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Notre Dame women’s basketball suffocates Stanford with stifling defense, scintillating offense

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•02/06/25•

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Notre Dame's Maddy Westbeld plays defense against Stanford. (Photo by Michael Clubb/South Bend Tribune/Imagn Images)

When Stanford’s best player, sophomore guard Nunu Agara, landed awkwardly on her tailbone in the first five minutes of Thursday’s game at Notre Dame, it felt like if she could return to action maybe the Cardinal could be competitive. If she couldn’t, the Cardinal were cooked.

She didn’t see the floor again. Notre Dame won 96-47. It’s the largest margin of defeat in Stanford women’s basketball history, a record that previously stood at 45 points since 1983.

“It’s a big statement win,” Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey said. “This is a storied program, and for our group to come out and play at such an elite level, I was really impressed. I was very proud of our group. They run a lot of the same action, so I thought we did a great job with the scout. And just imposed our will defensively against a program that has had so much success.

“Says a lot about this group. I’m grateful and blessed to be able to coach such incredible young athletes and women.”

So, maybe Stanford would not have been competitive if Agara was playing after all. But without her, it was not contest whatsoever. The Fighting Irish’s 10-2 run to end the first quarter was merely a precursor for the 26-2 run that spanned from the 7:44 mark of the second quarter through the end of it.

That’s a lot of offense — five different players accounted for Notre Dame’s 33 second-quarter points — but more importantly, it was a lot of defense. Stanford was completely incapacitated every time it went over the half court line. This wasn’t one of those games in which the Irish turned up the heat on the opposition with as full-court press. They didn’t need to. They simply waited for the Cardinal to cross into their territory.

Then they went to work.

Notre Dame beat Louisville this past Sunday in spite of a season-high 23 turnovers. Thursday, the script flipped. Notre Dame’s opponent had the turnover issue, and the Irish’s stingy defense had everything to do with it. Stanford set its own season-high with 29 turnovers at Purcell Pavilion. sixteen of those went down as Notre Dame steals. Graduate senior forward Liatu King led the Irish with 5.

All eight of Notre Dame’s core rotational players registered at least one steal. They all scored at least one bucket, too. On that end of the floor, the initiative was driven by, as usual, backcourt duo Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles. The former started slow, only making 1 of her first 7 shot attempts. She finished fast, leaving a line of 24 points, 5 assists, 3 steals and 2 rebounds. Miles, meanwhile, was as crafty as ever in going for 20 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal.

Notre Dame will go as far as those two take it, but when graduate senior forward Maddy Westbeld starts 5-of-5 from the floor and finishes with an efficient 13 points and junior guard Cassandre Prosper comes off the bench and creeps into double-digit scoring figures — she had 13 as well — you get scoring margins like the one most people from Palo Alto, Calif., will want to wipe from their memory banks as quickly as possible.

Notre Dame is as talented as ever. And right now, the Irish are as deep as they’ve been in a long while, too. Nobody in ACC play has been safe as a result.

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