Slow starts by Notre Dame have to be a concern for [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag]. But what ultimately matters is how the Irish finish, and they did that in a big way against Boston College. After it seemed early on like the Eagles might pull off a big upset, the Irish roared back and rolled to a 79-55 victory.
The Irish, who were without [autotag]Natalija Marshall[/autotag] because of an illness, struggled badly in the first quarter, shooting only 4 of 18 from the field and allowing the Eagles to go up by as much as 11. The second quarter was different as the Eagles didn’t make a field goal until the final seconds, and the Irish took advantage.
But even though they outscored the Eagles, 18-4, in the quarter to take a four-point halftime lead, the Irish still didn’t look impressive, especially since they missed all 11 3-point attempts in the first half.
The Irish came out for the second half looking more like the team we’ve seen all year. They outscored the Eagles, 50-30, for the rest of the game as the talent gap between the two programs became obvious. That scoring output helped by the fact that they shot 64.5% from the floor.
[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] had an extremely balanced game of 19 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and four steals. [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] scored 18 points, including a pair of 3-pointers that got the second half going for the Irish. [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] had a 16-point, seven-rebound outing, and [autotag]Anna DeWolfe[/autotag] scored 11.
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