WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — In a conference riddled with upsets this season, particularly on the road, No. 19 Notre Dame (14-3, 5-2) survived a two-game road trip unscathed. On Sunday, the Irish used excellent 3-point shooting and contributions across the board to top Wake Forest (4-15, 0-7), 75-56. Notre Dame made 10 of 18 shots from behind the arc, the most it has made against a major conference team this season.
“I’m very happy with this road trip, going 2-0,” Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey said after the victory. “There was a lot of balance tonight, a lot of great things that happened.”
Sonia Citron continued her jaw-dropping week, scoring 18 in Winston-Salem and going 4-8 from deep. She added 4 rebounds, 4 assists and a 2-2 showing from the charity stripe. That wrapped up a perfect 14-14 week from the free throw line for the All-ACC guard.
As far as game flow goes, Notre Dame came out firing from deep. Hannah Hidalgo hit a trey to start the scoring, and the Irish ended the first frame with five made 3s by four players: Citron, Anna DeWolfe, Maddy Westbeld and Hidalgo (2). Notre Dame entered the game averaging 5.4 treys per game.
The Irish relied solely on the outside shot through 10 minutes, as they didn’t score a single point in the paint until Kylee Watson opened up the second quarter with a made layup. Notre Dame continued to be selective about shots, and the misses were few. The Irish went 10-16 from the floor in the second quarter (62.5 percent).
Notre Dame took a 12-point lead into the locker room, 45-33. They went 7-13 from deep, and Citron ended the frame 3-6 from behind the arc. Aggressive work in the paint and defensive lapses down low kept the Demon Deacons in the game; it was 16-16 in the lane after the first two quarters. Wake Forest went 14-27 from the floor as whole (51.9 percent).
The third quarter started very similarly to how it did in Charlottesville on Thursday night. Wake Forest’s leading scorer Elise Williams exited early in the frame with 3 fouls, and Hidalgo and Citron hit back-to-back deep balls. It looked like Notre Dame was pulling away.
That was until the Irish turned the ball over 6 times in a 3:31 span. Notre Dame went 4-8 in the third quarter, but the shots were hard to come by because of those turnovers. Luckily for the Irish, Wake Forest shot just 23.5 percent in the quarter. They tried to lessen the lead by shooting the 3 but went 0-6 in Q3.
In the end, Notre Dame did end up running away with it, winning by 19 points. That was tied for its largest lead of the afternoon. Kylee Watson went 2-2 in the final quarter and DeWolfe hit a corner 3 helping to solidify the win.
Outside of Citron and Hidalgo, it was an extremely balanced performance for the other Irish. Westbeld led the way with 9 boards, and five other players had 4 rebounds. Westbeld’s cunning defensive nature led to a team-leading 4 steals. That mark ties her career-high.
“Maddy’s been so solid this entire season but definitely on the road,” Ivey said. “She’s so physical in the paint and doing a great job from shooting inside and out. She does such a great job leading our team.”
Notre Dame heads back to South Bend this week for a Thursday date with Syracuse (16-2, 6-1). The Orange topped them 86-81 on Dec. 31 in Syracuse.