On Monday night, the Notre Dame women’s basketball team will face Duke in a ranked matchup at Purcell Pavilion.
State of the Irish
Outside of the back-to-back, early-season slip-ups against No. 17 TCU and Utah, the Irish have been utterly unstoppable this season. Of their 22 wins, only one was by single digits, a nine-point victory over Clemson back in January. They rank second in the nation in scoring margin behind only No. 7 UConn while boasting the third-best scoring offense with 87.6 points per game. In non-conference play, they have three top-10 wins on the resume, including No. 3 Texas, No. 6 USC and No. 7 UConn, all in resounding fashion. They have looked particularly convincing of late, managing 88 points or better in six of their last seven, while curb-stomping ACC competition on a 17-game win streak.
The Irish also are healthier than ever heading into the home stretch of February after overcoming the early-season absences of graduate forwards Maddy Westbeld and Liza Karlen. The superstar backcourt of graduate student Olivia Miles and sophomore Hannah Hidalgo is the best one-two punch in the country. The superstar duo graced the February edition of the SLAM Magazine cover and has played its best basketball of the season since. In Notre Dame’s most recent demolition of Pittsburgh, Miles tied the program record for threes in a game, sinking eight en route to a season-high 28 points. Hidalgo’s 11-point output in the same game was the anomaly during her hot start to the month. Across the three prior games in February, she averaged 27.3 points, 5.0 assists and 2.7 steals on 53.6% from the field and 46.1% from three. Both were named to the Naismith Women’s Player of the Year Midseason Team a day after making the Wooden Award Late Midseason Top 20.
What makes this Notre Dame team so dangerous, however, is the impressive depth behind its two stars. Senior guard Sonia Citron has played a stellar 2024-25 season and comes off a 22-point performance against Pittsburgh where she missed only one shot. Pittsburgh graduate transfer forward Liatu King has proven a welcome addition to the Irish starting lineup, currently averaging a double-double with 12.0 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. Notre Dame also has had the luxury of wielding a consistent 30-plus minute per game starter last season in Westbeld in a more limited role due to key contributions off the bench from Karlen, freshman forward Kate Koval and sophomore guard Cassandre Prosper. With the star power of Miles and Hidalgo, a commanding presence in the paint in King and a deep, eight-woman rotation of players that can go off any night, one would be hard-pressed to find an ACC team that will catch Notre Dame.
The defense of Duke
However, Duke is among the toughest tests remaining on the ACC slate for the Irish. The No. 13 Blue Devils are 20-5 on the season and sit third in the conference with an 11-2 ACC record. In light of their 89-83 loss on the road to N.C. State, Monday’s contest in South Bend is a must-win to keep their regular-season title hopes alive. They will enter the game coming off of three straight wins over Clemson, Miami and Wake Forest, games they won by an average margin of just over 28 points.
Despite facing the third-toughest schedule according to RPI, Duke has played some of the best defense of any Power Four team in the country, allowing only 58.4 opponent points per game. At its best, the combination of length and ball pressure with fifth-year head coach Kara Lawson’s defensive schemes can suffocate a team’s offense on any given night. Their dominant defense was on full display in the Blue Devils’ most recent victory against Wake Forest, where they forced 33 Demon Deacon turnovers, leading to 41 of their 72 points. If one had to find an Achilles’ heel in this explosive Irish offense, it would be their occasional turnover-prone nature. The Blue Devils will need to capitalize on transition opportunities to keep up on offense.
On that side of the ball, they have leaned heavily on freshman sensation Toby Fournier, who picked up her fifth ACC Freshman of the Week honor of the season last week after three games in double figures and back-to-back 20-point performances. She leads Duke in scoring with 13.5 points per game on an efficient 55.2% from the field while averaging a team-high 1.2 blocks per game. Junior guard Ashlon Jackson is not far behind with 12.8 points per game. Jackson has been the primary threat from beyond the three-point arc as well, shooting 42.5% on 5.8 attempts per game. While their offense has run hot and cold at times this season, the Blue Devils will need to be firing on all cylinders on Monday, and big games from Fournier and Jackson would go a long way in that effort.
Tip-off for the top-three ACC matchup is set for 6 p.m. in Purcell Pavilion on Monday, Feb. 17, with ESPN providing the broadcast.
