Niele Ivey gushes about Notre Dame's defense, offensive balance in first half vs. Louisville

Everything was working for Notre Dame on both ends of the court in the first half of Friday’s ACC Tournament matchup against Louisville.

The Irish jumped out to a 34-17 halftime lead, doubling up the Cardinals in the first half.

Louisville shot only 20.7 percent from the floor and had 13 turnovers in the first two quarters. Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey joined the ACC Network at halftime and shared what she liked about her team’s defensive performance in the first half.

“I like our intensity defensively,” Niele Ivey said. “I talked about trying to make them uncomfortable, being disruptive in our man and zone. And I felt like they came out with great defensive energy tonight.”

Notre Dame didn’t exactly shoot the lights out in the first half against Louisville, but the Fighting Irish did enough offensively to take a comfortable 17-point halftime lead into the break.

Hannah Hidalgo and Sonia Citron each scored 10 points in the first half for the Irish, despite combining to shoot only 4-18 from the field. The two combined to made all 10 of their free throws and got help from other Irish players.

That includes KK Bransford, who knocked down a pair of shots, and Maddy Westbeld, who scored five points in the first half, including a 3-pointer.

“Well, I feel like I have so many scorers on the floor,” Ivey said. “I think KK Bransford is doing a great job of cutting behind their defense. Maddy [Westbeld] is a capable 3-point shooter. Just getting a lot of balance inside and out. I’m really happy with that.”

Notre Dame entered the ACC women’s basketball tournament with a 23-6 record, including a 13-5 mark in conference play. The Irish are the No. 4 seed. Louisville is the No. 5 seed and advanced to face Notre Dame after beating Boston College 58-55 on Thursday.

If Notre Dame holds on to win, the Irish will play the winner of No. 1 seed Virginia Tech and No. 9 seed Miami on Saturday.

The other top seeds in the women’s ACC Tournament are No. 2 seed NC State and No. 3 seed Syracuse.

Other games taking place later on Friday include NC State facing in-state rival Duke and Syracuse matching up against Florida State.

The semifinals of the ACC tournament will be played on Saturday, with the championship game to be played on Sunday. The title game will tip off at 1 p.m. and be televised by ESPN.