GREENSBORO, N.C. — It was a bittersweet day for No. 4 Notre Dame (25-6), as the Irish leveled top-seeded Virginia Tech (24-7) in the ACC Tournament semifinals, 82-53. It was the largest win over a No. 1 seed in Tournament history.
Sonia Citron led Notre Dame with 19 points and 7 boards. Maddy Westbeld had 18 points, Hannah Hidalgo had 15, and Anna DeWolfe had 14. Hidalgo and DeWolfe had 6 and 5 assists, respectively.
Notre Dame used stifling defense and electric 3-point shooting to top Tech. Not unlike the Irish-Hokies matchup in South Bend last week, Notre Dame set the tone from the tip and did not surrender the lead after 7:45 in the first quarter. Westbeld came out on fire, scoring the team’s first 7 points.
The Irish were 5-8 from deep in the first half, and four different players knocked at least one down. Westbeld had two and led all players heading into the locker room with 10 points.
Notre Dame’s defense was the top story of the half, holding Virginia Tech to just 23 points and a 3-12 success rate from deep. The Hokies did go on a mini 7-0 run in the second quarter, but that was stopped by a Westbeld trey. Virginia Tech did not score for the last 2:44 of the half.
The Irish showed no signs of slowing down out of the locker room, going on a 19-2 run to start Q3. If carried over from the first half, it was a 20-0 run in favor of the Irish. Citron and Westbeld started the scoring, and it was all Hidalgo down the stretch. Notre Dame was 12-17 in the period (70.6 percent), and Hidalgo had 9 points.
The fourth quarter was the DeWolfe Show, as she went 4-5 from deep on the day, notching a trio of 3s in the fourth quarter to build on an already large lead.
Notre Dame finished the game 9-14 from deep (64.3 percent), the best showing since January 2020 (min. 10 attempts).
There was a lot of good on Saturday, but unfortunately, the injury bug came back with a vengeance, as Irish forward Kylee Watson suffered a knee injury in the third quarter. Her full status is unknown, but it is unlikely she plays in tomorrow’s title game.
The 2024 ACC Championship will tip off at 1 p.m. on ESPN. Notre Dame has won five ACC Tournament titles since joining the conference, and this will be the first appearance in the championship game since 2019.