| GAME 23 | No. 3 Notre Dame (20-2, 11-0) vs California (19-5, 7-4) |
|---|---|
| WHEN: | Sunday, Feb. 9 | 2:00 p.m. |
| WHERE | Purcell Pavilion | South Bend, Ind. |
| WATCH: | ACCN |
| LISTEN: | Notre Dame Radio Network |
| SOCIAL: | @NDWBB | #GOIRISH |
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — No. 3 Notre Dame (20-2, 11-0) will play its fourth ranked home game of the season on Sunday, this time hosting No. 21 California (19-5, 7-4) for the annual Think Pink game presented by Beacon Health System. The meeting is a rematch of the 2022 Citi Shamrock Classic and pits St. Louis natives Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey and Golden Bears head coach Charmin Smith against each other. The Irish won the last meeting in an offensive showdown, 90-79.
Notre Dame is coming off its 15th consecutive win, the longest streak since 2016-17 for the Irish. They are are outscoring opponents by an average of 27.2 points per game over that span and handed Stanford its largest loss in program history on Thursday night, 96-47.
The Irish backcourt is cooking. Over the last 10 games, Hannah Hidalgo is averaging 26.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 3.8 steals per game while shooting 54 percent from the floor and 41.1 percent from 3-point range. In the same span, Olivia Miles is posting 15.8, 5.2, 6.1 and 1.1 per game, respectively. She went 4-4 from deep to start Thursday night’s game against Stanford, and she’s 43.2 from beyond the arc on the season after averaging 24.6 percent from deep over her first three years of college basketball.
In total this season, four of the five current Notre Dame starters are shooting at least 50 percent from the floor — Hidalgo (50.4), Miles (52.2), Liatu King (57.6) and Maddy Westbeld (57.4). King leads the ACC in that category and is also one of just two ACC players averaging a double-double (12.2/10.7).
On the other bench, Cal is having a dream season in their first year in the ACC. The Golden Bears rank third in the conference in both field goal percentage (45.9) and opponent field goal percentage (37.9) while averaging 9.0 made triples per game, second in the ACC.
The Golden Bears present a huge problem for opponents with their balanced scoring effort. Three players — Ioanna Krimili (15.3), Lulu Twidale (13.2) and Marta Suarez (13.0) rank in the top 25 in the ACC in scoring. Krimili and Twidale average 3.0 and 2.8 made treys per game, respectively.
Sunday’s game tips off on the ACC Network at 2 p.m. Notre Dame is 3-0 all-time against Cal. Jay Alter and Debbie Antonelli will be on the call from Purcell Pavilion.