The top three teams in the ACC entered Thursday with identical 12-0 home records. That included Louisville, which Notre Dame visited. For much of the contest, the Irish showed they could at least compete with the Cardinals. But they never possessed the lead in a 73-66 loss.
The Irish (17-5, 7-4) always seemed to be right on the edge of tying the game or even taking the lead. But every time they got an opportunity, the basketball wouldn’t fall through, not even when they had good looks. It seemed only a matter of time before the Cardinals (20-4, 9-2) pounced, and pounce they did.
The Irish trailed by three midway though the third quarter when the Cardinals decided enough was enough. They scored seven unanswered points to go up 10, and the Irish couldn’t get closer than five the rest of the way despite their best efforts. The deficit eventually grew to 13 in the fourth quarter, and while the Irish held the Cardinals without a point for the final four-and-a-half minutes, the deficit was too much to overcome.
Nyla Harris scored 19 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the field and completed the double-double with 10 rebounds. Sydney Taylor scored 13, and Kiki Jefferson, the ACC’s leading free-throw shooter, earned half of her 12 points by making all six shots from the charity stripe.
[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] was the only Irish player to reach double figures, but she scored 30 points, 22 of which came in the second half. She now has 551 points for the season, and in this game, she broke [autotag]Shari Matvey[/autotag]’s program freshman scoring record of 530, set during the 1979-80 season.
Hidalgo’s accomplishments in this game didn’t stop with scoring though. She was credited with seven steals, and the 113 she now has for the season represent the ACC freshman record. Appropriately, one steal led to the fast-break layup that gave Hidalgo the scoring record.
The good news for the Irish is that this was the loss that probably will cause the least amount of damage for their NCAA Tournament seeding. Plus, they’ll see the Cardinals again in South Bend to close the regular season. Still, this would have been a nice win to put on their resume, which is mostly thin right now. Hopefully, that changes soon.
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