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Notre Dame women’s basketball adds transfer portal guard Vanessa de Jesus from Duke

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•04/21/25•

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Duke Blue Devils guard Vanessa de Jesus (2) moves the ball during the third quarter against Notre Dame Fighting Irish at First Horizon Coliseum. (Photo by Cory Knowlton-Imagn Images)

This past Friday, two transfer portal guards from Duke committed to power programs. Oluchi Okananwa was linked to Notre Dame, but she went to Maryland. The Fighting Irish took Vanessa de Jesus instead.

Okananwa played nearly twice as much as de Jesus for a Blue Devils team that went to the Elite Eight. She averaged 22.4 minutes per game while de Jesus was on the floor for 12.4 minutes per game.

Subsequently, Okananwa put up 10.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per appearance despite not starting any games. In all of her off-the-bench appearances, meanwhile, de Jesus scored 3.1 points and grabbed 1.4 rebounds per game.

De Jesus did not play against Notre Dame in Duke’s regular season road trip to South Bend. In the ACC Tournament semifinals, she scored 7 points without securing any rebounds in 14 minutes of time on the floor. She also added 1 assist and 1 steal, but she turned the ball over 3 times.

De Jesus was a part of head coach Kara Lawson’s first Duke team four years ago. A longtime staple of the program even if not ever a superstar, de Jesus played in 102 games for the Blue Devils with 18 starts. In 16.3 minutes of playing time across her career so far, she’s averaged 4.4 points, 2.0 assists and 2.0 rebounds per game. She’s a 42.8 percent career shooter from the field and a 33.8 percent shooter from three-point range.

Lawson lauded de Jesus’ four-year commitment to Duke, per The Duke Chronicle.

“When you’re a new coach, you gotta have some kids that believe in you before anybody else,” Lawson said. “I could coach another 20 years and never coach a kid like de Jesus, her team-first approach, her work ethic, her mentality and how she really gives to everybody in the program.”

Duke only played four games in the 2020-21 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. De Jesus started all of them and, in an incredibly small sample size, put up the best season-long statistics of her career — 12.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game on 54.5 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent shooting from three. The Blue Devils went 3-1 with wins over Longwood, Western Carolina and East Carolina and a blowout loss to No. 2 Louisville.

Expect plenty more on the transfer portal front from Notre Dame this week. The portal officially closes midweek, but there are plenty of players for the Irish to choose from to round out their roster. With de Jesus’ commitment, the Irish are up to seven scholarship players for the 2025-26 season.

Notre Dame women’s basketball 2025-26 scholarship players

• Freshman forward Leah Macy
• Junior guard Hannah Hidalgo
• Senior guard Cassandre Prosper
• Senior guard KK Bransford
• Graduate senior guard Vanessa de Jesus (Duke)
• Graduate senior forward Malaya Cowles (Wake Forest)
• Graduate senior forward Gisela Sanchez (Kansas State)

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