Zoe Brooks renews competitive history with Hannah Hidalgo in ACC Championship

Zoe Brooks and Hannah Hidalgo first shared the court in sixth grade. Hidalgo said they teamed up in middle school, beginning a years-long ascent through New Jersey high school basketball, AAU circuits and now the ACC Tournament. 

They played against each other in prep championship games and took the court together for plenty of elite AAU tournaments. Brooks and Hidalgo now play major roles for NC State and Notre Dame, respectively, after arriving on campus less than a year ago.

The freshman point guards and longtime friends will match up against each other in Sunday’s ACC Championship game at 1 p.m. (on ESPN) in Greensboro, N.C. 

“I’m looking forward to it a lot,” Brooks said on Saturday after NC State advanced to the title game. “We’re both very competitive, and we played together basically all our lives, so now going against her in another championship is very exciting.”

Brooks is averaging 8.9 points and 3.5 assists per game as the Wolfpack’s first player off the bench. She finished second in the ACC’s Sixth Player of the Year voting. Hidalgo is a first-team All-ACC player who led the conference in scoring at 23.7 points per game and steals per game at 4.8. 

They share a memorable basketball history on the court together. Whether they’re matched up against each other with championships on the line or competing for the same AAU squad, they fill up stat sheets and highlight reels with their intense defense and clutch scoring. 

After Notre Dame won Saturday’s first semifinal over top-seeded Virginia Tech, Hidalgo discussed the possible matchup against her former teammate in the title game.

“It’s exciting to have a possibility of playing her tomorrow,” Hidalgo said. “It’ll be fun.”  

‘I loved playing with Hannah’

Brooks and Hidalgo teamed up for the first time on the New Jersey Sparks — an AAU team out of Patterson, New Jersey. Then, they took the court together for Philly Rise on the Nike EYBL circuit. 

Wherever they played, they dominated. 

“They were ‘It girls’ in middle school, even back then,” Dawn Karpell, Brooks’ head coach at Holmdel (N.J.) St. John Vianney, said. 

And when they signed with their respective ACC programs, ESPN.com considered them the top-2 recruits in New Jersey, ranking top-10 nationally. 

Hidalgo brought an electric, speedy and intense presence to the court. Brooks added her exceptional handle, passing vision and anticipation on both ends of the floor. 

“We definitely had the best backcourt in the country when we had those two with us,” Philly Rise founder and director Kevin Lynch said. 

The two guards complemented each other on the court and worked well together as a duo. Lynch said they would alternate ball-handling duties without a coach telling them to do so. The Philly Rise staff would consult even them during games because of their high basketball IQs. 

“I don’t know what their overall record was, but they didn’t lose many games,” Maurice Brooks, Zoe’s father, told TheWolfpacker.com.

Zoe Brooks considers herself a pass-first point guard. She is always quick to share the ball when she draws a second defender, earning the complete trust of her Wolfpack teammates. Over her first two ACC Tournament games, she recorded 9 assists and 0 turnovers. Hidalgo also carried her high standard of play over to the postseason, scoring a total of 36 points and recording 12 assists during her previous two matchups. 

The Notre Dame star is a dynamic scorer, but her favorite memory playing alongside Brooks was a game during their junior AAU season when she was exhausted and needed the future Pack guard to go get a bucket. Brooks came through in the clutch and forced overtime.  

“She might not be like the quickest, but she’s super flashy,” Hidalgo said. “She can get open. Her ability to score is just phenomenal.”

NC State’s first-year guard said she misses taking the court with Hidalgo. Over the course of their time together on the AAU circuit, Brooks said they threw a lot of fancy passes, showed plenty of emotion and just had a lot of fun.

“I loved playing with Hannah,” Brooks said. 

‘Zoe played that game on one foot’

Brooks spent her final two years of high school with St. John Vianney. She won multiple player-of-the-year awards as a senior. Hidalgo played for Haddonfield (N.J.) Paul VI. Both players received McDonald’s All-American recognition. 

Paul VI and St. John Vianney met in the New Jersey state playoffs in 2022 and 2023. Brooks prevailed in both matchups. In the second showdown between the two schools, the Wolfpack signee hit the winning shot as time expired, ending Hidalgo’s high school career in heartbreaking fashion. 

“She went off and then hit the game-winner,” Hidalgo said. 

The future Wolfpack guard scored 33 points that day. She delivered her championship performance while playing through a torn plantar fascia. Brooks sat out a few games leading up to this game with the sectional final circled on her calendar. 

She went through treatment on her foot twice daily leading up to the championship. By playing in this contest, the guard knew she was likely giving up her chance to play in the Nike Hoops Summit with Team USA and the McDonald’s All-American game. Five minutes before warmups, Brooks called her father and said she might not be able to play in the game due to the pain. 

“Zoe played that game on one foot,” Maurice Brooks said.

Going into the matchup with Paul VI, Karpell said she worried most about Hidalgo in the more chaotic moments of the game thanks to the guard’s relentless defensive pressure. 

“The unscripted plays were always the ones that made me anxious when we were getting ready to play against her because, at any moment, she could go make a play like that,” Karpell said. 

Brooks’ composure with the ball in her hand helped lessen those concerns. 

The St. John Vianney star decided to play through the pain. Her team fell into an early hole and trailed at halftime. Maurice Brooks told his daughter that she did not have to play in the second half and had nothing left to prove. Zoe shook her head in response and proceeded to score 23 second-half points. 

“Once her competitive juices got going, she just got in a zone and just went to this next level,” Karpell said. “It was wild.”

In the final seconds of the game, Brooks drove into the paint and hit a floater to secure the 63-61 victory.

“They were the best two kids in New Jersey, and their teams were the best teams in New Jersey,” Maurice Brooks said. “And that day, Zoe just came out on top.”

‘They will attack each other like they don’t like each other at all’

The two ACC guards are both intense competitors, but they were also teammates and friends. For that reason, Maurice Brooks said he does not view their dynamic as a rivalry. 

They still approach every matchup, whether it’s a sectional championship or a AAU practice, with a focused intensity. 

“The competitive piece that both of those kids have, it’s really special,” Karpell said. 

Lynch watched them play together and against each other over the years and took note of the mutual respect for each other that led to their intense matchups on the court. 

“They will attack each other like they don’t like each other at all … I’ve watched this in practice a lot,” Lynch said. “They’re not going to cut each other slack at all, and it’s one of the reasons why they’re both great players, because they accept that challenge.”

NC State won the first collegiate bout between the two five-star freshmen. NC State held Hidalgo to 10 points on 4 of 19 shooting that day. Brooks started that game, scored 5 points on 2 of four shooting, dished out 4 assists and grabbed 3 rebounds. 

The Wolfpack point guard said that Feb. 15 matchup reminded her of their previous championship contest in high school. Instead of hitting the winning shot on an injured foot, she helped NC State put together a complete performance in a 16-point win. 

“It was fun playing against Zoe,” Hidalgo said. “Just kind of having that rivalry when we were younger and then coming here to college and still kind of having that rivalry.”

Brooks knows Sunday’s championship game won’t necessarily resemble the last time she met Hidalgo with a title on the line. She said the Pack needs to focus on making the right decisions at the right times while also showing resilience through adversity. 

A win over Notre Dame would clinch NC State’s fourth conference title in five years. Brooks chose the Pack out of high school in part because of its winning tradition. She has a chance to become a part of that trophy-filled history with another victory over her childhood friend. 

“I love winning,” Brooks said. “All my life, I’ve played at a very high level, and I just really take pride in winning, so I’m excited to try and win a ring tomorrow.”