To stay in the running for one of the top four ACC tournament seeds, Notre Dame defeats Virginia Tech.
Indiana’s Notre Dame This time, there was no slow start. Thursday night at Purcell Pavilion, No. 17 Notre Dame (22-6, 12-5 ACC) led by Hannah Hidalgo easily defeated No. 5 Virginia Tech (23-5, 14-3) 71-58. The victory keeps the Fighting Irish’s hopes of earning a double bye and a top-four seed in the ACC Tournament the following week alive. With four wins, Notre Dame was tied for third place in the ACC with NC State, Louisville, and Florida State going into the game. The Irish are now tied for third place with NC State and Louisville after Louisville defeated Florida State and NC State defeated Syracuse on Thursday. Louisville will visit Notre Dame on Sunday to wrap up the regular season. The victor will get one of the highly sought-after
With 23 points, Hidalgo led all scorers and broke the freshman scoring record for the ACC. In addition to scoring 663 points in her career, she recorded her sixth double-double of the year after grabbing 10 rebounds to snap the Hokies’ 10-game winning streak. When they lost their next two games, on January 14 and 18, to Florida State and Duke, they had not suffered a defeat in over a month.
After eight lead changes and one tie in the first quarter, the Irish led the Hokies 17–16. For the remainder of the night, the Irish never trailed. In the quarter, Hidalgo and Maddy Westbeld combined to make 7 of 11 field goals, scoring 15 points. Of her 19 points, 14 were scored by Westbeld in the first half.
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When facing Elizabeth Kitley, the two-time ACC Player of the Year, Westbeld and fellow forward Kylee Watson set the tone defensively. The 6-5 graduate student had averaged 23.3 points and 11.6 rebounds heading into the game, but Westbeld and Watson took most of the pressure off Kitley, who finished with 12 points, her third-lowest total of the year, and nine rebounds. Kitley has 76 career double-doubles. In the second quarter, the Irish went on a 12-0 run and led 32–18 as Virginia Tech missed four consecutive field goals. After that, the Hokies went on a 7-0 run to trim the lead to six points. In what may have been their strongest defensive half of the game, the Irish led 36-28 at halftime.
During the first half, Sonia Citron remained silent and missed all three of her shots. But in the second half, she really came on, making all four of her third-quarter attempts—including a three—for nine points. She continued to fire in the fourth quarter, going 9 for 15 for 21 points to close out the game. Late in the third quarter, a Virginia Tech run brings the score within five points. They won the first frame 19–17 over Notre Dame, but they would not get any closer the rest of the way. With three steals, Hidalgo gave the Irish a fastbreak advantage of 18 to 2. Additionally, they defeated the Hokies 34–16 in the paint.
The top seed for the ACC Tournament the following week has already been secured by Virginia Tech. The goal for the Hokies was to win the regular season by default. They still have Sunday to play Virginia to finish the season.
