. Kind of just the unsung hero. Her presence, just altering shots. We're small at times, so she does a lot of physicality inside. They had a lot of bigs there, and I thought she was just solid.
“She understands the offense. She's very smart. I think she does a great job of setting screens, posting up, and she just takes advantage of the opportunities. Not only does she have defensive presence, she's making things happen on the offensive end, which I'm really proud of her for. She's stepping up in a very, very big role, and she's succeeding.”
The Irish did get outrebounded by the nation’s No. 12 team in rebound margin, 37-32, but made up for it by not producing that many rebounds, with their 50 percent shooting. They also forced 22 Rebel turnovers and held Ole Miss to 38.6% shooting from the field, the ninth such team in succession to be held under 40% by the ND defense.
“I knew we were going to come in with the zone, because they're so athletic,” Ivey said. “It worked, it was working, and I just stuck with it.”
North Carolina transfer Kennedy Todd-Williams and former McDonald’s All-American Madison Scott led Ole Miss with 15 points apiece.
The Irish expanded their early double-digit lead to 17 by halftime, 43-26, and led by as many as 23 — 51-28 — early in the third quarter.
Notre Dame slowed the pace in the fourth and scored just 10 points in the final period, but Hidalgo was relentlessly in control on both ends of the court until former walk-on Sarah Cernugel replaced her with 56 seconds left.
“When it's win or go home and we're getting so far in the tournament, it's just having faith,” Hidalgo said. “Just putting our trust in God even when all odds are against us with our injuries and being in foul trouble and not having so many players.
“Just having complete trust in God, and that's really all we can do.”
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