Notre Dame Women Win Two Overtime Thriller At Florida State
With the regular season winding down and its chances to stay in the upper echelon of the ACC standings starting to slip away, Notre Dame women’s basketball needed someone to step up on Sunday at Florida State. The Fighting Irish (18-4, 8-3 ACC) found plenty of candidates in their 98-94 double overtime victory over the Seminoles (17-8, 8-5).
Notre Dame entered the day in sixth place in the conference standings after a lackluster Thursday night loss at Louisville. Florida State was one spot ahead of them in fifth place in the ACC, with the top-four teams receiving a double-bye to open next month’s ACC Championship in North Carolina.
The Irish came out of the gates cold, trailing the Seminoles 16-6 as FSU’s Ta’Niya Latson scored her team’s first nine points after hitting her first two 3-point tries of the game. Latson finished with 21 points in the first half and a game-high 34 points by game’s end.
Irish head coach Niele Ivey called timeout at the 4:56 mark with her team down 16-6. Notre Dame answered immediately, as Sonia Citron and Anna DeWolfe each hit 3s to spark an 8-0 run over the next :57 seconds and a 15-4 run to close the fist quarter for a 21-20 lead.
Florida State used a 9-0 run in the second quarter to go back up by five points, but a pair of Maddy Westbeld 3s kept the Irish in it and they trailed 48-42 at halftime. Westbeld turned in her eighth double-double of the season with 19 points and 14 rebounds.
Citron picked up her fourth foul of the game with 1:47 to play in the third quarter and went to the bench for extended minutes before coming back in the fourth. With Citron out, DeWolfe picked up the slack. She hit her fifth 3 of the game and then followed that with a layup on a long bounce pass to put the Irish up 66-64 with 8:23 to play.
The Irish had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation, but a layup by Hannah Hidalgo came up short, sending the game to the first overtime tied 79-79. They missed another chance for the win at the end of the first overtime period, but again came up short which sent the game to a second extra session tied 88-88 thanks to DeWolfe’s 3 to tie the game just after the Seminoles had taken the lead on their own 3-pointer.
DeWolfe finished with a season-high 24 points and hit 6 of 9 3-pointers. The game featured 13 ties and seven lead changes.
With the score tied 94-94 late in the second overtime period it looked like a third extra session might be in the cards. The Irish came up with a defensive stop and Citron buried a pair of free throws with 4.5 seconds to play for a two-point lead. Citron scored 18 points and finished with eight rebounds.
Kylee Watson then swatted a Florida State inbound pass to Hidalgo, who was fouled and iced the game with two more free throws with 1.9 seconds left. Hidalgo led the Irish with 27 points. She had nine assists, seven rebounds, and five steals as well.
Be sure to check out the Irish Breakdown message board, the Champions Lounge
Irish Breakdown Content
2024 Scholarship Chart
2023 Football Schedule
Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers
2024 Commit Rankings - Offense
2024 Commit Rankings - Defense
2024 Recruiting Class Grades - Offense
2024 Recruiting Class Grades - Defense
———————
Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more.
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @SeanStires
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook
