Category: Women’s Basketball

Notre Dame women’s basketball swept during Cayman Islands Classic

Well, this certainly isn’t a pleasant way to get your first two losses.

The Notre Dame women’s basketball team got a rude awakening during the Cayman Islands Classic over Thanksgiving weekend. It’s hard to know if the tropical setting affected the Irish, but what is known is that the Irish won’t just cruise to a national championship.

One day after the Irish suffered their first loss of the season, a 76-68 decision to a ranked and undefeated TCU team, they lost, 78-67, to a Utah team that wasn’t even receiving votes in the latest poll. That drops the Irish to 5-2 on the season, and they most definitely will drop from their No. 3 ranking in the latest poll.

It was a real disappointment for the Irish after defeating USC in its own building, and the schedule won’t get any easier. They next face Texas in the ACC/SEC Challenge, which will come ahead of their ACC opener against Syracuse and then a game against fellow blue blood UConn.

This is a true test for the Irish, and how they tackle it will say a lot about them.

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Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo wins two Player of the Week awards

Way to go, Hannah!

Notre Dame’s [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] played only one game last week, but it made enough of an impact for every women’s basketball fan to notice her. While she was known already, she reminded everyone of her existence anyway.

One day after Hidalgo was named the ACC Player of the Week, the Associated Press named her its player of the week. This came after a win over USC in which she had a line of 24 points, eight rebounds, six assists and five steals.

The game marked the 10th time in her collegiate career in which she achieved a line of at least 20 points and at least five each of rebounds, assists and steals. No other women’s basketball player has done it that many times in the past 25 years.

On at least one day, Hidalgo was the better player on the floor than Trojans standout JuJu Watkins. Here are some of her highlights from the game:

Many more honors will come to her this season. There’s no reason to think they won’t.

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Son of Notre Dame women’s basketball coach hits buzzer beater

Big shot for anyone.

Things for going great for the Ivey family. First, [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] just coached the Notre Dame women’s basketball team to a huge win over USC. That bumped the Irish up to third in the latest Top 25 AP poll and even netted them three first-place votes.

Now, the good fortune is being passed down to the next generation. Jaden Ivey, Niele’s son, has hit a baseline buzzer beater to help the Detroit Pistons defeat the Toronto Raptors, 102-100. It capped a night in which he led the Pistons with 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field and led all players with eight assists.

Ivey is in his third season with the Pistons out of Purdue, and it’s his best one yet so far. Through 18 games, he is averaging 18.4 points and 4.4 assists a game. Whatever he does the rest of the season though or even the rest of his career, he’ll remember this:

Here’s hoping Ivey will have many more some clutch moments throughout his NBA career.

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Notre Dame women’s basketball receives No. 1 votes in AP Top 25 poll

The Irish are getting close to the top.

The Notre Dame women’s basketball team is looking stronger than ever, and people are starting to notice. After a huge victory in a much-anticipated game at USC over the weekend, the Irish received three No. 1 votes in the latest AP Top 25 Poll. They also moved up the rankings from six to third.

The top of the latest poll had some serious movement. After UCLA knocked off top-ranked South Carolina over the weekend, it became the new No. 1 team in the country. The Gamecocks slipped to fourth, one spot below the Irish, and the Trojans fell to sixth, one spot behind Texas. UConn remained at No. 2 from the previous week.

After the Irish play two games at the Cayman Islands Classic this weekend, they’ll return home to play the Longhorns in the ACC/SEC Challenge, open ACC play against Syracuse and then host the Huskies. After that slate, we’ll know a lot more about what we can expect from the Irish this season.

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Notre Dame women’s basketball gets biggest win of young season vs. USC

This was a monster win for the Irish.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

Everyone wanted to see the Notre Dame and USC women’s basketball teams play each other. The biggest reason was to see [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and JuJu Watkins go up against each other.

We got the first of what will be at least two meetings between the teams Saturday in Los Angeles, and the Irish emerged victorious over the Trojans, 74-61. With both teams expected to be national championship contenders, this was the biggest win of the season so far.

The Irish (5-0) never trailed against the Trojans (4-1), who only tied the game twice and not at all after the 4:07 mark of the first quarter. That was the result of the Irish beating the Trojans with superior defense and a high-paced offense that took far more advantage of its opportunities. Their 17-9 steals advantage contributed mightily to their 20-8 advantage in fast break points.

The Irish’s biggest lead was at 21, and the Trojans scored eight straight points at the end to make the final score closer.

Hidalgo scored 16 of her 24 points in the first half. She also had a game-high five steals, but [autotag]Liatu King[/autotag] made up for missing the Irish’s last game by collecting four of her own steals as well as a game-high 11 rebounds.

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] collected 14 of her 20 points in the second half. That included hitting a career-high four 3-pointers for the third time in her collegiate career and the second straight game in which she reached that mark.

Watkins also scored 24 points, 19 of which came in the second half. Kiki Iriafen had 15 points and finished one rebound shy of a double-double. Talia von Oelhoffen, who helped Oregon State eliminate the Irish in last season’s NCAA Tournament, added 10 points.

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Notre Dame women’s basketball remains perfect with win over Lafayette

Another day, another victory.

The Notre Dame women’s basketball team is hurting right now. That’s evidenced by the fact that it had only six rotational players available against Lafayette. But the Irish are so talented that they barely had to break a sweat in a 91-55 victory.

The Irish (4-0) never trailed the Leopards (1-3) and did just about everything to keep their perfect record intact. Their offense was in sync as it typically is, which led to a program-record 15 3-pointer. Their defense also was smothering as usual. There was nothing to indicate that the Irish would slip up in this game.

All the Leopards could do was try and give a respectable showing to their home crowd, which they said they did on their postgame TV interviews. They should say that though after only scoring one less point than the Irish in the fourth quarter.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] led everybody with 29 points and five steals. [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] was equally lethal with 20 points and seven assists. [autotag]Emma Risch[/autotag] scored all 12 of her points off the bench on four 3-pointers.

[autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag] flirted with a triple-double with 11 points, 19 rebounds and seven blocks. [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] nearly achieved a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds while also accumulating six assists, three steals and three blocks.

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Notre Dame guards projected top-four picks ahead of WNBA draft lottery

This would reflect quite well on the Irish.

Notre Dame guards [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] and [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] are headed for the WNBA after this season. At least that’s the expectation. The real question is how high both players will be picked in the draft.

The WNBA draft lottery will take place Sunday. The participants are the Washington Mystics, Los Angeles Sparks, Dallas Wings and Chicago Sky. According to two projects, Miles and Citron both have a chance to be picked by one of those teams in the top four of the draft.

Tankathon has Miles and Citron going back-to-back at third and fourth, which would be an incredible accomplishment for the Irish. ESPN isn’t as optimistic with Miles going fourth and Citron projected as the final pick of the first round. ESPN previously had Miles going fifth and Citron 11th.

First things first though, both players are focused are bringing the Irish a national championship. Having [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and rising freshman [autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag] with them will make the journey a lot easier.

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Notre Dame forward reaches stat line achieved only by Anthony Davis

Quite a comparison.

As excited as Notre Dame fans are about [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], they want to look at a third potential star if they aren’t already. Freshman forward [autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag] was inserted into the starting lineup during the Irish’s season opener and has been nothing short of phenomenal.

Through three games, Koval has a total of 40 points, 33 rebounds, eight assists and 15 blocks. According to OptaSTATS, only one other Division I freshman, men or women, has achieved at least that stat line over that span. That freshman is Anthony Davis, who did it in his final three games with Kentucky en route to the 2012 national championship.

Davis’ stat line objectively was better at 42 points, 41 rebounds, eight assists and 17 blocks. That won him the Most Outstanding Player award.

Only time will tell whether Koval can keep up this level of production. That she already is drawing comparisons to Davis this early though indicates that the Irish might have hit yet another home run with her.

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Notre Dame women’s basketball gets third easy win vs. James Madison

The Irish continue to prove how deep they are.

The early part of Notre Dame’s schedule was set up in such a way that it seemingly wouldn’t be challenged early on. So far, that has proved to be the case. After cruising to easy wins over Mercyhurst and Purdue, the Irish continued that trend with a 92-46 victory over James Madison.

For the third time in as many games this season, the Irish (3-0) proved to have far more talent than their opponent, even with injuries tightening their rotation at the moment. That rotation might be tightened further after a hard knock to the floor caused [autotag]Liatu King[/autotag] to leave the game early in the fourth quarter with a head injury. Hopefully, she won’t be lost for very long if at all.

The Dukes (3-1) took their lone lead on a 3-pointer early in the first quarter. Most of the time though, the Irish had double the points of the Dukes or close to it. While the Irish were their usual strong selves on both ends, the Dukes did themselves no favors by making only 15 field goals and shooting a putrid 21.7% from the floor:

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] had a typical game of 24 points, six rebounds and four steals. [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] also played typically with 16 points, six rebounds and eight assists.

[autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag] quickly is becoming an early contender for ACC Rookie of the Year. A night in which she had a line of 14 points, 16 rebounds and six blocks will do that.

King scored 11 points before she went out, and [autotag]Cassandre Prosper[/autotag] also had 11 points to go with seven boards off the bench.

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Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles one of five national players of the week

Another honor for her.

Notre Dame guard [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] already was named the ACC Player of the Week for the first week of the season. That only proved to be the beginning though.

Miles has been named one of five national players of the week by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. Joining her are Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers, Rutgers’ Destiny Adams, UCLA’s Lauren Betts and Norfolk State’s Diamond Johnson.

To say Miles has wasted no time announcing her return after missing all of last season with a knee injury is an understatement. She achieved a triple-double in the season opener against Mercyhurst and scored 17 points against Purdue, three of them coming on a shot from beyond half-court at the third-quarter buzzer.

In this young season, Miles is averaging 18.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists a game. She will have a chance to improve on those numbers in the Irish’s next game Wednesday against James Madison. That will be followed by a contest Sunday against Lafayette.

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