Notre Dame WBB playing for injured Watson now as Irish roll into ACC finals

Kylee Watson did the honors of placing the Notre Dame sticker into the championship game line on the big bracket in the back hallway at Greensboro Coliseum Saturday, to the roaring approval of her Irish women’s basketball teammates.

Then the Irish senior post went to celebrate the first Notre Dame appearance in the title game since 2019 with them.

On crutches.

The most lopsided takedown of a No. 1 seed in ACC Tournament history was pocked by an apparent left knee injury suffered by Watson with 3:59 left in the third quarter of four-seeded Notre Dame’s 82-53 blowout of the 2024 ACC regular-season champs in Saturday’s first ACC semifinal in Greensboro, N.C.

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The Irish (25-6) were trying to add to a 19-2 getaway run to start the second half when Watson twisted her left knee awkwardly driving to the basket in traffic, then crumpling to the floor in pain. She was then taken to the Irish locker room before returning to the bench on crutches.

Notre Dame will face the winner of Saturday’s second semifinal — 2 seed NC State (27-5) — without Watson in Sunday’s championship game at 1 p.m. EDT (ESPN), but Irish coach Niele Ivey didn’t provide a long-term prognosis in terms of the starter’s availability for the NCAA Tournament that starts in roughly two weeks.

The clear focus for all of them was extending the current win streak to eight games on Sunday against the last team to beat the Irish (Feb. 15), and doing it for Watson.

“When one of us goes down, it's like us going down almost,” said junior guard Sonia Citron, who missed 7 ½ weeks earlier this season with a knee injury of her own. “Like it really hurts our hearts. It's just hard. That's our sister.”

“Added Anna DeWolfe, one of four double-figures scorers for the Irish on Saturday, “Tomorrow when we play, that's going to be part of our motivation — obviously winning a championship, but definitely bringing that home for Kylee.”

They’ll have to do so with an already depleted roster, though something they’ve gotten used to with a seven-player rotation largely since Citron’s Jan. 7 return to the lineup. Senior reserve Nat Marshall will be asked to play a larger role — she played 15 scoreless minutes Saturday with two rebounds and three fouls.

And Ivey could turn to seldom-used Pepperdine grad transfer Becky Obinma or play smaller lineups and pare the rotation to six, as Watson joins the convalescing sidelined brigade of Olivia Miles, Cass Prosper, Emma Risch and Jenna Brown.

“With a lot of injuries we've had this season, I'm going to adjust and pivot to the situation and scenario,” Ivey said. So, we'll just see tomorrow, see who our opponent is, and I'll adjust from there.”

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Virginia Tech All-America center Elizabeth Kitley winced and fought back the tears from the Hokies bench as she watched Watson writhing in pain. Kitley is sitting out at least the ACC Tournament with a knee injury suffered last Sunday against Virginia.

Her status for the NCAA Tourney, per Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks is to be determined. The Irish beat the Hokies (24-7) at full strength on Feb. 29 in South Bend, 71-58, then dominated them without Kitley with a 6-0 burst to end the first half and a 19-2 surge to start the second.

“When they went on that run to start off, we were just sloppy,” said Hokies star guard Georgia Amoore, the ACC Tournament MVP last season when the Hokies captured the tournament title. “We didn't play defense like we did the first half. We like to say that we would want to do a third-quarter blitz.

“Well, they blitzed us at the start of the third quarter. I think from then on, they had the aggression and they had their heads down and we were put back on our heels again.”

Amoore finished with a team-high 24 points but was just 11-of-29 from the field and 2-of-8 from the arc. The Hokies shot a season-low 30% for the game as a team with just eight assists, only the second time they’ve finished in single digits this season.

“I feel like the last couple weeks our defense has been really, really great,” Ivey said. “I think we have been more active, being very disruptive. Our energy defensively has really ignited our entire performance.”

The Irish shot 66% in the second half and 52% for the game. Their 9-for-14 shooting from the 3-point arc (64.3%) was their best showing since January of 2020, the season before Ivey took over for Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw as head coach.

DeWolfe had four of those 3s — in five attempts — and finished with 14 points and five assists. Watson added eight points, five rebounds and a block in 26 minutes before leaving the game.

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For the second straight game, freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo had to work around foul trouble, but finished with 15 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals. Maddy Westbeld scored ND’s first seven points of the game and finished with 18 points, five rebounds, three assists and three blocks.

But it is Citron who has consistently raised her game the most in the tourney. On Saturday, she led the Irish in points (19) and rebounds (7) and added two assists and three steals to her stat line.

“It took me a little while to feel like myself after coming back from my injury,” Citron said. “I would definitely say that physically I feel there. I'm like I was back in November pre-injury.”

And now just hoping that Watson will be able to say the same sooner than later.

“Big prayers for her,” Ivey said, “but right now we're going to rally for her and take this into tomorrow and just really excited for this incredible opportunity for our program.

“My No. 1 core value for this program is love, and this group is so close. We have incredible chemistry. Kylee is just an incredible human. She's an incredible woman. She's so humble, and this team loves her.

“We love each other, and I'm really proud of that.”

NOTRE DAME 82, VIRGINIA TECH 53: Box Score