SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Nell Fortner has seen a lot in a distinguished coaching career.
And after watching Sonia Citron glide through traffic to get to the basket, Maddy Westbeld control the paint with her soft touch on jumpers and Cass Prosper come off the bench to deliver a rebound shy of a double-double, she knew what she was seeing.
“That’s a Final Four team, no doubt about it,’’ said the Georgia Tech coach and owner of 265 career college victories, following an 81-66 loss to No. 3-ranked Notre Dame in front of 7,800 in Purcell Pavilion Thursday night.
Are they a Final Four team without Hannah Hidalgo, who missed her second straight game with a sore ankle?
“... Especially with Hannan Hidalgo,” she said.
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One of the country’s top players was on the bench again and watched the Irish look a lot better than they did in their previous game without her, a 67-58 victory at unranked Clemson on Sunday.
“That’s a tough team,” Fortner said. “They have a lot of weapons. They have a lot of size.”
And they started to pull away from her No. 17-ranked Yellowjackets (15-3, 3-3 ACC), who hadn’t lost a game until Jan. 9, early in the second half.
It pushed Notre Dame’s series lead to 19-1.
It’s been a tough week for Georgia Tech, which was 17-16 last season but is coming on, helped by the country’s 12th-ranked recruiting class.
The Yellowjackets fell to Virginia Tech in double overtime on Jan. 9 — and lost second-leading scorer Dani Carnegie (15 points a game) to a hamstring injury in the loss. Three days later, they lost to Louisville by nine.
Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey, meanwhile, keeps navigating her team through the injury obstacles — reserve Emma Risch also missed the game due to soreness — as the Irish (15-2, 6-0) won their 10th straight.
“I thought Soni (Citron) played one of her best games, getting downhill, playing with force and pace, and Maddy continues to get more comfortable game after game,” she said.
“They did a great job leading us.”
With Hidalgo’s 26 points a game on the bench, Citron, averaging 13.7 points coming into the game, led the Irish with 21, going 9-for-13 from the field.
Westbeld, getting her first start in her fourth game of the season following her injury rehab (foot surgery), had 20 points. She was 8-for-11 from the field and 2-for-3 on 3s. She averaged seven points through the first three games.
The Irish are the most efficient 3-point shooting team in the country at 42.8% coming into the contest and finished 6-for-13 for the game (46.2%).
Interesting note: Grad student transfer Liatu King, averaging 13.5 points and 11.3 rebounds, took the first 3-point shot of her career with the shot clock winding down and 40 seconds remaining.
It rimmed out.
Georgia Tech does a lot of damage from the perimeter. The Jackets average 26 3-point attempts and nine makes (18th in the country) a game for 34.2%, but was 8-for-30 (27%) against the Irish.
Though it all ended well for ND, there were a few anxious moments.
A 13-point first half lead was whittled to nothing early in the second half — 41-41 — after a Tonie Morgan layup. Morgan finished with 17, second on the team to the 21 points by leading scorer Kara Dunn (16.0 points per game), who went 8-for-17 from the field.
The 6-2 Prosper had a 3-pointer and driving layup on consecutive possessions to push the lead to seven at the 6-minute mark — her 15 points (5-for-7 shooting) was eight over her average.
“It was big,” Ivey said of Prosper’s points and nine rebounds. “And I went with a lot of different rotations trying to figure out what chemistry was the best versus Georgia Tech. And she came in, and was ready in the first half. And then in the second half we went with a three-guard lineup because their guards were doing a great job of getting downhill.
“So, I thought she was ready to play. She gave us great minutes, did a great job defensively, and did a great job scoring.”
The Irish lead reached double digits, 61-50, on a Citron drive with 36 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The Irish also limited Tech to 14 third-quarter points, which Ivey called “the difference in the game.”
The Yellowjackets were shooting almost 46% from the field coming in, but wound up at 37.7% for the game.
“They punched us pretty good (in the third quarter) and we never quite recovered,” Fortner said.
The lead grew to 19 in the final quarter and never dipped below 11.
Overall, it was a strong performance for the Irish, who outrebounded the visitors, 50-25, which Fortner called “very disappointing,” and shot 55% from the field. Their season mark is 49.4%.
But what was hard to understand was the turnover frequency, especially with so many veterans on the floor.
Notre Dame had 21, six over its average, and it led to 22 Georgia Tech points. Tech had 12 turnovers.
It helped lead to 69 shots for the Yellowjackets to Notre Dame’s 62.
Ivey didn’t call it a concern, but …
“That's an area we need to clean up,” she said. “A lot of them, unforced, were uncharacteristic, so we need to clean it up.
“I think Georgia Tech, they're a physical team, though not as physical as we've seen all season. There were just uncharacteristic reads that we didn't get a chance to complete. We just have to do a better job of executing and making sure we take care of the ball a lot better, be more focused.”
SMU visits Notre Dame Sunday (6 p.m., ACC Network).
The Mustangs are 10-8 and 2-4 in the ACC following a 64-33 loss to North Carolina on Thursday night.
Regarding availability for Hidalgo and Risch, Ivey just said both are “day-to-day.”
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