The Notre Dame women’s basketball team hit a snag by losing both games in the Cayman Islands Classic. It needed to get back on track by beating Texas in the ACC/SEC Challenge. This proved successful to the tune of an 80-70 win in overtime.
Here are five things we learned from this game:
The Irish can put adversity behind them
Losing to TCU and Utah on back-to-back days was the Irish’s first real on-court trouble this season. Even though the Longhorns are a quality opponent, the Irish still needed to prove that this speed bump would not deter them. While it took an extra five minutes, they proved they could weather a storm.
Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles continue to pay well together
Hannah Hidalgo scored a season-high 30 points, and Olivia Miles had 18 points and six assists. Those are great games individually, but more importantly, they showed great chemistry as they always have this season. These two are so in sync with each other that how far the Irish go this season will depend at least in part on how well that continues.
Kate Koval is back on track, at least on defense
After three consecutive games with two or fewer blocks, Kate Koval looked more like her first few collegiate games by blocking five shots. She only scored four points though. Hopefully, her hot two-way start to the season was less of an outlier and more of the norm, but she’ll have to prove that.
The Irish need to stay out of foul trouble
Miles, Koval and Liatu King all finished this game with four fouls. That’s living dangerously when you only have six available rotational players. The Irish need to be careful because they can’t afford to become more stretched out than they already are.
The Irish need to recognize the situation better
The Irish might have won in regulation after Miles broke a tie with layup in the final seconds. However, King fouled Rori Harmon with one second left, and Harmon hit both free throws. The men’s basketball team lost a game last week after committing a similarly ill-timed foul, and the women need to know not to make that same mistake.
This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Five things learned from Notre Dame women’s basketball’s win vs. Texas
