HUGE road win
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish went out to California and beat the D-O-DOUBLE-G crap out of Southern Cal.
From the ND press release:
LOS ANGELES — No. 6 Notre Dame faced its first big challenge of the 2024-25 season on Saturday, and it passed with flying colors.
The Irish (5-0) traveled across the country to No. 3 USC (4-1) and never trailed, walking away with a 74-61 win and a major resume builder.
“This is a moment that we are really appreciative to be a part of,” Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey said postgame. “This group is special. I’m so grateful to be able to lead them, and I’m really proud of the way that we’ve been resilient through injuries. For us to come out here and have a complete game and play together, it’s just phenomenal.”
Hannah Hidalgo had the first 6 points for Notre Dame before the Irish went on a mini-run with back-to-back treys by Olivia Miles and Hidalgo. The air attack forced a USC timeout with 4:46 to go in the first frame.
The Irish defense, including Sonia Citron’s stifling attack against All-American JuJu Watkins, continued for the remainder of the quarter. Notre Dame held the Trojans to 10 points in the first 10 minutes, their lowest-scoring frame of the year. Notre Dmae also racked up 7 steals.
USC opened up the second quarter with a 9-2 run to force an early Notre Dame timeout, as the Irish led 22-19 with 7:36 left in the half. After the timeout, the Irish rebounded to end the half on a 13-9 run. Hidalgo had 16 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists at the break. She led or was tied for the lead in those categories, while Liatu King had 5 boards of her own plus a team-leading 4 swipes.
The Irish held the Trojans to 37.5 percent from the floor in the first half, while also forcing USC to go 1-7 from behind the arc.
A strong third quarter from the Trojans, coupled with some foul trouble from the Irish, allowed USC to close the gap to three at 44-41 with 3:41 remaining in the third. The Irish offense went cold from the floor for more than 5 minutes, as they didn’t score between 7:35 and 2:08.
With both squads putting up 17 points in the third quarter, it was a 52-45 ballgame heading into the fourth. The Irish came out hot in the final quarter, going on a 14-2 run to put Notre Dame up 66-47. USC worked to close the gap, but Notre Dame outscored the Trojans 22-16 in the fourth with 8 points poured in from Miles, who went a perfect 3-3 from the floor in the final quarter.
Hidalgo was the leading scorer at the buzzer with 24, and Miles had 20. King reached double-digit rebounds with 11, and Hidalgo had 8 assists. Miles had 7.
Watkins finished with 24 points, but the box score doesn’t show the full story. Citron didn’t let her get anything easy, and she fought for every point she had.
“Soni had the tall task of guarding one of the best players in the country in [Watkins],” Ivey said. “I thought she did a great job trying to deny her for the entire game.
“Everybody knows Soni for her offense, but now you know how great of a defender she is.”
Notre Dame will head back to South Bend for a couple of days before traveling to the Cayman Islands to play TCU and Utah over the Thanksgiving holiday.
