Whatever ailment Notre Dame picked up in the Cayman Islands, it’s nasty.
Stumbling along on both sides of the floor Saturday evening, Niele Ivey’s No. 3-ranked team looked average offensively and a step — sometimes two — slow on defense in falling to an unranked 6-2 Utah team, 78-67, in the Cayman Islands Classic.
In back-to-back losses on the holiday trip — the 5-2 Irish fell to No. 17 TCU on Friday, 76-68 — the Irish were unrecognizable from the team that took down then-No. 3 USC last Saturday on the road and is likely headed for a deep plunge in the poll from its own No. 3 perch coming in.
Playing in front of a small crowd in John Gray Gymnasium in George Town, Cayman Islands, the Irish never looked comfortable in dropping consecutive games for the first time since March of 2021.
The Irish left their moving, sharp-cutting, crisp-passing offense in South Bend. They came into the tournament averaging more than 90 points a game, but never found their rhythm in the high school-sized arena.
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In Saturday’s third quarter, ND managed just two field goals — the first one with 1:05 remaining in the frame — and scored just 11 points to fall into a 53-48 deficit after leading 37-32 at the halftime break.
The Utes went on a 15-0 run between the end of the second quarter and start of the third.
There will be the required soul searching and stat dissemination to figure out just how the Irish lost their way on the trip heading into a key home contest against No. 5 Texas on Thursday night.
Some of it could be chalked up to fatigue. With eight healthy players and playing primarily six, it was a possible reason to look slow and out of focus. But the Utes, a team itself with limited depth and picked to finish sixth in the Big 12 race, had their own battle the day before in a four-point loss to Mississippi State.
Yet they still shot 46% from the field, 37.5% from 3-point range (9-24 and averaging 10 a game coming in) and slipped by the Irish regularly on drives to the basket to outscore ND 38-32 in the paint.
It was the first win of note for the Utes this season.
“I just thought today our depth hurt us with our foul trouble (25 fouls), and (playing) consecutive games back-to-back against two really good teams,” Ivey said. “I thought that that really hurt us in the end, especially having two people foul out [Olivia Miles and Cass Prosper in the final three minutes]. I thought that was the difference in the game.”
When things got especially rocky, there was no extra gear and no salvation from 25-point scorer Hannah Hidalgo. She was chased most of the day by another small, high-energy player in Ines Vieira.
They call her “The Mosquito” and she bugged Hidalgo into a 6-for-17 performance for 16 points.
The best news out of the event may be that senior Sonia Citron, struggling to find her typically capable touch coming into the tournament, put together a couple of solid offensive performances.
She had 22 Saturday to lead the Irish, going 9-for-14 from the field, 2-for-6 on 3s, after scoring 14 in the loss to TCU. She was averaging 10 points a game coming into the tournament.
“I thought Soni played her heart out,” Ivey said. “She competed in both games.
“So, it’s just unfortunate. We’ve got to get back to South Bend and get to work.”
A few seconds into the fourth quarter, the Utes had an eight-point lead after a three-point play by Reese Ross, and the Irish never seriously threatened to seize hold of even a little momentum.
Turnovers didn’t help.
Five of ND’s 22 turnovers — seven over its average — came in the fourth quarter and all were because of offensive fouls, in a game that featured many with officials paying especially close attention to screens.
Miles, who had seven assists, was well under her scoring average of 18 points, finishing with eight on 2-for-7 shooting.
The only other double figure scorer for the Irish was 6-foot forward Liatu King. Usually extremely efficient, she came into the game 18th in the country with a 61.97% shooting percentage, but was held to 7-for-15 shooting and 16 points.
It was a tournament to forget overall for the Irish bigs, and especially 6-5 freshman Kate Koval. She came in averaging a double-double, but didn’t score in either game (0-for-9 vs. TCU) and got up only three shots Saturday. She had seven of ND’s turnovers and King had five.
The rotation and front line will look different, stronger and more potent when grad student forwards Maddy Westbeld and Liza Karlen return to action, likely some time in January.
Can the Irish regroup and tread water until then?
Time will soon tell as December features No. 2 Connecticut and a couple of conference teams in Syracuse and Virginia.
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