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Notre Dame women's basketball notches 13th consecutive win in beating Virginia Tech

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•01/30/25•

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Notre Dame sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo. (Photo courtesy of

You know that meme of that high school kid who went viral for saying, “They had us the first half, I’m not gonna lie.”? That would be true of Thursday night’s Notre Dame at Virginia Tech women’s basketball game — only if you subbed “half” for “quarter.”

Virginia Tech had Notre Dame in the first quarter. The Hokies didn’t have much after that.

The Fighting Irish trailed the Hokies by three at the end of 10 minutes on the road at Cassell Coliseum. Then head coach Niele Ivey‘s team, ranked third in the nation and a squad that has not lost a game since Nov. 30, got to its game. Notre Dame won the final three quarters, convincingly, and won the game, 77-61.

“Really big win versus a really good team that plays well at home,” Ivey said. “Really proud of our group.”

Notre Dame backcourt duo Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo, co-stars of the cover of SLAM Magazine this week, had 9 points apiece in the first half. Miles had 6 in the second to respectably finish with 15. That wasn’t enough for Hidalgo, the nation’s No. 2 scorer. She had 21 second-half points to finish with 30 for the game on 10-of-16 shooting.

It wasn’t a quintessential stat-stuffing night for Hidalgo — she “only” had 5 assists, 2 rebounds and a single steal — but she had nearly half as many points as the Hokies’ entire team. She was downright overwhelming for the home team in the final 20 minutes, launching accurate shots from distance and getting to the rim for and-1 opportunities.

She scored three here, three there, every way imaginable.

“She’s just an energizer bunny,” Ivey said. “She’s never going to stop. She’s always going to play hard.”

Virginia Tech, though, scored every way imaginable in the first quarter, and if there is one thing Ivey’s team needs to look at as far ways it can improve from its 13th consecutive victory it’s playing well defensively from the start. The Irish looked disjointed and unsure of themselves on that end of the floor in the first. Elite teams would have feasted on ’em the way they were playing.

Ivey pointed to Virginia Tech’s three 3-point makes in the first quarter as an area of concern.

“Our contests were short,” Ivey said. “We gave them a lot of wide-open looks that they nailed. I thought they were sharp and really started out fast.”

Credit to Ivey for righting the ship in the second half. Notre Dame played more woman-to-woman defense after the first frame, even picking up the Hokies full court at times to disrupt possessions from the start. It worked. It was Virginia Tech that was unsure of itself offensively down the stretch.

Once the Irish acquired a double-digit lead midway through the third, they didn’t give it up.

“We turned it up,” Ivey said. “We were better on the catch. I thought our rotations looked a lot better. We were better on the ball. They played really hard, and we had to match their intensity.”

BOX SCORE

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