Notre Dame gets right in first-round NCAA Tournament win vs. Stephen F. Austin

When a player with 0 points who’s 0-for-5 from the field fist pumps after an assist in a game that’s already gotten out of hand in the second quarter, you know a team is locked in. The player: Olivia Miles. The team: Notre Dame.

The No. 3 seed Fighting Irish quickly dug out of a six-point first-quarter hole and absolutely demoralized visiting No. 14 Stephen F. Austin, 106-54, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Ind., on Friday.

Head coach Niele Ivey’s team, one that consists of 11 players — including two walk-ons and one former former walk-on — who scored in Friday’s win, faces No. 6 seed Michigan in the same arena Sunday.

“I feel like we got back to us, and that is really exciting for me to see,” Ivey said.

The Wolverines had to sweat out their outcome against No. 11 seed Iowa State with Irish players watching from the stands in their home gymnasium. The Irish themselves when it was their turn to take part in March Madness? Not so much.

A better question for those wondering how Notre Dame won by such a wide margin would be what didn’t happen as opposed to what did. Let’s run through the checklist…

• Miles serving as the Irish’s primary setup player, potently facilitating offense. Check
• Hannah Hidalgo steal and score. Check.
• Maddy Westbeld returning to proper form at the proper time. Check.
• Sonia Citron lighting it up from three and playing the best straight-up defense of anyone in a white uniform. Check.
• Liatu King quietly taking care of the miscellaneous buckets and cleaning up on the glass. Check.

That takes care of the starters. When they’re on, there’s not much opponents can do.

“It’s important to be able to play with that swagger like nobody can touch us,” Hidalgo said.

What Notre Dame has now that it hasn’t in prior NCAA Tournament runs in the Ivey era is a capable bench presence in the form of three players — Liza Karlen, Cassandre Prosper and Kate Koval. Their contributions were felt in the form of tone setting.

On the same possession, Karlen dove to the floor to tap out an offensive rebound and Prosper slashed through the paint along the base line to secure the basketball once more for the Irish. Citron ended up making a three on Notre Dame’s third crack at the basket. She made 4 of them on the afternoon and finished with 24 points and 7 rebounds.

Koval was the beneficiary of effective entry passes and a smaller Stephen F. Austin front court. She made a couple first-half layups, but she also had 4 blocks. Her best play of the game was when she received another one of those entry passes from Citron but elected to kick back out to her instead of going up for an awkward layup. She held the ball long enough to draw in the Ladyjacks, so Citron was wide-open when she buried the triple.

“I know I’m surrounded by great guards who can hit shots,” Koval said. “I believe in all of my teammates. If I see a double coming at me, I’ll pass it out because I know they will do the same for me. We have a great connection and understanding that we dominate inside but we have the best guards in the country. We try not to force it and see whoever is open to make it easier for ourselves.”

Karlen hit a three then stole the ball away from a Ladyjack out past the three-point line on the ensuing SFA possession. It didn’t take Citron going human flamethrower like she does when she’s at her best or Hidalgo filling up the stat sheet with 24 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals to know Notre Dame, playing for the first time in 13 days, was a better form of itself now than it was at the beginning of the month. It manifested in the ways players other than those two stalwarts shaped the outcome.

Even walk-on Luci Jensen buried a three and former walk-on Sarah Cernugel was the one to get Notre Dame to the 100-point mark. Prosper, playing with an array of five bench players in what is always a rare sight for the oft-injured Irish, completed an old-fashioned three-point play thereafter. Then walk-on Bella Tehrani went hard to the hoop for the last Notre Dame points of the afternoon.

All systems go. For everyone.

“I couldn’t even dream of a possibility to be in a position like this, so it’s been really cool,” Tehrani said.

The competition only gets tougher from here — exponentially. Michigan is not Stephen F. Austin. The Big Ten is not the Southland Conference. The Irish can’t spot the Wolverines six points off the jump and comfortably cruise to victory.

Or, if they play exactly the way they did Friday, maybe they can.