Alexa Philippou, ESPN
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Heading into Thursday’s Top 10 matchup, UW coach Geno Auriemma believes there is no better backcourt in the country than the one Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles will face. He said he didn’t think there was.
Auriemma’s assessment proved correct, as the Irish, led by Hidalgo and Miles, suffered their first loss of the season, 79-68 to the No. 2 Huskies in South Bend, where No. 8 Notre Dame was nearly wired. He was in the lead.
“This is a big win for us,” Irish coach Niele Ivey said. “Obviously, this is just one win, but I’m really grateful for this group and really proud of our effort and the way we showed up today with such toughness and discipline. ”
Hidalgo continued to make a convincing case as the best player in the country with a triple-double (29 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists) and was the best player on the court. The sophomore scored or assisted on 48 of Notre Dame’s 79 points, becoming the first player in the past 25 seasons to record at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in multiple games against the Huskies. It was his first such game since his freshman season. In Storrs, Connecticut.
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University had no answer to Hidalgo’s shooting from deep, but she made a career-best six 3s on 11 attempts. The Huskies were held to a meager 3-of-16 clip from the 3-point arc.
The Huskies trailed by as many as 13 points in the second quarter, their largest point difference of the season, but recovered in the third quarter to make it a one-point game. That was until Hidalgo made a 3 at the buzzer in the third quarter. It was a shocking moment for the university and a momentum-setting moment for Notre Dame. The Irish built on that shot to start the fourth quarter scoring in double digits, essentially putting the game out of reach.
“Her talent is obvious,” Auriemma said. “She has a talent level that’s pretty unique. But I think what’s more important is the way she attacks everything she does. The way she attacks the defense, the way she attacks the offense when she’s on defense. “I think she leads the team in so many different ways, but when you combine all three of those things, what she does is really, really, really hard for anyone to do.” It’s a match. You can use the strategy you thought up. ”
Miles, who missed the entire 2023-2024 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, overcame hobble and fell off the floor after twisting his ankle in the first quarter to score a team-high nine points in the fourth quarter. He scored 16 points including
“I don’t know if there’s a better guard combination than these two that can hurt you in different things,” Auriemma said. “They’ve been attacking you for 40 minutes straight. And I’ve never seen anyone up close who can do that.”
UW has now lost three straight to rival Notre Dame for the first time since 2012-13. Ivey joins predecessors Muffet McGraw, Dawn Staley, Pat Summitt and Sylvia Hatchell in having such consecutive wins over Auriemma, the winningest coach in the history of the sport over the past 30 seasons. He becomes the fifth head coach to do so.
The Irishman suffered back-to-back losses to the world No. 1 player at the time during Feast Week. No. 17 TCU in the Cayman Islands and unranked Utah State seem like distant memories. They now have three wins outside the top five, including last week’s overtime victory over then-No. 1 Utah. 4 Texas. Notre Dame is the third team in the last 25 seasons to have this many wins inside the top five before January, joining South Carolina, which won the national title in 2021-22, and South Carolina in 2016-17. followed UW in the season.
“We went through a lot. We came back and got back to work,” Ivey said. “They didn’t put their heads down. They just realized, okay, we’ve all got to do a little bit more. And they were focused and ready. And I think that grit and our I am really satisfied with the response.”
“I hope the lesson was that if you play with your heart, if you play with discipline, if you play with focus, you can be as elite as any other player in this country.”
Last week reaffirmed that it is possible. The Irish team is led by the duo of Hidalgo and Miles, but Riatu King, who transferred from Pitt, made a big contribution on Thursday, calling him the X-factor with a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds. Guard Sonia Citron didn’t score much, but her defense made things difficult for 2021 National Player of the Year Paige Bueckers. Paige Bueckers finished with 25 points, but got off to a slow start with just two points in the first quarter, allowing four hits and zero hits in three points.
What’s scary for the rest of the country? Notre Dame is looking to reach the Final Four for the first time since 2019 and for the first time under Ivey, but it should get even better. Liza Carlen, who joined from Marquette, will make her Ireland debut after a pre-season injury, while Maddie Westveld is expected to return later this season.
“Obviously they lost two games, so there’s probably no team that can be called invincible,” Auriemma said. “And if you put Notre Dame against any other team in the country, I don’t think anyone would be surprised if Notre Dame wins that game.”
ESPN Research contributed to this report.
