The Notre Dame-UConn rivalry has featured some classic performances from women’s basketball greats over the years. Several of them — including Skylar Diggins-Smith, Marina, Jewell Loyd, Arike Ogunbowale and Marina Mabrey — attended Thursday night’s showdown in South Bend between the two top-10 teams.
In her second appearance in this storied matchup, Hannah Hidalgo continued to stamp her name as one of the very best to ever take part. A year after dropping 34 points on the road against the Huskies, Hidalgo led the Fighting Irish with 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists as No. 8 Notre Dame dealt No. 2 UConn its first loss of the season, 79-68.
Hidalgo beat the Huskies in the previous meeting with her rim pressure, as UConn failed to prevent her from driving to her right. With the Huskies sitting on her right hand this time around, Hidalgo turned to a different tactic and scored from the perimeter. The sophomore guard set a career-high with six 3-pointers, none bigger than her stepback jumper to end the third quarter and extend a one-point lead to four. UConn chipped away at what was once a 13-point deficit but never took the lead thanks to Hidalgo’s heroics.
HANNAH!! HIDALGO!! BUZZER!! BEATER!!
📺 ESPN#GoIrish // @HannahHidalgo pic.twitter.com/gyqEzUs7ig
— Notre Dame Women’s Basketball (@ndwbb) December 13, 2024
Notre Dame is now 3-0 against top-five teams this season, with wins over Southern California and Texas. Here’s what we learned from the Irish’s victory over the Huskies.
Hannah Hidalgo is a big-game player
As Irish coach Niele Ivey said at halftime on the ESPN broadcast, Hidalgo was built for the biggest stages. She loves to compete against the toughest opponents, and that was once again on display versus UConn. This season, Hidalgo is averaging 24.6 points and 3.3 assists per game; against ranked opponents, those figures rise to 27.5 and 6.3, respectively.
In fact, Hidalgo recorded her third game with 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists against an AP top 25 opponent, according to ESPN Stats, which ties her with Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu for the most over the last 25 seasons.
The Irish had a setback in the first quarter when Olivia Miles suffered an ankle injury, but Hidalgo was undeterred.
Notre Dame trailed 10-9 with two minutes to play in the first quarter when Hidalgo spearheaded a 9-0 run to take control of the game. She hit a 3-pointer from the corner off an assist from Sonia Citron, then made a pull-up 3 on the next possession after a Citron steal. The Huskies called timeout, but the next time the Irish got the ball, Hidalgo found Cassandre Prosper on a kickout pass in the corner, and Notre Dame never trailed again.
Even with the extra responsibility on offense, Hidalgo’s effort on defense was predictably maniacal, resulting in three steals. The Irish guards blew up every hand-off and disrupted the flow of UConn’s halfcourt offense. Hidalgo was also active on the defensive glass with nine defensive boards; her most important box-out came in the second quarter when she didn’t even snag the rebound but drew a third foul on Sarah Strong, forcing the rookie center to sit for the final five minutes of the first half.
Hidalgo was a first-team All-American last season and has improved as a scorer and decision-maker in her second season. The Irish have started every game with the best player on the court, and that was true even with Paige Bueckers suiting up for UConn Thursday.
Both the Huskies and Irish boast deep rosters, as injuries over the past few seasons have propelled their younger players into bigger roles. However, while Ashlynn Shade was overwhelmed filling in for Azzi Fudd, who was out with a knee sprain, Notre Dame got a big boost from Liatu King, the transfer who has started at power forward all season while Maddy Westbeld rehabs a foot injury.
UConn’s defensive scheme called for the Huskies to sink into the paint, and that meant leaving the corners open on drives, sometimes even the strong-side corner. King was the primary beneficiary of that extra space on the baseline, hitting multiple jumpers as Hidalgo found her repeatedly in the short corner. King also had a game-high 12 rebounds — a couple of them she had no business retrieving, but she got to the ball first with her motor and tremendous vertical leap.
During one sequence in the fourth quarter, King dove to the floor to steal the ball from Jana El Alfy in the post, then she ran the full length of the court and scored a layup off a Hidalgo feed. That put the Irish back up 10 and essentially ended the drama going forward.
. @liatuking is all over the floor 🙌🙌#NCAAWBB x @ndwbb pic.twitter.com/gTEiDJGC3o
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) December 13, 2024
Connecticut ended the game with four players in double figures, more than Notre Dame’s three, but it took too long for them to get going. Only Bueckers could find a rhythm in the first half, and the Huskies had a big hole to climb out of by the time KK Arnold and Kaitlyn Chen started to make an impact.
UConn didn’t get enough easy baskets
The Huskies didn’t take their second free throw until the fourth quarter. Although coach Geno Auriemma made his displeasure with the referees known, that output isn’t uncommon for UConn. The Huskies entered the game last in the country in the percentage of points they score from the foul line. They’re 360th out of 362 Division I teams in free-throw rate. The Huskies usually shoot well enough from the field to make up for that deficit, but that wasn’t the case when Citron was glued to Bueckers and Kate Koval protected the rim to great effect.
A secondary problem was the lack of 3-point attempts. UConn hasn’t had a high 3-point rate in the Bueckers era, as their star player is a midrange expert. That has changed in the 2024-25 season, but the Huskies reverted to their old habits against Notre Dame. Despite meeting significant resistance in the paint, UConn didn’t establish itself from beyond the arc, taking only 16 3-point attempts (UConn’s season average is 23.6). Notre Dame concedes a fairly high volume of 3s, so the defense wasn’t the reason for that shot profile in Thursday’s matchup.
If the Huskies are going to lose the possession battle and take fewer free throws, they have to even out the math somewhere, and that should come from the perimeter game since Bueckers, Chen, Shade and Strong all shoot at least 35 percent from long distance. The absence of a shooter like Fudd loomed large in this particular game; perhaps her presence can make the difference when UConn faces two more ranked opponents (No. 18 Iowa State and No. 5 USC) before Big East conference play begins.
(Photo of Hannah Hidalgo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
