| GAME 12 | No. 3 Notre Dame (9-2) vs Loyola MD (5-4) |
|---|---|
| WHEN: | Sunday, Dec. 22 | 12 p.m. |
| WHERE | South Bend, Ind. | Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center |
| WATCH: | ACCNX |
| LISTEN: | Notre Dame Radio Network |
| SOCIAL: | @NDWBB | #GOIRISH |
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey hopes this meeting is a bit less stressful than the last one.
On Sunday, No. 14 Notre Dame (16-4, 6-3) will host Pittsburgh (7-15, 1-8) at Purcell Pavilion. The Irish and the Panthers already faced off at Pitt on Jan. 4, and a Sonia Citron-less Notre Dame outlasted the home team, 71-66. Veteran forward Liatu King kept the Panthers in that game, dropping 34 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. That remains the most points anyone scored against Notre Dame this season. And her production hasn’t fallen off since then; King is one of two ACC players averaging a double-double on the year (19.2/10/1).
For this second matchup, the Irish will have Citron, who is pacing the ACC from the charity stripe with a 93.3 success rate in conference play. She also ranks 11th in scoring (16.0), third in 3-point percentage (38.3) and is tied for third with 2.6 made treys per game. Notre Dame hopes having Citron as a threat on the perimeter will open up the lane for bigs Kylee Watson and Maddy Westbeld. Watson just posted a masterclass down low at Georgia Tech, going 8-10 from the floor and scoring a season-high 19 points.
Of course, the Irish continue to be led by fearless freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo. She leads the ACC with 25.0 points per game and the nation with 5.2 steals per contest. Hidalgo is fresh off of a 35-point performance at Georgia Tech on Thursday, her career-high. She had 24 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in her first game against Pittsburgh.
Sunday’s game tips off on the ACC Network at 2 p.m. Notre Dame is 16-0 against Pittsburgh in South Bend and 35-4 all-time.