Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM JANUARY 2024 49 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Illinois in Washington, D.C. And, of course, despite how Tennessee's season has gone, coming back from down so many points in Knoxville was a sign of maturity. Tennessee lost to Middle Tennessee at home, for instance. Things can go wrong even for the blue bloods of the sport. Ivey's team, with knowledge of a shrinking bench and nothing to do about it, nearly put a 100-spot on the Lafayette Leopards in a 54-point win. "I'm really proud of this team, which is battling a lot of adversity. To come out with a dominant performance, is exactly what I wanted," Ivey said. "We had great balance. Everyone that was healthy got in the game and scored." Everyone that was healthy included eight players. Senior center Nat Mar- shall, graduate student forward Becky Obinma and junior guard Sarah Cernu- gel came off the bench to combine for 25 points. Cernugel, a former walk-on in her first year as a scholarship player, scored five of those, and when she nailed a three-pointer the starters on the bench erupted as if they had just won a tour- nament game. "We always want to get Sarah the ball when she gets in," freshman point guard Hannah Hidalgo said. "The fans love Sarah. We feed off of that. You see how hyped the team gets. It's exciting seeing all the fans and the bench erupt when Sarah makes a bucket." From what Notre Dame has endured spawned a team chemistry that might not be matched anywhere else. It's truly as much of an all-hands-on-deck sce- nario in South Bend as you'll find across the country. Still, given the current state of the roster, Notre Dame would be nothing without Hidalgo and her do-it-all skill set. She's averaged 23.6 points, 6.0 steals, 5.5 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game during Notre Dame's 7-1 start. The Irish go as she goes. Take the Tennessee game as an ex- ample. It was the only one in the first eight in which Hidalgo did not score at least 20 points. Four teammates joined in her double figures, though, led by Marshall and senior forward Maddy Westbeld with 15 apiece. Hidalgo had 13, sophomore guard KK Bransford had 12 and graduate student guard Anna De- Wolfe had 11. Without those efforts, kiss a 16-point comeback goodbye. "We're doing a better job of playing with each other and playing off each other," Hidalgo said. Ivey deserves all the credit in the world. She's getting role players to ex- ecute her style of play without two of the best guards in the game in Miles and Citron being able to catalyze the effort. Make no mistake; without those two in ACC games, the task gets much more difficult. Their timetables for returning to play remain question marks. Ivey is coy on that front. She's loud and clear about what her team is doing in the meantime. When asked how she would describe Notre Da m e 's p e r fo r m a n ce i n t h e ga m e against Lafayette in one word, she did not hesitate. "Dominance," Ivey said. "I felt like we were dominant from the beginning to the end." ✦ HANNAH HIDALGO NAMED USA BASKETBALL FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR Before Notre Dame point guard Hannah Hi- dalgo scored even one point as a collegiate student-athlete — she's up to 189 in eight games now — Fighting Irish head coach Niele Ivey said the five-star freshman would be bet- ter for having played on the USA U19 Women's National Team in the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup. The folks at USA Basketball agree. Hidalgo was named the 2023 USA Basketball 5-on-5 Female Athlete of the Year Dec. 7. "Hannah was invaluable to the USA Wom- en's U19 National Team that went undefeated en route to the gold medal in Spain," USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley said in a statement. "Her competitive drive and determination were seen on the court as she dazzled the crowds in Madrid. Hannah has a bright future ahead of her, and we cannot wait to see her continued development." Hidalgo averaged 10.7 points and 5.4 assists per game in leading Team USA to the title. Hidalgo set single-game records for steals (8) and assists (13) during the tournament. "Every time she came into the game, she changed the game," Team USA head coach Joni Taylor said in a press release. "She changed the pace of the game. It's fun when you can watch someone who is a two-way player, and that's what Hannah is. She's a two-way player who can dominate on both sides of the basketball." Hidalgo's stat-sheet-stuffing style of play has translated to the college game for the Fighting Irish during their 7-1 start, and she has scored at least 20 points in seven of the eight games. The international tournament in Madrid, Spain, taught Hidalgo how to operate in for- eign environments. For so long, Hidalgo was the alpha on her hometown team in Haddon- field, N.J. She was coached by her father, and she knew how to be that team's go-to player. It's different when you're on a team full of five-star prospects and big-name recruits. That's sort of been the case at Notre Dame, too. Hidalgo joined a roster stocked with for- mer McDonald's All-Americans. But some of them have been on the shelf with injuries, and Hidalgo has not been shy to step up her game even though she's the new girl in the bunch. Notre Dame has needed her very best to get out to a 7-1 start, and Hidalgo has delivered. "She started trusting more," Taylor said of Hidalgo's maturation. "What was really special about watching Hannah is that the more and more we spent time together, the more open she became, the more fun she started to have. That was just a fun thing to experience and witness." Notre Dame players and coaches would defi- nitely say the same. — Tyler Horka 2023-24 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Time/Result Nov. 6 vs. South Carolina^ L, 100-71 Nov. 12 at NJIT W, 104-57 Nov. 15 Northwestern W, 110-52 Nov. 18 vs. Illinois# W, 79-68 Nov. 21 Chicago State W, 113-35 Nov. 24 at Ball State W, 90-59 Nov. 29 at Tennessee% W, 74-69 Dec. 6 Lafayette W, 96-42 Dec. 17 Purdue (ACCN) 12 p.m. Dec. 21 Western Michigan (ACCN) 6 p.m. Dec. 31 at Syracuse (ACCN) 2 p.m. Jan. 4 at Pittsburgh* (ACCN) 6 p.m. Jan. 7 North Carolina* (ESPN2) 5 p.m. Jan. 11 Boston College* (ACCNX) 7 p.m. Jan. 14 Miami* (CW) 12 p.m. Jan. 18 at Virginia* (ACCNX) 7 p.m. Jan. 21 at Wake Forest* (ACCNX) 2 p.m. Jan. 25 Syracuse* (ACCNX) 7 p.m. Jan. 27 at Connecticut (FOX) 8 p.m. Feb. 1 at Georgia Tech* (ACCNX) 7 p.m. Feb. 4 Pittsburgh* (ACCN) 2 p.m. Feb. 8 at Louisville* (ESPN) 6 p.m. Feb. 11 at Florida State* (ACCN) 12 p.m. Feb. 15 NC State* (ACCN) 6 p.m. Feb. 19 at Duke* (ESPN2) 7 p.m. Feb. 22 Clemson* (ACCNX) 7 p.m. Feb. 25 at Boston College* (ACCN) 12 p.m. Feb. 29 Virginia Tech* (ESPN) 7 p.m. Mar. 3 Louisville* (ESPN) 2 p.m. Mar. 6-10 ACC Tournament$ TBD ^ at Paris, France; # Citi Shamrock Classic at Washington, D.C.; % ACC/SEC Challenge; * ACC game; $ at Greensboro, N.C.