Alexa Philippou, ESPNDec 13, 2024, 12:48 AM ET
- Covers women's college basketball and the WNBA
- Previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant
- Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Heading into Thursday's top-10 matchup, UConn coach Geno Auriemma said he didn't think there was a better backcourt in the country than the one his team would face in Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles.
Auriemma's assessment proved correct, with the Hidalgo-and-Miles-led Irish handing the No. 2 Huskies their first loss of the season 79-68 in South Bend, where No. 8 Notre Dame led nearly wire to wire.
"This is a major win for us," Irish coach Niele Ivey said. "Obviously, it's just one win, but I'm really grateful for this group and really proud of our effort and the way that we showed up today with such toughness and discipline."
Hidalgo flirted with a triple-double (29 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists) and was the best player on the court as she continues to make a compelling case as the best player in the country. The sophomore scored or assisted on 48 of Notre Dame's 79 points and became the first player over the past 25 seasons to record multiple games with at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists against the Huskies, her first such game having come her freshman season in Storrs, Connecticut.
UConn had no answer for Hidalgo's shooting from deep, where she drained a career-best six 3s on 11 attempts. The Huskies managed a paltry 3-for-16 clip from the 3-point arc.
The Huskies trailed by as many as 13 in the second quarter -- their largest deficit of the season -- but rallied in the third to make it a one-point game. That is, until Hidalgo drained a 3 at the third-quarter buzzer, a backbreaking moment for UConn and a momentum-deciding one for Notre Dame. The Irish built off that shot, starting the fourth quarter with a run to go back up double figures and effectively put the game out of reach.
"Her talent is obvious," Auriemma said. "There's a talent level that she has that's pretty unique. But I think more importantly is the way she attacks everything that she does. The way she attacks your defense, the way when she's on defense, she attacks your offense, and the way that she leads her team in so many different ways. I think you put all those three things together, and it's just a really, really, really difficult matchup for anybody. She does what she does, and I don't know that there's a lot of strategies that you can use."
Miles, who missed all of 2023-24 with an ACL injury, overcame a first-quarter hiccup when she limped off the floor after rolling her ankle to deliver 16 points, including a team-high nine in the fourth quarter.
"I don't know if there's a better combination of guards than those two with how many different things they can hurt you with," Auriemma said. "Those guys are attacking you for the entire 40 minutes. And I don't know that I've seen anybody up close yet that can do that."
UConn now has lost three straight contests to rival Notre Dame for the first time since 2012-13. Ivey is the fifth head coach to win that many consecutive games against Auriemma, the sport's all-time winningest coach, over the past 30 seasons, joining predecessor Muffet McGraw, Dawn Staley, Pat Summitt and Sylvia Hatchell.
The Irish's back-to-back Feast Week losses to then-No. 17 TCU and unranked Utah in the Cayman Islands seem like a distant memory, as they now have three top-five wins, including last week's overtime victory versus then-No. 4 Texas. Notre Dame is the third team over the past 25 seasons with that many top-five wins before January, joining 2021-22 South Carolina, which went on to win the national title, and 2016-17 UConn.
"We had a tough stretch. We came back and we got back to work," Ivey said. "They didn't hang their heads. They just realized, OK, everybody has to do a little bit more. And they were focused and ready and prepared. And so I'm really happy with the grit and how we responded.
"I'm hoping that the lesson was, when we play with heart, we play with discipline, we play focused, we can be just as elite as everybody else in the country."
The past week reaffirmed they can be. While the Irish are spearheaded by the Hidalgo-Miles tandem, they received major contributions Thursday from Pitt transfer Liatu King, whom Ivey called the X factor with a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds. Guard Sonia Citron didn't score much, but her defense made things difficult for 2021 national player of the year Paige Bueckers, who finished with 25 points but started slow with just two in the first quarter and went 0-for-4 from 3.
What's scarier for the rest of the country? Notre Dame -- which is hunting its first Final Four since 2019 and first under Ivey -- should get even better. Liza Karlen, who transferred in from Marquette, made her Irish debut following a preseason injury, and Maddy Westbeld is expected back later this season.
"Obviously they lost two games, so there's probably no team out there you can say is unbeatable," Auriemma said. "And if you put Notre Dame against any other team in the country, I don't think anybody would be surprised if they won that game."
ESPN Research contributed to this report.
