Notre Dame women’s basketball won 74-61 over the No. 3 University of South California (USC) Trojans to improve to 5-0 on Saturday.
The two teams went back and forth at the start of the first quarter. After exchanging multiple turnovers, sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo added the first four points on the board for the Irish. USC scored six of their own, but the Irish responded with a run. Hidalgo scored five points, graduate student guard Olivia Miles added on three and sophomore guard Cassandre Prosper added two points to bring the score to 14-6. While USC continued to keep it close, a Miles free throw, Hidalgo jump shot, layup from freshman forward Kate Koval, her first two points of the night, and free throw from graduate student forward Liatu King helped Notre Dame finish the first quarter with a 20-10 lead.
USC started the second quarter with two free throws, but a steal from Hidalgo gave King the room to put up a jump shot that brought the score to 22-12. USC continued to play hard defensively, managing a 7-0 run that closed the gap to 22-19. But, two free throws from Hidalgo and a jump shot from King pulled the Irish ahead to a 26-19 lead. After seven more points were scored by USC, a free throw and a jump shot from Hidalgo, a jump shot from Miles, a layup from Koval and a jump shot from Prosper brought the score to 35-28 in favor of the Irish at the end of the second quarter.
The third quarter started off strong for the Irish as Hidalgo put up the first two points. USC quickly responded to bring the score to 37-30. Senior guard Sonia Citron scored her first three points of the night shortly after to bring the score to 40-30, but the Trojans quickly responded with two points of their own to make it 40-32. As the two teams continued to trade points throughout the third quarter, two free throws, a layup and a jump shot from Hidalgo, as well as a free throw and three point shot from Miles finished the third quarter with a 52-45 Irish lead.
The Irish started off strong in the fourth quarter as Citron put up two free throws and two layups. Prosper's two layups along with a pair of threes from Miles brought the score to 68-47. Miles would score again to extend the lead above 20. While USC responded with six points for themselves, Koval came back with two layups to make the score 74-53. USC made a late push in the fourth quarter, with an 8-0 run, but it was nowhere near enough. The Irish came out on top by a final score of 74-61.
Hidalgo led on offense for the Irish, finishing the night with 24 points alongside Miles's 20. King was key on defense and contributed 11 rebounds.
The team now takes a short break before heading back on the road to compete in the Cayman Island Classic, where they will face off against TCU on Nov. 29th at 5 p.m. and the University of Utah on Nov. 30th at 5 p.m.
