Notre Dame responds to Cal surge, beats Bears in ACC Tournament quarterfinals

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Niele Ivey rarely looked comfortable on the sideline of the Greensboro Coliseum on Friday evening. The Notre Dame head coach slumped her shoulders often. Folded her arms across her torso in helplessness. Winced. Wondered.

Wondered, like most others in attendance, how this Fighting Irish team that’s lost four times all season found itself losing to a team it beat by 39 less than a month ago at the midway point of the third quarter of the quarterfinal round of the ACC Tournament. It was 45-39 Cal at that time, and Ivey added another act to her sideline charades.

She called what many would deem a desperation timeout.

Notre Dame’s reaction to it, though, made it seem like more of a calming timeout. The No. 2 seed Irish responded to their coach’s pleads with a 14-3 run to end the third quarter, including 10 points in a row — 5 apiece — from dynamic guard duo Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles. They regained control of the game and did not let it go in the fourth, advancing to Saturday’s semifinals with a 73-64 victory over the No. 7 seed Bears.

“Really pleased with this win,” Ivey said. “Really excited that we get to obviously have more life and play tomorrow. I thought we played really well. I thought this team was really resilient today.”

As for that timeout?

“Cal was going on a run, so I was trying to cut the momentum and just kind of recenter, refocus, talk about our defense knowing we needed to get stops and with those stops coming down on the floor and getting better shots and getting to the rim,” Ivey said. “We talked about getting downhill. We ran a couple actions that were very successful, so kind of went back to that.”

Went back to the superstars. Hidalgo scored 25 points. Miles had 14 and added 6 assists. The Irish were stagnant. They needed their best players to make plays. Miles made a layup then a hit a three. Hidalgo hit a jumper then made a three. Bang, bang. Bang, bang. Cal couldn’t recover.

Notre Dame wouldn’t be denied.

“It’s having the mindset it’s win or go home,” Hidalgo said. “We don’t want to lose. I think just coming together and trusting each other, we were able to get stops and we were able to run in transition.”

Notre Dame came out energized in the first quarter. Shots weren’t falling, but the Irish, given their abundance of talent and knowing what they did to the Bears four weeks prior, looked like a team that would stay the course and end up wining by a sizable margin. The game stayed close until late in the fourth quarter, though, because Notre Dame only shot 34 percent as a team in the first half.

Cal had 19 turnovers in the first half. Notre Dame only scored 14 points off of them. It was poor shooting, yes; even senior guard Sonia Citron uncharacteristically hacked up two airballs from her usual wing spot. But it was also just overall clunkiness on the offensive end. Only seven of the Irish’s first 20 made field goals were assisted. The effortless flow Ivey’s team had on that end of the floor has been elusive of late.

Hidalgo and Miles shot through that.

“It’s tough when you’re missing two, three in a row, but that’s the beauty of basketball,” Miles said. “You have to have short-term memory.”

And in the end, defense does indeed win championships. Or, in this case, gets teams closer to them. Point to a double-team from bench players Cassandre Prosper and Kate Koval that forced a jump ball and Notre Dame possession. Or a tipped pass on the perimeter by Prosper that got the ball for the Irish as well. How about a similar play from graduate senior forward Liatu King that created a two-on-one transition opportunity? Tic-tac-toe, give-and-go, two points for the Irish.

“Our focus right now is our defense, and I thought it was just a great team effort,” Ivey said.

Winning in March isn’t easy. Teams take Ws any way they can get them. The Irish will certainly take it and move on to Saturday against Duke or Louisville without looking back.

“You know it’s definitely March when there’s no easy games,” Citron, who chipped in with 9 points, said. “On any given day, any team can win. That’s what you have to remember; it doesn’t matter what seed you are, what rank you are. It doesn’t matter. Every single game, just give it your all and play your best.”