SOUTH BEND, Ind. — No. 3 Notre Dame (25-4, 16-2) earned a share of the regular season ACC title on Sunday by downing No. 25 Louisville (20-9, 13-5), 72-59.
It was a balanced effort on the stat sheet from Notre Dame, who was led by Hannah Hidalgo’s 20 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. Olivia Miles added 15 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Sonia Citron and Maddy Westbeld had 9 points each.
Notre Dame and Louisville traded buckets for the first 5 minutes, as there was a lead change and three ties before the media timeout. Notre Dame took its first lead at 12-10, but the Cardinals led 15-14 after the first quarter.
Citron carried the Irish offense to start the second quarter, scoring 6 points with a put-back Liza Karlen lay up mixed in. A tie game at 20 was followed by a 6-0 Irish run, including a defensive turnover forced by Kate Koval’s physicality and a drive to the rim for a bucket by the freshman.
Citron kept it going and Hidalgo added herself to the mix scoring-wise in the second quarter, as the guards had 8 points each. Notre Dame took a 36-28 lead into the locker room after a 52.9 percent shooting effort in the second 10 minutes.
Notre Dame took a 9-point lead with a free throw from Hidalgo out of the locker room, but the Cardinals responded. After leaving the court with an apparent injury, Louisville’s Jayda Curry hit back-to-back triples within 18 seconds of each other in the third quarter to cut Notre Dame’s lead to 3 points.
The Irish battled back and began to take control, stretching the lead as large as 18 with 1:07 to go before Miles beat the buzzer with a bucket reminiscent of her buzzer-beater in overtime two years ago against Louisville. It was 58-40 in favor of the home team with 10 minutes to play.
The Irish went 5-9 from the floor to close out the game, earning an eighth double-digit ranked win this season.
The Irish head to the ACC Tournament this week as the No. 2 seed. Notre Dame will have a double-bye before playing on Friday. The opponent and time will be decided after the final ACC games are played on Sunday evening.