Notre Dame freshman Hannah Hidalgo named Naismith Women’s College Player of the Week
Nobody in the country was better than Notre Dame freshman point guard Hannah Hidalgo last week. She was named the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Week on Monday.
Hidalgo shined on the brightest stage Saturday night, scoring 34 points in an 82-67 victory for the Fighting Irish over then-No. 8 UConn. Hidalgo also had 10 rebounds, notching her sixth double-double of the season, and 6 assists.
The weekly Naismith award isn’t doled out based on one game. Albeit in a loss, Hidalgo was outstanding against Syracuse as well. She had 23 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals to average 28.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.5 steals against two ranked opponents in the same week.
Hidalgo has scored at least 20 points 17 of 19 games. She’s on pace to smash the Notre Dame freshman scoring record of 17.9 set by Beth Morgan in 1993-94. Her 34 points against UConn were the most a Notre Dame freshman has ever scored breaking Michelle Marciniak’s previous record of 33 set in 1991. Hidalgo has scored 30-plus points three times this season. That’s also a Notre Dame freshman record.
“Big props to Coach [Niele] Ivey,” Hidalgo said on an NCAA March Madness podcast with Autumn Johnson. “She’s always reassuring me. She just gives me so much freedom from the jump. She has so much trust in me and it makes it so much easier for me to go on and play freely.
“And then my teammates trust me a lot too. They want me to shoot the ball. They know that I need to take those shots in order for us to win. They do a great job of setting me up or getting rebounds if I do miss. Everybody has so much confidence and trust in me, so it makes it easier.”
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Of all the stats that have garnered her so much recognition not even 20 games into her collegiate career, it’s Hidalgo’s steals per game mark of 5.1 she’s the most proud of.
“I was always told defense wins championships,” Hidalgo told Johnson. “Everything starts on defense for me and that’s really how I get going. Whether that’s a steal or a deflection or diving on the floor for a loose ball, defense is everything to me.
“Especially in that [UConn] game, I was constantly telling my team, ‘Hey, it starts on defense.’ We were just telling each other we got to get stops before we go.”
Notre Dame got stops. The Irish went, all the way on to a 15-point victory. Next up for Hidalgo and the Irish is a road game at Georgia Tech (13-8, 4-5 ACC) on Thursday.
