Even in Losing, Notre Dame Showed How to Take Down Mighty UConn

The Fighting Irish had the right game plan for the Huskies during the Elite Eight, but executing it was always going to be the challenging part.

Notre Dame focused heavily on UConn stars Azzi Fudd (above) and Sarah Strong, forcing the Huskies to utilize their depth on Sunday. | Chris Jones-Imagn Images

FORT WORTH — You want to beat Connecticut? Listen here and listen close, because Notre Dame just showed you exactly how to beat Connecticut. No, it didn’t work, and it didn’t come particularly close to working. In fact, if the Huskies had gone scoreless for the final seven minutes, they still would have won, and … uh, what were we talking about again?

“They do everything right,” Notre Dame star Hannah Hidalgo said. “We have to have little to no mistakes in order to win the game.”

UConn beat Notre Dame, 70–52, and will now head to its 25th Final Four. The last time Geno Auriemma’s team missed the Final Four when his best player was healthy was 2007. 

The Fighting Irish forced somebody other than UConn stars Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd to beat them … so somebody did. The Fighting Irish matched the Huskies grit for grit and elbow for elbow … but not talent for talent. The Fighting Irish staved off a UConn onslaught longer than any other team has all season … but the onslaught came anyway. Hidalgo is the nation’s best point guard, best defender, and possibly even its best player, but even she could not shake the unshakeable.

“When we were rushing around like crazy on offense, it was so not us,” Auriemma said.  “It was atypical of us. That’s not who we are. We are calm … but at the same time, there is a level of confidence that Sarah has. She lifts them up to some place where they wouldn’t be able to be by themselves, or maybe with somebody different.”

People sometimes talk about game-planning and execution as though they are independent of each other: Coaches have a plan, but players have to execute. Well, Notre Dame had the right game plan, but it was still a hard one to execute.

What makes UConn so great, year after year, is that, even on the rare occasions when somebody comes up with answers for the Huskies’ best players, they have answers for the answers. Freshman Blanca Quiñonez, who always looks like she finds the other team amusing, scored 20 breezy points and grabbed eight smiling rebounds. 

“We wanted to really contain Sarah and Azzi,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said. “But we had to make sure no one else was a factor. Blanca was a big factor.”

In the end, Strong and Fudd were factors anyway. Strong finished with 21 points, seven rebounds, five steals, and three blocks. Fudd scored 13. But what really killed the Fighting Irish is that they were not the only team on the floor that played like a scrappy underdog.

UConn guards KK Arnold, Ashlynn Shade and Kayleigh Heckel played lockdown defense all day. Even when Strong looked like she might get in serious foul trouble, and even when Fudd looked like she might not get clean looks, the Huskies suffocated the Notre Dame offense. The Fighting Irish finished with as many turnovers (18) as made field goals. They only had seven assists.

Geno Auriemma danced with his team after securing UConn’s 25th Final Four appearance. | Chris Jones-Imagn Images

“It was a tough situation, especially in the second half,” Ivey said. “We struggled to score.”

The Huskies pressure ballhandlers aggressively but rarely pay for it by giving up open shots in the paint. They switch on screens without getting caught in mismatches.

“They try to take away every option that you have,” Ivey said. “You have to handle their pressure. They’re very disciplined, they play well together, and they play hard.”

Three-time All-Americans who lose in their first Elite Eight are supposed to be devastated. Hidalgo did not seem devastated. She understands the game too well. She willed and coaxed and shot her team into a game that was competitive into the fourth quarter, and that was a hell of a day at the office. Actually closing the deal was always unlikely.

The Huskies are 38–0. The last time they won a game by single digits was in November, when Michigan came back from a 20-point third-quarter deficit and lost by three. UConn will play either TCU or (more likely) South Carolina in the Final Four. The Gamecocks are the only other program in the country with a Hall of Fame coach, a national championship pedigree, and talent that is at least in the same zip code as UConn’s.

“It might all far apart next Friday night,” Auriemma said. “Who knows? But so far, so good.”

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