On Thursday, No. 17 Notre Dame (21-6, 11-5) will host No. 5 Virginia Tech (23-4, 14-2) for a battle of two teams looking to make a deep run into March. The Hokies already have the No. 1 seed for the ACC Tournament locked up, and the Irish are one of seven teams fighting for a double-bye next week.
The contest will pit the ACCβs two leading scorers against each other; Notre Dameβs Hannah Hidalgo leads the conference at 23.7, and Virginia Techβs Elizabeth Kitley sits at 23.3. The two are the leading candidates for ACC Player of the Year, and Thursday might help a lot of voters make their decision.
The Irish have a three-headed monster in Hidalgo, Sonia Citron and Maddy Westbeld, but the Hokies have a monster of their own with Kitley and point guard Georgia Amoore. Amoore is posting 17.9 points per game and averages 2.6 3-pointers per game, which ranks second in the ACC.
On the topic of deep shots, Virginia Tech hits a lot of them. The Hokies lead the ACC with more than 9 treys per game. Notre Dame is pacing the ACC in conference play in terms of 3-point defense, allowing a bucket just 25.6 percent of the time.
Notre Dame is 15-2 all-time against Virginia Tech. Dave OβBrien, Stephanie White and Holly Rowe will be on the 7 p.m. call for ESPN.