STORRS, Conn. – The Fighting Irish dropped an 85-47 road defeat in Gampel Pavilion on Monday evening against the No. 1 UConn Huskies in Notre Dame’s final non-conference contest of the regular season. The loss drops Notre Dame’s record to 12-6 on the season.
Hannah Hidalgo led the Irish in scoring with 16 points while adding four rebounds, three steals and two assists. Cassandre Prosper also finished in double-figure scoring with 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The top-ranked team flexed their muscles early, jumping out to an 11-1 advantage 6 minutes into the contest. The Irish offense then scored six of the next eight points to trim the score to 13-7 before the Huskies finished the quarter with the final three points to take a 16-7 lead into the second stanza.
Notre Dame and UConn played an even second quarter, both sides scoring 16 points to make it a 32-23 game at the halftime intermission. The Huskies led by as many as 14 before ending the quarter on a 7-2 run to make it a nine-point game.
Hidalgo scored 10 of the team’s 16 points in the period off 3-of-6 shooting.
The Huskies came out of the halftime break and took over the game, outscoring the Irish 27-6 over the first 8 minutes of the quarter to take a 59-29 lead. The Irish managed to score the final six points of the stanza to cut the lead to 59-35 as the contest headed into the final 10 minutes of action.
UConn finished the game by outscoring Notre Dame 26-16 in the final frame to come away with an 85-47 win.
UP NEXT
The Fighting Irish return to Purcell Pavilion to welcome Miami for a midweek ACC matchup at 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, Jan. 22. The game will air on ACCN.