There are several signature rivalries in the world of women’s college basketball. Among–or at, depending on who you ask–the top of the list is UConn versus Notre Dame. The teams have met 52 times going into Saturday night, many times in the Final Four and National Championship, and the Huskies have emerged victorious 38 times.
In recent years, though, this game has been marred with injuries for Connecticut. In 2021, the contest saw Paige Bueckers suffer a knee ailment that forced her out for half the season. Last year, Azzi Fudd hurt her leg in South Bend. Both were poised for All-American seasons. Whether they wanted to win or just make it out unscathed, they at least succeeded on the latter.
On a night that saw the 2013 and 2014 championship teams honored and inducted into the Huskies of Honor, it was Hannah Hidalgo who stole the spotlight. The freshman guard went ballistic, scoring 34 points, grabbing 10 boards and dishing out six assists en route to an 82-67 win. Unquestionably, it is one of the better performances Gampel Pavilion has seen.
“Hannah is a relentless player,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said. “What I love about her most is her confidence. She wants to win. Her energy is contagious. She gives it her all every night. You don’t see that too often with freshmen.”
UConn’s Geno Auriemma shared Ivey’s sentiment on Hidalgo’s outing but also cited the team’s unusually off defense.
“I thought she was able to get to the basket way more times than we could [handle],” Auriemma noted of Hidalgo. “For someone to get to the basket that frequently, there’s something wrong with the defense. But give [Hidalgo] credit; she attacked it every time. She’s playing with a tremendous amount of confidence. It took a lot of guts to come in here and do what she did. She’s damn good.”
Notre Dame’s Maddy Westbeld also had a great game in her own right, notching 23 points to go along with five rebounds. Though she didn’t have quite the night Hidalgo enjoyed, her inside presence was impactful.
Her efforts helped the Fighting Irish to a +10 advantage on the glass and +20 points in the paint. Talk about dominance on the interior. How the Huskies handled Notre Dame’s potent frontcourt was a major factor going in. And given how much the Irish thrived in that department, it’s not a shock that they won in the fashion they did.
Notre Dame also helped themselves with the way they defended Bueckers. The former POTY was bottled up throughout the contest, unable to get anything going. She managed 17 points on 17 shots, but six of those points came from the stripe. Bueckers was forced into bad shots and looked uncomfortable throughout. Postgame, Auriemma indicated that the guard getting poked in the eye impacted her performance and that the team was overly reliant on her.
“She’s their engine, but they have so many scorers around her,” noted Ivey. “I thought Sonia [Citron] did a great job guarding her. She got help from her teammates, and the team executed the scouting report well.”
Connecticut started the contest on the wrong foot, with Hidalgo taking the lead on a deuce. Early, it seemed that every time the Huskies tried to get something to go, Hidalgo or Westbeld, who was donning a facemask, would answer.
It wasn’t until Ashlynn Shade hit a pair of jumpers that UConn came to life. The usual characters helped out, but the bank was open for Ice Brady, who buried her fourth triple of the year as a part of the team’s 13-2 run.
As the Huskies looked poised to run away with the game, they opened up a 12-point lead to kick off the second frame. But out of nowhere, the Fighting Irish came roaring back. Hidalgo and Citron drilled back-to-back threes as Notre Dame poured it on. Over and over again. This culminated in a 26-5 streak to end the half, turning edConnecticut’s 12-point lead into a nine- point deficit.
Bueckers, who wasn’t having a loud game, drilled one from deep to start the half. But it was Aaliyah Edwards who owned the quarter. As the Huskies clawed their way back into the contest, the star forward was there at every step. Granted, her teammates were there to deliver several pretty assists, but Edwards had no trouble finishing.
She had 10 points in the frame, allowing Arnold to take the lead with a big shot from downtown. However, Westbeld swished a pair of her own, ahelping her Irish inch ahead 60-57.
Even with Nika Mühl serving as a nonfactor in the scoring department, the team needed her defense to be strong in the final quarter. A mere 31 ticks in, she picked up her fifth foul. Just like that, the Croatian guard was done for the night. Her plus/minus was +13. Without her on the floor, the Huskies were outscored by 28.
“I thought we had it all figured out, but it almost broke down when Nika wasn’t in the game,” Auriemma noted. “It hurt us on both ends. Today, we didn’t do a great job with [defense]. There was a lot of miscommunication between our big men and guards.”
And it took all the air of UConn’s sails. Notre Dame ripped off eight straight, and the Huskies never got closer than six. Edwards also didn’t take a shot in the quarter, which was curious, given how well she did early in the half.
Edwards’ excellent third and overall performance were both fantastic and excruciating. For everything she did well in the first three quarters, it was all the more painful for the Huskies when her aggression was absent late.
“We should have gone to it more,” Auriemma said of Edwards’ halted production. “Her and Paige had a really good two-man game going at the start of the third quarter…That was a bad decision by me.”
It was a pair of old-fashioned three-point plays—one from Hidalgo and another from Citron, along with a Westbeld three, that put the final knife in the coffin.
The Huskies next will take the floor in Philadelphia, PA, hoping to bounce back against Villanova.