No. 2 Irish Host No. 15 Golden Flashes For NCAA First Round

For the fourth time in its storied history, Notre Dame (26-6) is a No. 2 seed hosting the NCAA Tournament. The Irish will take on No. 15 Kent State (21-10) on Saturday in front of a sold out Purcell Pavilion. It is Notre Dame’s third sellout of the year, the first time the Irish have posted three sellouts in a single season since 2018. 

Notre Dame — who checked in at No. 9 in the latest AP Poll — has won eight consecutive games and played five straight games against ranked opponents. Sonia Citron is averaging 18.8 points per game over that stretch and shooting 40 percent from behind the arc. Maddy Westbeld has a 45 percent success rate from deep during that same span and tied a season-high three treys in the ACC title game against NC State. 

The Irish are led by Hannah Hidalgo at the point, a freshman who has taken the basketball world by storm and was named to the Associated Press AP All-America First Team earlier this week. She leads the ACC with 23.3 points per game and is pacing the country with 4.6 steals per contest. Always a dynamic scorer, Hidalgo has improved greatly as a point guard over the last several games. She is averaging 5.5 assists per game, which is third in the ACC. 

Few teams are playing better defense than Notre Dame over the last couple of months. The Irish held NC State to 51 points in the ACC Championship, a season-low. Just five times this season the Wolfpack failed to score 60 points. Two of those five were against Notre Dame. 

Over the current eight-game win streak, Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey’s squad is surrendering just 56.5 points per game and winning by an average of 16.3. Six of those eight games came against teams playing the NCAA Tournament. The Irish have not allowed any team to score more than 70 points in a regulation game since Dec. 31. 

After winning the Mid-American Conference earlier this month, Kent State is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 22 years. A dynamic rebounding team that takes care of the ball, the Golden Flashes average 40.5 boards per game. They notched 19 offensive rebounds against LSU earlier this year and 18 against Florida State. 

Kent State is led by Todd Starkey, who is in his eighth season. His team has played its last 11 games without guard Corynne Hauser, who suffered a knee injury in early February. She was averaging 9.8 points and 4.2 assists per game at the time. 

Guard Katie Shumate is leading Kent State with 15 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. She has scored 10+ points in all but five games this year. 

Saturday’s game tips off on ESPN at 2:15 p.m. Notre Dame is 24-4 all-time in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.