Alyssa Ustby, lockdown defense help UNC WBB advance

The UNC women’s basketball team is playing for a tournament championship on Monday.

Just three weeks into its basketball season, the UNC women’s basketball team will be playing in a championship game.

Thanks to a 53-36 victory over Villanova on Sunday, North Carolina advanced to the Battle 4 Atlantis championship game.

The Tar Heels will be facing Indiana at 12 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25. UNC previously beat Ball State on Saturday, while the Hoosiers emerged victorious against Columbia and Baylor.

In North Carolina’s Sunday semifinal victory, players turned in their best defensive performance through six games.

The Tar Heels limited Villanova to 36 points, the Wildcats’ lowest in a game this year and lowest output by a UNC opponent, on just 23.5% field goal shooting. Villanova scored just seven points in the opening quarter and five in the third, while North Carolina’s lowest quarter output was nine in the fourth.

The Tar Heels weren’t lighting it up from the field, but their offense shot a respectable 40 percent.

Alyssa Ustby was UNC’s undisputed star, recording a double-double with 14 points and rebounds apiece. This was Ustby’s highest rebound total in a game this year, plus her second-consecutive game with one, as Ustby notched a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double against Ball State.

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Lexi Donarski joined Ustby in double-figures, scoring 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting. 10 different Tar Heels played, with Ustby, Donarski, Indya Nivar and Lanie Grant all recording a minimum 20 minutes.

With the exception of a Friday, Nov. 15 loss against UConn, North Carolina is playing great basketball right now. UNC is ranked, 5-1 to start the season and has a golden opportunity to bring hardware back to Chapel Hill.

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Women’s basketball national scoring leaders as of March 3 (and steals)

History was made again this past weekend.

Caitlin Clark has reached the scoring mountaintop in college basketball. She passed Pete Maravich’s college scoring total and now is the all-time leader for either men or women. Here’s how far she ranks ahead of the other top 10 scorers in women’s basketball as well as their steals numbers in comparison to national leader [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag]:

Women’s basketball national scoring leaders as of Feb. 18 (and steals)

Hannah continues to hold serve at third.

For one of the few times all season this past week, an opponent was able to solve Notre Dame’s [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag]. NC State held the freshman phenom to a season-low 10 points.

It’s ironic that Hidalgo had her worst game when Iowa’s Caitlin Clark had her best game in which she not only broke the NCAA women’s scoring record but poured in a career-high 49 points. Alas, basketball is a funny game.

Here are the top 10 scorers in women’s basketball along with their steals numbers:

Women’s basketball national scoring leaders as of Feb. 11 (and steals)

History is about to be made in women’s hoops.

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark needs only eight points to break the all-time NCAA women’s scoring record. That means this coming week will be historic. But let’s see how she stacks up with [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] of Notre Dame. We also

Women’s basketball national scoring leaders as of Feb. 4 (and steals)

Notre Dame’s freshman phenom still is pretty good.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] continues to impressive with each passing game. The Notre Dame freshman scored a career-high 35 points over the past week. Who knows what she’ll be up to next? She ranks among the national scoring leaders as follows, and we’ve included their steals numbers, too:

Women’s basketball national scoring leaders as of Jan. 28 (and steals)

A certain star for Notre Dame continues to draw attention.

For the first time in her collegiate career, Notre Dame’s [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] was held without a steal against UConn. The tradeoff was she scored a career-high 34 points, which also is the Irish freshman record. Here’s what that means as far as her ranking among the national scoring leaders as well as their steals numbers:

Women’s basketball national scoring leaders as of Jan. 21 (and steals)

Thankfully, the person at the top of this list is OK.

Sunday brought the attention on the top women’s scorer in the country for all the wrong reasons. She collided with a fan who had stormed the court at the end of the game and was knocked down. Fortunately, she wasn’t injured. Here’s how far ahead she is among the other top scorers on the list and their steals numbers, including Notre Dame’s representative, who also leads the country in steals:

Women’s basketball national scoring leaders as of Jan. 14 (and steals)

Hannah Hidalgo is her.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] is getting to the point where she’s breaking Notre Dame records. It’s only a matter of time before she starts threatening national records, too. She’s been that good, and she has no concerns about slowing down anytime soon. So let’s see how she ranks among the national scoring leaders and add in the steals averages that Hidalgo continues to impress with:

Women’s basketball national scoring leaders as of Jan. 7 (and steals)

See how Notre Dame’s rep on this list is doing.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] continues to do her best on a Notre Dame team that has hit a wall. The Irish have lost two of three since ACC play got underway as the lack of enough healthy bodies seems to be catching up to them. We’ll see if that will improve in the coming days and weeks. For now, here’s Hidalgo among the national scoring leaders and those leaders’ steals numbers:

Women’s basketball national scoring leaders as of Dec. 31 (and steals)

Check out where Notre Dame’s freshman phenom ranks.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] clearly is Notre Dame’s best player as we enter 2024. There’s no other way to put it given that she leads the country in steals and is one of its top scorers. One only can imagine what she’ll do over the next couple of months. For now, here’s how she ranks among the top scorers in the country along with their steals figures: