Still perfect in the ACC
The Notre Dame women’s basketball team is on absolute fire right now with no signs of cooling off, and that showed itself in Blacksburg with a 77-61 win over the Virginia Tech Hokies.
From the ND press release:
BLACKSBURG, Va. — No. 3 Notre Dame (18-2, 9-0) earned its 13th consecutive victory and moved to 8-0 away from home this season, downing Virginia Tech (14-7, 5-5), 77-61, on Thursday at Cassell Coliseum. Hannah Hidalgo dropped 30 points for the third time this season, and Liza Karlen had a breakout game off the bench with 12 points and a perfect 5-5 showing.
The Irish held Virginia Tech nearly 15 points below their season average, and kept Tech’s leading scorer, Carleigh Wenzel, to a 1-8 showing from the field.
“I thought in the second half we locked in,” Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey said after the game. “We picked up full court, forced turnovers and got a lot of energy from that. I thought our guards did a great job of trying to turn over their guards in the back court, get steals and easy buckets.
“Virginia Tech came out on fire and did a great job from the 3-point line, and we adjusted to that.”
The Hokies knocked down three consecutive 3-pointers and went on a 14-4 run early. Notre Dame answered with three buckets to make it a 21-18 lead for the home team after a quarter. Both teams shot 50 percent or better. Olivia Miles led all players with 9 points and a 4-5 showing from the field.
Tech went 0-6 from the floor in the middle of the second quarter while the Irish went on an 8-1 run. Maddy Westbeld hit back-to-back buckets, including a triple in that span, her first points of the game.
The Irish then took a 28-27 lead on a pair of free throws — their first since 8:36 in the first quarter — from Sonia Citron. That was the only time Notre Dame went to the charity stripe before the break. The Irish defense started to come alive as well, holding Virginia Tech without a field goal from 9:00 to 3:17.
Those that were hot in the first half — Miles, Hidalgo and Karlen — went a combined 11-18, including 3-3 from Karlen. As a team, Notre Dame was 15-28 from the floor (53.6 percent) with 18 rebounds. Virginia Tech was 11-19 (37.9 percent) with 14 boards. The visitors had a 36-32 advantage. Notre Dame has not trailed at the half all season.
“Runs are always important, and I think that our team thrives on runs,” Karlen said. “Virginia Tech did a really good job at stopping that. They wanted to stop us in transition, and that’s a strong part of our game. But to be able to build momentum into the second half was huge.”
A trey right out of the gate in Q3 from Hidalgo led into a 9-3 run start to the half, and a timeout was called by the Hokies. Notre Dame also went 4-4 from the line, doubling themselves up from the first half at the charity stripe just 1:49 into H2.
The Irish continued to get to the line in the quarter, going 9-10 in total with a 6-6 showing from Hidalgo. She had 16 before the frame ended with a pair of 3-pointers. At the end of the third, no other player had 16 points in the entire game. Notre Dame was up 61-46 with 10 to play and closed it out with a pair of Karlen 3-pointers after a couple of mini runs from the Hokies.
“Her poise,” Ivey said of Karlen. “I thought she had an incredible week of practice, and her presence today was much needed. We had a little bit of foul trouble. The game went back and forth, and I thought she was really solid for us.”
Other notable performances included 12 points from leading rebounder Liatu King, her 15th performance of the year with 10+ boards. She added 4 steals and a block.
Notre Dame plays its third of three straight road games on Sunday, closing out the swing away from home at Louisville. The Irish lead the series 20-14 and have won four of the last six meetings.