The tune-up games for Notre Dame women’s basketball are over. Now, the real fun begins.
After four blowout wins, the No. 6 Fighting Irish begin a grueling three-week stretch Saturday afternoon with a road trip to No. 3 USC (4 p.m., NBC). The next six games for Notre Dame, starting with the Trojans, come against Power 4 teams.
They play back-to-back neutral site games with No. 19 TCU and Utah in the Bahamas Nov. 29 and 30, respectively, at home against No. 4 Texas Dec. 5, on the road to start ACC play Dec. 8 against Syracuse and back home Dec. 12 to face No. 2 UConn.
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The immediate focus, though, is on a Southern Cal team that reached the Elite 8 last year and is off to a 4-0 start this season, highlighted by an opening-day win over No. 20 Ole Miss in Paris.
“We’ve known about this contest for a long time, so they’re prepared, mentally, for it,” said Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey of her team. “They know this is an Elite 8 team, and these are the type of teams we want to compare ourselves to. We want to get these types of matchups to see where we’re at and see what we need to work on.”
Who’s going to stop JuJu Watkins?
When discussing the Trojans, the conversation usually begins with standout guard JuJu Watkins. The sophomore had a sensational freshman season, being named a unanimous first-team All-American and national freshman of the year honors. Her 920 points scored is the single-season freshman record.
Watkins is off to another strong start this year, averaging 21.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 3.8 steals and 3.0 blocks per game.
“For her, it’s just being able to throw multiple bodies at her because she’s just a fantastic scorer,” Ivey said. “She’s not the type of scorer you can stop cold; you just have to wear her down for 40 minutes. We haven’t played a guard like this in a very long time, so it’s going to be an incredible matchup. … It’s going to be a team effort to try and contain her.”
Ivey mentioned senior Sonia Citron and junior Cassandre Prosper by name as ones who will defend the All-American.
“We have a bunch of different gameplans to try and figure out how to slow her down,” Ivey said. “She’s the type of player where she’s not going to score below 10 (points) — if she ever does that, I’ll be shocked. You just have to make sure you’re wearing her down. We have a bunch of gameplans to see if we can contain her in different ways. Whatever’s successful, we’re going to stay in it.”
Young stars of college basketball on display
Along with Watkins, USC has two freshmen making instant impacts in Kennedy Smith and Kayleigh Heckel, both of which average around 10 points per game.
Notre Dame isn’t short on star power either, with sophomore point guard Hannah Hidalgo joining Watkins last year as an All-American. Although Hidalgo is listed as eight inches shorter than Watkins, the New Jersey native has made her living on the defensive end, making her a viable option to defend Watkins throughout the game.
The Irish have also picked up valuable minutes from freshman Kate Koval. Forced to start due to injuries to players like Maddy Westbeld and Kylee Watson, the 6-foot-5 Ukraine native has answered the bell by averaging 12.8 points, 13 rebounds and 5.5 blocks per game. She was named the United States Basketball Writers Association freshman of the week for her performances against James Madison and Lafayette last week.
“I don’t really look at my stats; it’s more about how the game goes and anything I can bring to this team to get them to the next level of winning, that’s what I’m going to do,” Koval said. “I accept whatever role it is.”
Other Notre Dame injury notes
Graduate senior Liatu King, who missed the Lafayette game with a head injury, will play against USC, per Ivey. King averaged 17.7 points and 9.7 rebounds in the first two-plus games she competed in for the Irish.
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Watson, Westbeld and Liza Karlen all remain out, while junior KK Bransford announced before the season that she’d be taking a redshirt year. That means Notre Dame will likely only use a eight-person rotation for the foreseeable future: Hidalgo, King, Citron, Koval, Prosper, star guard Olivia Miles, role player Emma Risch and former walk-on Sarah Cernugel.
“Everybody’s progressing well, so I’m really, really pleased with that,” Ivey said. “Just praying for health warriors.”
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: How does Notre Dame women’s basketball plan on slowing down USC?
