Notre Dame women's basketball fends off Texas in overtime for second top-five win

Sure, Notre Dame has two losses already. After the way this Fighting Irish team, one as talented as any in the country, started the year, that’s a bit unexpected. But now Notre Dame has two top-five wins, and it’s barely one month into the season.

That is totally expected because, well, that’s just how high the expectations are for this team.

No. 10 Notre Dame got back in the win column in a heavyweight bout of an 80-70 overtime win over No. 4 Texas at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend on Thursday night. The Irish improved to 6-2. The Longhorns suffered their first defeat of the season, dropping to 7-1. If they met again sometime in, say, March, nobody should be surprised.

These two sides are darn good. And they played each other to a dandy in December. Notre Dame was just a bit better.

“We had a rough week, as everybody knows,” head coach Niele Ivey said. “We got back to work and got home and they were mentally tough. We had a couple really hard practices and film sessions. They turned the page and came out and responded.”

Notre Dame played with just a six-player rotation because of injuries and a couple coaching decisions. Texas put 10 players on the floor, meanwhile. Junior guard Cassandre Prosper was the only Irish player to come off the bench, and she didn’t contribute in the scoring column all night.

Not a single bench point for the home team. Late, it seemed like that would catch up to the Irish.

Texas made a late run to tie the game and push it to the extra period. The Irish had three players with four fouls in those five added minutes, yet they outscored Texas by 10. Sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo and senior guard Sonia Citron made back-to-back threes to set the overtime tone. The Irish sealed it with two pairs of free throws from Hidalgo and senior guard Olivia Miles.

As a result of Notre Dame’s thin lineup in the front court, featuring just freshman center Kate Koval and graduate senior forward Liatu King, and Prosper at the four when the Irish needed to go small to get Koval off the floor for short stretches, the Longhorns beat the Irish up in the battle of the boards. Texas held the overall rebounding edge, 46-37, and secured 19 offensive rebounds to Notre Dame’s 8.

Still, the Irish hung tough, largely because of a magnificent first half from the three-headed monster of a guard trio Hidalgo, Miles and Citron have become.

On one play, Hidalgo, who stole the spotlight again with 30 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals, hounded Texas point guard Rori Harmon near the logo and wrestled the ball away from her with both guards crashing to the floor. She flung the ball over her head to sprinting Miles in stride. Miles, who had 18 points and 6 assists, laid the ball in easily with her patented reaching finish for two.

Later on, Citron, matcher of Miles with 18 points of her own, tip-toed the sideline near the Notre Dame bench to keep her feet in bounds and come away with one of her team-leading 7 steals. Yes, seven. Stealing a page from Hidalgo’s book. Somehow she got the ball ahead to Hidalgo who made a contested layup through traffic plus a foul for an and-1.

“Just gutsy plays,” Ivey said. “They left it all on the floor. They played with their hearts. They played with passion and fire. They played for each other.”

Even with all the heroics from three of the best guards in the women’s game, though, it came down to the wire because of Texas’ numbers and size advantage in the paint. Koval racked up three first-half fouls and picked up her fourth before the midway point of the fourth quarter. King played a quarter and a half with three fouls, too. With things uncomfortably caving in around the Irish, Harmon made a jumper and two free throws in the final 10 seconds to get the game to overtime.

Notre Dame lost the war of attrition in the Cayman Islands. TCU and Utah went at the Irish in waves down in the Caribbean. Texas did, too, but in front of their home fans, the Irish had just enough to lock in defensively in a way they did not in the two losses abroad. Texas went into the game with a +12.9 turnover margin. The Horns were -6 in that area against the Irish.

Most impressive thing about that number, tripping Texas into 23 turnovers? Notre Dame did it from mostly a 2-3 zone look to avoid getting into more foul trouble than the Irish were already in. That also prevented Texas from bullying the undersized Irish in the paint. The Horns couldn’t get to that area as much as they normally do, settling for 24 three-point attempts when they averaged 11 per game through their first seven games.

“They knew this was going to be the game plan, we got to great at it,” Ivey said. “We went back to fundamentals. Broke it down.”

It worked. Without adherence to the zone and the discipline to stay in despite a few Texas long-ball makes in the first half, Notre Dame likely wouldn’t have won. The Irish stayed the course and got it done.

“We knew were outmatched with the size but not with our toughness and our heart,” Ivey said. “I’m just really proud of this group.”

BOX SCORE