Notre Dame finishes regular season with 72-59 win over Louisville

A share of the ACC regular season title

The Notre Dame women’s basketball team entered Sunday’s matchup against the Louisville Cardinals on a two-game losing streak — and questions about the season’s future popping up from all over. In the final game of the regular season with the home crowd behind them and those College gameday vibes… Notre Dame took care of Louisville, 72-59.

From the ND press release:

No. 3 Irish Win Share Of ACC Regular Season Title With 72-59 Win Over No. 25 Louisville

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.