Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame making their case to be elite

Not only is Hannah Hidalgo making her case for National Player of the Year honors, but after Notre Dame’s convincing win over undefeated and On3’s No. 3-ranked UConn, the Irish are making their case to be title contenders. 

Hidalgo nearly had a triple-double in the rivalry game in front of a sold-out Joyce Center and came out on top 79-68 against a perennial power that featured the preseason NPOY favorite, Paige Bueckers.

Hidalgo, the 5-foot-6 sophomore point guard, finished with 29 points, 10 boards, eight assists and three steals. She was 8-of-17 from the field and 6-of-11 from deep. 

Notre Dame needed a big game from Hidalgo because her backcourt mate and fellow star Olivia Miles injured her left ankle in the first quarter and wasn’t 100% the rest of the game. She still managed to score 16 points in 27 minutes. 

But this night clearly belonged to Hidalgo, whose impact stretches far beyond her numbers.

“I know I’m that energy piece for my team, so I try to bring it, not only for every game, but for every practice…,” Hidalgo said. “I know my team needs that, and I know they feed off of that, so I’m trying to be consistent and bring that energy always.”

Paige Bueckers, Sarah Strong and the UConn Huskies were no match for the Irish, who took down their third top five opponent of the year. 

“Hannah was fantastic,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said. “She played almost every minute on the floor, she was diving for loose balls and had almost a 30-piece. She plays with her heart…It’s not just her threes, it’s the way that she scores, because it really just ignites us.” 

Ignite them, it did. 

UConn outscored the Irish 24-14 in the third quarter and cut the lead to one point – until Hidalgo hit one of her signature 3-pointers at the buzzer to push Notre Dame’s lead to 56-52. 

“That was pretty big, especially at the end of the quarter, because they had their run, so it was good to ice that run going into the fourth quarter,” Hidalgo said. “It was big for us.” 

But Hidalgo wasn’t the only major contributor on Thursday night. 

Pittsburgh transfer Liatu King notched a double-double of her own and was dubbed the “X-factor” by Ivey postgame. She scored 16 points, grabbed 12 boards, tallied three steals and was 8-of-14 from the field.

The Huskies, who were 8-0 heading into the game, relied heavily on Bueckers – and it proved costly. While Bueckers scored 25 points, UConn didn’t get enough out of its supporting cast. 

“If you’re going to play her the way they played her, which I think is what she’s going to see a lot of, we need other contributions,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “Paige is going to try to carry the team by herself when she thinks there aren’t a lot of those contributions, and that’s not good for her, and that’s not good for us.” 

The Huskies were also just 3-of-16 (19%) from the perimeter, while Notre Dame was 10-of-18 (56%) from long range. 

Following the Irish’s two losses in the Cayman Islands to TCU and Utah, they’ve gone on a major run with a conference win at Syracuse and two Top-10 victories at home over previously undefeated Texas and UConn.

“I think it’s shown them what type of team we are capable of being…,” Ivey said. “We’ve learned a lot in these last several weeks, but I’m hoping that the lesson they took was, when we play with heart, we play with discipline and we play with focus, we can be just as elite as everybody else in the country.”