Louisville, Ky. — It’s Hannah Hidalgo’s world. We’re just living in it.
On Sunday, No. 3 Notre Dame earned its 14th consecutive victory, downing Louisville. 89-71. The Irish are 10-0 in ACC play for the first time since 2015-16 and are the first ACC team to start 10-0 in conference play since NC State did it in 2021-22. Nine of the 10 victories for Notre Dame have come by at least 10 points.
Hidalgo had a season-high 34 points, going 8-8 from the free throw line and adding 6 rebounds and 5 assists to her always impressive stat line.
“She’s just a dog,” Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey said of the All-American after the game. “She came out with such fire, tenacity. She made big plays and big shots, and we really fed off of her energy.”
Liatu King also had a fantastic game with 16 points and 12 rebounds, her ninth double-double of the season. Olivia Miles had 17 points and 4 rebounds, goign 5-8 from the floor.
While there were bumps along the way, the Irish set the tone from the jump. After several slow starts over the last few games, Notre Dame came out of the gate on fire going 6-9 from the field and out-rebounding Louisville 8-0 before the 4:35 media timeout.
An 12-0 Irish run that spanned the timeout gave the visitors a 20-6 lead before Louisville posted 7 straight points themselves. Notre Dame continued to collect rebounds — King had 6 of them alone in the first quarter — and the Irish had the 16-3 advantage there after 10 minutes with 12 second chance points. It was 22-13 heading into the second after a King alley-oop off an inbound with just over a second to go.
Louisville flipped the script in the second quarter, outscoring Notre Dame 25-17. Cardinals freshman Tajianna Roberts scored 8 straight points herself at one point and finished the first half 4-5 from deep. There were eight lead changes in the frame, and the turnovers started mounting for both squads.
“I thought Louisville took great shots [in the second quarter],” Ivey said. “Roberts found her spots and knocked down shots. [Olivia] Cochran was great down low and on the glass. They had a really good balanced offense and put a lot of pressure on us.”
Hidalgo led all players with 18 points at the break, including a shot clock-beating triple that gave the Irish a 39-38 advantage with 23 seconds in the half. Through 21 games, Notre Dame still has not trailed at halftime this year.
Neither team could score to start the second half, as Notre Dame went 4-10 to start and Louisville went 3-11. Hidalgo hit a triple going into the media timeout, but a lapse in the Irish defense led to an open triple from Louisville’s Merissah Russell to even it out.
Notre Dame started to look more like itself the latter half of the third quarter, getting out and running in transition with solid passing and baskets falling. The Irish went 6-6 from the field to end the quarter.
Hidalgo continued to ratchet up the intensity. From points 30 to 59, she scored or assisted on 27 of the 29. She had 30 points at the end of the third quarter, and Notre Dame had an 11-point lead, its largest since the first quarter. It was 65-54.
While she had been dominant on the boards all day, King came alive for a 4-4 showing from the field in the final quarter, and Sonia Citron had 6 of her 8 points in the final frame as well. With 2:32 to play, Notre Dame was 8-9 from the floor in the quarter. They finished 9-12, capping off a second half in which they shot 65.5 percent.
“It’s really dangerous because we have so much firepower,” Hidalgo said of the team’s collective effort on the day. “Having great teammates helps take some of the attention off of me, especially with a point guard like Liv [Miles] who is able to drive and make the defense collapse. She’s able to kick out since she’s a great passer, and we have scorers like Maddy [Westbeld], Liatu, Liza [Karlen] and Soni. It’s dangerous.
“They have to pick their poison.”
Notre Dame will be at home for its next two contests, hosting Stanford Thursday night and California Sunday afternoon. The Cal game will be a rematch of the 2022 Citi Shamrock Classic between two St. Louis natives, Ivey and Charmin Smith. Notre Dame is 2-4 all-time against Stanford and 3-0 all-time against Cal.