SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The most conspicuous aspect of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team’s 2 ½-month winning streak, and the ascent to the No. 1 position in the AP poll tethered to it, has been offensive exorbitance.
The soul of that evolution, though, has been a commitment to defense.
And on Monday night against 11th-ranked Duke and wearing the No. 1 branding for the first time in six seasons, the Irish showed just how powerful that part of their game actually is and how far it might carry them when needed.
Trailing 27-24 with 2:48 left in the first half of an ESPN spotlight game at sold-out Purcell Pavilion, the Irish held the Blue Devils without a point for the rest of the half, then took over with a 17-1 surge to start the second half, fueled by defense, in a 64-49 subduing of what is currently ranked as the ACC’s second-best team.
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“I can’t remember every play in the sequence,” offered Duke fifth-year coach Kara Lawson, who was part of the ESPN broadcast crew the last time the Irish won a national title, back in 2018. “But I do remember some turnovers by us. And that kind of fueled their transition.
“And they’re really hard to stop when they’re running, because they have so many capable ball handlers, decision-makers, scorers, passers and 3-point shooters as well.
“And so, at the beginning of that third quarter it just felt like they were playing downhill. We were playing uphill, even though the court was level, but it felt like that. And that’s not certainly where you want to be against them.”
Duke (20-6, 11-3 ACC) was able to mitigate Notre Dame’s offensive firepower, holding the nation’s No. 4 scoring team to 23 points below its average (and 24 points below the requisite total for free nachos for those in attendance), limited the nation’s top 3-point shooting team (.423) to a .333 showing, and tamped down the No. 2 shooting team to (.504) to .404 bottom line.
In fact that .404 mark is the worst shooting mark of the now 18-game win streak for the Irish (23-2, 14-0) and the third-worst of the season. The two inferior shooting performances?
A .347 mark versus TCU and a .403 performance against Utah in a lost weekend in the Cayman Islands in the two losses that immediately preceded the current streak.
This time the Irish had an answer. And it played like a TKO.
“We just turned it on in the third quarter with our defensive intensity,” ND fifth-year head coach Niele Ivey said. “It was incredible, something I've NEVER experienced. And again, I'm so proud of this group, for managing and navigating the pressure that we have. And we celebrated.
“I celebrate them, because they are so special, and they just are playing just great basketball. I love the way that we're sharing the ball. I love the way that we're playing together, and I know we're going to continue growing and getting better. But I'm just super, super grateful for this group and where we are.”
And where they are is having a chance to lock up the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament by Sunday if the Irish can sweep Miami (13-12, 3-11) and No. 13 NC State (20-5, 12-2) on the road in games Thursday night and Sunday afternoon, respectively.
Notre Dame then finished out the regular season at home, Feb. 27 against Florida State and March 2 against Louisville. The ACC Tourney is March 5-9 in Greensboro, N.C., and the Irish are the defending champs.
When told of UConn coach Geno Auriemma’s high praise of the Irish after Notre Dame took out the Huskies (currently ranked No. 5) a little over two months ago, Lawson tried to quantify their ceiling in her own terms.
“I don’t know that I’ve earned the right to pontificate like Geno about the state of the sport and all that,” she said with a smile. “I just know that they’re really good. And we have great respect for their talent, and certainly what they achieved to this point of the year.
“I think when you look at their team, that’s just a lot of talent, but there’s also a lot of experience. It’s challenging, because they’ve all been lead dogs at some point in their college career. So, their fourth and fifth and sixth option is an all-conference player.
“They’re the only team in the league like that. So, that’s hard to defend, because even if you get a bailout pass to the fifth option, that player [can] make a 3. and so that’s the challenge, and then they’re very experienced.”
Notre Dame did muster enough offense to complement holding Duke to 38 percent shooting and forced 19 turnovers.
Sophomore Hannah Hidalgo, the nation’s No. 2 scorer, led the way with 19 points along with four assists and three steals. Senior Sonia Citron continued her recent offensive surge, with 15 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. And she continues to be ND's most versatile defender.
Meanwhile, grad senior Maddy Westbeld was 4-of-5 from the field, with two 3s, for 11 points. And started a fastbreak with a thunderous block on defense.
Liatu King grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds, including five on the offensive end, as the nation’s No. 5 team in rebound margin controlled the boards, 41-28. Freshman center Kate Koval collected seven in just nine minutes of court time.
Hidalgo not getting frustrated after a 3-for-17 shooting performance in the previous game at Pitt last Thursday and a 6-for-15 shooting mark on Monday night, never let that affect her defense. Or anybody else’s.
“I think it's maturity, because I wasn't like that last year,” Hidalgo said. “It’s definitely tasking on the mind when you don't see the ball going in, especially if you're worried about scoring. But I had to come to the conclusion that points don't matter, and I have to figure out how to be involved in a different way.
“Like last game, I wasn't scoring the ball, but I had seven steals, so it's like being involved in another way. I can score off of that, causing people to turn the ball over and running a transition.”
As far as handling the pressure of being No. 1, Ivey actually talked to her team about it during a team meeting Saturday after then-No. 1 UCLA lost by double digits to USC.
“They know, nothing changes with the goal,” Ivey said. “It's obviously an honor, but we don't focus on that. We just want to get better daily. And that was my mindset.
“So, we talked about it, moved on. We don't have to talk about it anymore, and that's what I said. I was really, really proud of this group with the way that we navigated some of that pressure that comes along with that.”
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