PHILADELPHIA — Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo has been named one of five finalists for the Dawn Staley Award.
The Dawn Staley Award is given annually to a player who exemplifies the skills that Dawn possessed throughout her career, ball handling, scoring, her ability to distribute the basketball and her will to win. Since the inception of the award in 2013, all winners have been drafted in the WNBA.
Hidalgo is joined by Raven Johnson (South Carolina), Jaloni Cambridge (Ohio State), Mikayla Blakes (Vanderbilt) and Azzi Fudd (UConn) as finalists for the award.
The junior has already been named the ACC Player of the Year and ACC Defensive Player of the Year following her stellar regular season.
The Merchantville, New Jersey, native is averaging 25.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.4 steals and 5.3 assists per game. Hidalgo is the only women’s player at the DI level since the 1999-00 season to average at least 25 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals in a game.
The junior has turned in many incredible performances this season while breaking records along the way. Hidalgo set the all-time record for steals in a game and the program’s single-game scoring record against Akron, finishing with 44 points and 16 rebounds. She has the career program scoring records for 30-point games (18), 20-point games (76) and consecutive games in double figures (99).
Hidalgo broke the program’s record for career steals (452) and season steals (173). The standout became the fastest player in ACC and program history to reach 2,000 career points, accomplishing the feat in 86 games.
In the final game of the regular season, Hidalgo recorded 30 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and five steals in a road win over No. 10 Louisville, becoming the first ACC player to have 30 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and five steals in a game since 2001.
Hidalgo had a stretch to close out the regular season and begin ACC Tournament play with a career-high six straight 25+ point games, which is the most among all ACC players this century.
Hidalgo and the Fighting Irish will take on Fairfield in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 21 inside Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The game will air on ESPN.