CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jacqueline Batteast. Sonia Citron. Alicia Ratay. Brianna Turner.
And now Hannah Hidalgo.
On Tuesday, Hidalgo earned her sixth ACC Rookie of the Week award, tying the program record for Rookie of the Week honors (ACC or Big East) set by the aforementioned players. Batteast, Citron, Ratay and Turner all went on to win conference Rookie of the Year, Batteast and Ratay in the Big East and Citron and Turner in the ACC.
Hidalgo scored a career-high 32 points in Notre Dame’s lone game of last week, an 86-81 loss at now-No. 25 Syracuse. She led all players in scoring. Hidalgo now has two games with at least 30 points, tied for the most for a freshman in program history (Shari Matvey, 1980). She was just a point shy of tying the freshman single-game record of 33, which was set by Michelle Marciniak in 1991.
The scrappy point guard also had 7 steals against the Orange. That marks the seventh time this season that she has had at least 6 steals in a game, the second-most in program history since at least 1999. In total over her four years at Notre Dame, Skylar Diggins had eight games of the sort. Hidalgo’s seventh game with 6+ passed Ashley Barlow and Megan Duffy, who each had six performances of at least 6 steals while at Notre Dame.
With her stat line at Syracuse — which included 6 assists and 5 rebounds — Hidalgo also notched her fourth game this year with at least 25 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals. No one else has more than one. There have only been seven such performances in women’s D1 basketball this year.
The New Jersey native continues to pace the ACC in scoring (24.5 points per game) and the nation in steals (6.1). On the whole, Hidalgo already has 67 steals on the year. The freshman record is 90 and held by Skylar Diggins.