The No. 3 Notre Dame women’s basketball team pushed its win streak to 12 games with a Thursday night win in Chestnut Hill. With their 89-63 takedown of the Boston College Eagles, the Irish improved to 17-2 overall and remained unblemished at 8-0 in ACC play. The Eagles, meanwhile, fell to 12-9 with a 3-5 mark in conference play, once again coming up well short against a ranked opponent.
“I’m really pleased with this win,” head coach Niele Ivey said postgame. “This is a really tough place to play, so I thought our team really came out and was really solid. There [were] a lot of great performances from the entire team.”
The top performance belonged once more to sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo. In her first road game since returning from a week-long ankle injury, the All-American tallied 23 points, adding five rebounds, three assists and five steals.
“Hannah led us, did a great job with her defense, having five steals, and really was contagious,” Ivey described. “I thought her energy just really helped ignite our offense, and she’s so fast, she does so much for us. I thought she was fantastic.”
For both Hidalgo and the Irish as a team, Thursday night’s game didn’t start the way you would think it did based on the final score. Boston College kept pace with Notre Dame early, holding an 18-17 lead through one quarter of play. The Eagles wouldn’t let Hidalgo and the visiting offense find their typical rhythm, holding the sophomore to a 2-for-8 clip from the floor during the first quarter.
After the game, Hidalgo discussed the reasons behind her cold spells early on.
“I think it’s me. I don’t really think it’s ever the defense,” Hidalgo assessed. “Just letting the game come to me is big, because once I let the game come to me, I was more efficient in the second half. They’re a really aggressive team, very physical, so it takes some adjusting to … But for the most part, it’s me — I’m always in my head when I’m not scoring.”
Notre Dame began to break free in the second quarter thanks to a pair of three-pointers from graduate forward Maddy Westbeld. Nevertheless, Boston College held tough within 10 points at halftime, forcing 11 Irish turnovers on offense.
With her team up 41-31 at the midway point, Ivey hoped to see more from her team on the other end of the floor.
“[We] just kind of focused on our defensive principles that we discussed and offensively, some execution points that we needed to do a better job of — but mostly it was defense,” Ivey said. “Just adjusting, doing a better job on the boards.”
Unsurprisingly, Hidalgo sparked that adjustment, finding her form with an efficient 10 points in the third quarter. Senior guard Sonia Citron, who did not score a point in the first half, joined her in resurging with seven points, three rebounds and two steals in the 10 minutes after halftime.
Postgame, Hidalgo credited her in-game shift to a message from third-year assistant coach Charel Allen.
“I’m on the bench, Coach Allen just told me to get to the basket,” Hidalgo said. “I can get to the basket with ease, and once I was able to finally get to the basket, seeing the ball go through really helped me. And my bigs did a great job of holding their player off that allowed me to get all the way through to the lane.”
Up 68-48 entering the fourth quarter, Notre Dame didn’t need to do too much to walk out of Conte Forum with a victory. The Irish kept their defensive intensity high, impressing their head coach and closing the book on an 89-63 road win.
“They were on the same page defensively,” Ivey said. “I thought the zone helped us out. We did a better job of finding their shooters and rebounding out of it.”
The play of Citron perhaps best embodied Notre Dame’s effectiveness on defense, as the well-rounded wing just missed a double-double with nine points, nine rebounds, six assists and two steals. Westbeld also battled through foul trouble to turn in a quality performance, totaling 14 points and five rebounds in less than 20 minutes on the hardwood. Graduate guard Olivia Miles, who played a consistent offensive game throughout, finished second to Hidalgo with 16 points.
Though the Irish once again did not have a great night from three-point range (7 for 18), their interior play more than covered for any costly misses. Notre Dame outscored Boston College by a 52-24 margin in the paint, hauling in 42 rebounds and limiting the Eagles to a field goal percentage of 32.4.
“Any road win in the ACC is really tough, so really good statement win … Just trying to improve and get better every game,” Ivey said.
Notre Dame will look for continued improvement after an off day on Sunday in a trip to Blacksburg on the final Thursday of January. The Irish will visit a retooling Virginia Tech squad that reached the Final Four in 2023 but lost its terrific head coach-guard duo of Kenny Brooks and Georgia Amoore to Kentucky this past offseason.
The Hokies have started the Megan Duffy era with a 14-5 overall record and a 5-3 mark in the ACC. They have won five of their last six games, including a double-overtime upset of unbeaten Georgia Tech on the road and an 84-57 win at Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Notre Dame and Virginia Tech will tip off at 6 p.m. inside Cassell Coliseum on Thursday, Jan. 30.
