Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame ease past Louisville despite turnover problems

Hitting 20-plus turnovers is a major problem for most college basketball teams. Notre Dame is not most college basketball teams.

The Fighting Irish reached that number of giveaways for the fifth time this season Sunday at Louisville, setting a new season-high with 23. And for the fifth time, Notre Dame won the game. The Irish beat the Cardinals, 89-71, to improve to 19-2 overall and a perfect 10-0 against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents this season.

Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey told ESPN’s Holly Rowe at halftime, when the Irish were leading by a single point, that her team lost its composure in the first half. The Irish led by as many of 14 in the first two quarters but blew that advantage and faced multiple deficits before the half.

Second half? Just one, 40-39, in the first minute of the third quarter. All Irish from then on. Ivey made sure of it, according to sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo.

“She comes in yelling,” Hidalgo said of a typical Ivey halftime speech in a game like this. “She comes in, all firepower, just yelling. When we see our coach bringing that intensity, we know we have to match her intensity. Especially because Louisville is such an aggressive team. We needed to raise our intensity not only because they were being aggressive but because coach Ivey, she’s got this pretty face but don’t let that fool you.”

“It’s called encourage and motivate,” Ivey interjected.

Whatever it’s called, it works. To give Notre Dame the lead back for good early in the second half, graduate senior forward Liatu King made good on layup via an entry pass. Those were the first two points in a half in which Notre Dame outscored Louisville 50-33. The feed came from Hidalgo, the player with whom the conversation of this game — heck, the conversation of this season — starts and finishes.

Hidalgo got over 30 points for the second consecutive game and ninth time in her young career. The National Player of the Year candidate logged 34 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. During one stretch, she scored or assisted on 27 of 29 Notre Dame points. The only two she wasn’t a factor in were a pair of free throws from senior guard Olivia Miles.

“She led us,” Ivey said of Hidalgo. “Put the team on her back. She’s just a dog. She came out with such fire and tenacity.”

Miles was effective, scoring 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting to go along with 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, and King was dominant, too, contributing 16 points and 12 rebounds for yet another double-double, her team-leading ninth of the season, but to explain how overcame 23 turnovers, the best way to do so is by simply uttering one woman’s name. Not the one who gave the impassioned halftime speech but the one who appropriately responded to it.

Hidalgo.

She made all 8 of her free throw attempts. She made 12 of her 22 shot attempts. Louisville couldn’t keep the 5-6 from right underneath the basket, where she did most of her damage. She made a pair of threes and some midrange jumpers, including a shot-clock beating prayer that was answered just before halftime, but the true demoralizing nature of her game is when she slices through the defense, somehow ends up right at the rim and somehow puts the ball up and through seemingly every time.

“Made big plays, made big shots,” Ivey said. “We really fed off of her energy.”

Louisville made its runs to get the home crowd involved at a venue that has not been too kind to Notre Dame over the years; the Irish had won one time at the KFC Yum! Center since 2018 and carried a 1-6 record in games there during that span into Sunday’s tipoff. Nothing like exorcising those demons with a 17-point victory, many thanks to Hidalgo.

Hidalgo’s 34 would not have gone as far without the 33 combined from Miles and King, though, so Hidalgo spent time postgame propping up her teammates — as any shining star should.

“It’s really dangerous because we have so much firepower,” Hidalgo said. “Just having great teammates, it helps take some of the attention off me.”

Some. Not all.

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