Much of the pregame talk going into one of the premier women’s basketball games of the season was centered on two of the best players in the game — Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and JuJu Watkins. Saturday in Los Angeles, two of the best the sport has to offer right now balled out indeed.
Only is was Hidalgo and … teammate Olivia Miles.
Watkins did her thing in scoring 24 points, but she needed 25 shots to get ’em. Miles? She only needed 12 shots to score 20. And she added 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals. Hidalgo had 24 points to match Watkins to go along with 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 5 steals.
Watkins was the massive matchup’s third wheel. Notre Dame had the two best players in the game, and the Fighting Irish came away with a rather handily 74-61 victory as a result. They improved to 5-0 to start the season despite putting just seven players on the floor for the second game this week. Sophomore guard Emma Risch only played 3 minutes, too.
Notre Dame is not one of the deepest teams in the country until several players are able to return from injury, but the Irish are definitely one of the best regardless. They proved that in a wire-to-wire win; Notre Dame led for 37:49. USC did not lead for a single second.
The Irish’s defense was stifling for long stretches, holding USC to just 10 points in the first quarter. Notre Dame built a 10-point lead after the first frame and withstood a few Trojan runs, eventually extending the advantage to as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter.
Senior guard Sonia Citron‘s defense on Watkins was especially suffocating. She made many of those 25 shot attempts very difficult. It was clear, even in her home gym, Watkins was never truly comfortable going against Notre Dame’s tight defensive style.
The Irish were run-and-gun in the other phase of the game, meanwhile, winning the fast-break points edge, 20-8. With 17 steals as a team, Notre Dame turned many of those into quick-points opportunities in transition. That’s tough for any team to combat, even one as talented as USC.
The Irish do not play against until taking on TCU in the Cayman Islands Classic on Nov. 28. They’ll face Utah the very next day in the same tournament. Then it’s a home game against No. 4 Texas on Dec. 5.
