Anyone possessing a particle of doubt may not have been watching all season, but freshman Hannah Hidalgo proved plenty old enough, plenty bold enough and plenty gold enough to lead Notre Dame women’s basketball to the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title Sunday afternoon.
Hidalgo scored 22 points, dealt six assists, collected six rebounds, grabbed two fourth-quarter steals and — get this, having the rock in her hand more than anybody — finished with no turnovers as the Irish outlasted North Carolina State, 55-51, in Greensboro, N.C.
The electrifying 5-foot-6 guard scored go-ahead buckets twice in the final 2:24 — the first on a trailing and hang-in-the-air conversion off a transition feed from Anna DeWolfe and the second on a patient weaving drive that put ND up 53-51 at 1:28 showing.
Then she added a free throw at 10.5 seconds remaining to make it 55-51 and effectively clinch.
Then she added MVP of the tourney. A no-brainer there.
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“I mean, Hannah’s a special player,” junior guard Sonia Citron said after scoring 11 points and adding game highs of eight rebounds and four steals. “I think we kind of knew before she even played a game, just when she came in in the summer. Like, she just has a different mentality, so in workouts, in practices, we kind of just knew she was going to be special. She’s just different.”
Teammates told her so, too, just in case she didn’t already know.
“Yeah, they have a lot of trust in me,” Hidalgo said. “I learned to just kind of have confidence in myself. Right when I came in, they were like, ‘Hannah, shoot the ball, score the ball.’ That was really big for me. It means a lot for my coaches and my teammates to have so much trust in me. … The trust they instill in me is amazing.”
So was Sunday’s feat by the Irish.
They shook off their latest, blindsiding, cruel slap of adversity less than 24 hours earlier in the form of season-long starting center Kylee Watson going down with a knee injury that took her out of the final. It remains to be seen if that injury leaves Watson out of the NCAA tournament, too.
Without Watson, without four others who have been out for a while now and without Becky Obinma, who is reportedly in concussion protocol, ND was down to seven players for the final.
“Unfortunately, we’ve been in this situation before,” fourth-year Irish coach Niele Ivey said upon adding her first ACC Tourney crown to last winter’s regular-season title. “Last year, we had some adversity, lost two of our starters.
“As a coach, I know how to adjust,” said the seemingly never-flinching Ivey, “but (it’s) just the team, everyone rising to the occasion and everyone stepping up. Credit to Natalija (Marshall) and KK (Bransford) for stepping up big for us today (off the bench).”
Maddy Westbeld, meanwhile, stepped up monstrously.
The senior forward dropped in 14 of her 16 points during the second half.
“We’ve been thrown into a lot of big fires,” Westbeld said, “and we’ve been expected to come out and kind of just stay that poised character. So we’ve been challenged a lot, (but) we step up to it. We’ve been tested, and we continue to just thrive through that and fight through that.”
Seeded just fourth in the ACC Tourney, No. 14-ranked ND (26-6) became the first club seeded that low or lower to capture the crown since 1999.
The Irish also earned the program’s first crown since 2019, when they won the last of their five titles over their first six years in the league.
The second-seeded and 10th-ranked Wolfpack (27-6) — 59-43 winners at Notre Dame during the regular season — were hunting their fourth conference tourney crown in five years. They fell to 7-3 on the season against ranked clubs.
Now with eight straight wins overall, ND waits until next Sunday night’s selection show to find out its NCAA Tourney path, but appears to own a comfortable stronghold on a top-16 overall spot, meaning the right to host during the first two rounds.
Irish items
► For the first time in its rich history, ND played a ranked team (AP and/or coaches’ poll) for a fifth straight game within the same season — and went 5-0 in such games.
There have been many instances of playing four in a row, while the two-season standard is six, spanning the last four games in 2002-03 and first two of 2003-04.
► Ivey became the first Black woman to coach the ACC Tourney champion in its 47-year history, after Virginia Tech’s Kenny Brooks became the first Black man last season.
“That’s a huge honor,” Ivey said. “It’s a huge blessing. I love being a pioneer, breaking barriers. That’s really important to me … (but) I wouldn’t have this opportunity if it wasn’t for Notre Dame, Jack (Swarbrick, athletic director) and this group (of players).”
Said Ivey, “Representation matters … I think it’s a great inspiration. It’s great for young girls to see, and hopefully it gives more people of color and diversity more opportunities to lead programs.”
► The 6-5 Marshall, a senior in her 72nd collegiate game, made her first career start due to Watson’s injury.
She played a career-high 34 minutes and scored just two points, but added a game-high three blocked shots and five rebounds while taking the lead in handling bruising 6-5 grad center River Baldwin of State.
Baldwin scored 14 points, but was a pinch off her season field goal efficiency of 55% at 6-of-14.
As a team, the Pack netted a season low in points and hit just 21-of-60 from the field for 35% against a blend of Irish defenses. That included just 3-of-17 on 3-pointers to ND’s 8-of-17 from the trio of Hidalgo, Westbeld and Citron.
► Hidalgo, Westbeld and Citron were voted to the all-tourney five-player first team along with Aziaha James and Saniya Rivers of State.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame wins ACC women’s basketball tournament title
