Notre Dame Women’s Basketball 2024-25 Regular Season Recap

Louisville v Notre Dame — Photo by Michael Miller/ISI Photos/Getty Images

Hit a few speed bumps but poised for a March run

The postseason is now underway in women’s college basketball, and Notre Dame opens ACC Tournament play Friday as the No. 2 seed in the conference. For those who missed out on a decent portion of the regular season because of the distraction that is Notre Dame football, here’s a recap of how the regular season played out for the Irish women’s basketball program.

Coming into Niele Ivey’s fifth season as head coach of her alma mater, there were plenty of question marks, just like there were ahead of year four. Going into the 2023–24 campaign, the biggest question was when — if ever, and it actually turned out to be never that season— Olivia Miles might rejoin the Irish after suffering a late-season knee injury the year prior. Conversely, this year, the biggest wonder was how Miles and Hannah Hidalgo would mesh as two ball-dominant guards in the starting lineup. In short, they’ve meshed very well, pacing Notre Dame to a 25-4 overall record and a share of the ACC regular season title.

Hidalgo’s scoring numbers have increased essentially across the board from her All-American campaign as a true freshman. She’s averaging 24.2 points per game (up from 22.6 last year) and 2.1 three point makes per game (up from 1.4) on 40.1% shooting from distance (up from 34%), 46.4% field goal shooting (up from 44.6%) and 86.2% free throw shooting (up from 77.6%). Her assist, rebounding and steals numbers have dropped, but that’s more a factor of Miles — who has three triple-doubles this year — siphoning off in those departments.

For Miles’ part, she’s averaging a career high 16.5 points per game on 50.9% field goals, her best mark since an abbreviated early-enrollee freshman season. Miles has also improved markedly as a shooter, making 41.6% of her triples (after never eclipsing better than 27% in prior years) and a career-best 80.2% of her free throws. Just as with Hidalgo, Miles’ other numbers aren’t career marks because there’s only one ball to go around, but this is the most efficient both players have been in Irish uniforms.

And that dynamic backcourt combination hit the ground running at the start of this season. The first true test for the Irish was a high-profile showdown against All-American Juju Watkins-led USC in Los Angeles. Notre Dame won that game 74-61 behind a 20-point, seven-assist game from Miles and 24-point, eight-assist game from Hidalgo. Also, unsung in that game was Sonia Citron’s performance; she shot just 3-10 from the field but kept Watkins in check for three quarters before the Trojans star padded her scoring late.

Speaking of Citron, she’s also playing arguably the most efficient basketball of her career. That ordinarily wouldn’t be saying much since she’s always been an efficient player; for her career she’s averaged 14.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 47% on field goals, 37.3% on threes and 84.3% on free throws. But it is impressive in light of her now being the team’s third option after virtually always being the second option in prior seasons.

To highlight Citron’s value and this team’s hallmark offensive versatility, only twice this year have the Irish stumbled, losing back-to-back games on two occasions. Most recently, they dropped a visit to ranked NC State and a senior night matchup against ranked Florida State. Despite Hannah Hidalgo going a combined 12-44 from the field in those contests, Citron stepped up her play and gave the Irish a lifeline, including hitting a buzzer-beater to force overtime against the Wolfpack.

SONIA CITRON TRIPLE!! She really did that!!

ESPN#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/m2gXBPggkP

— Notre Dame Women’s Basketball (@ndwbb) February 23, 2025

Aside from the aforementioned back-to-back losses, the only other time Notre Dame slipped up this season was at the end of November when they participated in the Cayman Islands Classic. It’s not a complete coincidence that those losses to TCU and Utah came while the Irish were still without Maddy Westbeld and Liza Karlen.

Westbeld was a key returnee for her fifth year with the Irish but announced preseason that she would miss the start of the campaign to address a lingering foot injury. Likewise, Karlen missed a chunk of the season’s beginning after suffering a foot injury in the team’s October exhibition. Since the return of each, they’ve been invaluable re-additions to the roster who allow Ivey to go eight-deep, whereas the Cayman games featured essentially a six-player rotation.

Karlen was an All-Big East First Team selection at Marquette last season but has only scored 5.5 points and grabbed 3.4 rebounds per game this year after averaging 17.7 and 7.9, respectively, in 2023–24. It’s a tired refrain, but Miles and Hidalgo dominate usage, beyond Karlen acclimating mid-season following her injury. And the same goes for Westbeld who, like Citron, has always been a reliable if not spectacular contributor.

This season, Westbeld has benefited from reduced defensive attention as opponents throw the kitchen sink at the scorers ahead of her. She now has the best field goal (54.5%) and three-point shooting (40.5%) numbers of her career, although she’s averaging single-digit points and a mere 3.0 rebounds per contest. But more than the Miles and Hidalgo effect, Westbeld’s diminished production is due to the addition of Pittsburgh transfer Liatu King.

King was last year’s ACC Most Improved Player and a First-Team All-Conference player. Imagine if Dennis Rodman could score and that’s essentially what she brings to the Irish this season. She’s down from 18.7 points per game to 11.6 this year, but she’s averaging a double-double just like she did last season with a 10.9 per game average on the boards. Even despite King never making a three-pointer in college, the Irish have six players at the top of the rotation who all have to be accounted for by an opposing defense.

Rounding out the key Irish contributors this season are Cassandre Prosper and Kate Koval. Prosper’s offensive efficiency improvements would be much more remarkable if not for the fact that there just isn’t enough volume to go around. Her field goal (45.5%) and three-point (35.9%) marks are easily the best of her career, and she’s averaging essentially the same minutes per game (23) as her previous two seasons, but she’s also attempting the fewest shots of her career.

As for Koval, the former five-star from Ukraine has had a solid true freshman campaign. In 18.8 minutes per game she’s shooting 46.5% from the field and 75.9% from the free throw line while averaging 5.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per game. Her playing time has taken a hit since Westbeld and Karlen returned to the lineup, but Koval’s time will come next season when the frontcourt depth chart roles over.

Like the last Notre Dame team to win a national championship, Niele Ivey’s latest squad has the talent at the top of the roster and just enough depth to bring home the NCAA crown. For a program that for multiple years has been on the doorstep of returning to the Final Four for the first time 2019, the only thing that seems capable of stopping the Irish is that treacherous injury big.