Notre Dame Downs Virginia Tech To Stay Alive In Race For Top Four ACC Tourney Seed
Notre Dame, Ind. - There was no slow start this time. With Hannah Hidalgo at the helm, No. 17 Notre Dame (22-6, 12-5 ACC) raced past No. 5 Virginia Tech (23-5, 14-3) 71-58 Thursday night at Purcell Pavilion. The win keeps the Fighting Irish alive to earn a top-four seed and a double bye at next week’s ACC Tournament.
Notre Dame entered the night in a four-win tie with NC State, Louisville and Florida State for third place in the ACC. With Louisville beating Florida State and NC State topping Syracuse on Thursday, the Irish are now tied with NC State and Louisville for third place with Louisville visiting Notre Dame on Sunday to close the regular season. The winner will receive one of the coveted double byes next week.
Hidalgo led all scorers with 23 points to set the ACC’s freshman scoring record. She has 663 career points and also notched her sixth double-double of the season after pulling down 10 rebounds to end the Hokies’ 10-game winning streak. They hadn’t lost in more than a month when they dropped consecutive games to Florida State and Duke on Jan. 14 and 18.
The Irish led the Hokies 17-16 at the end of a first quarter that saw eight lead changes and one tie. The Irish never trailed the rest of the night. Hidalgo and Maddy Westbeld combined to hit 7 of 11 shots from the field for 15 points in the quarter. Westbeld scored 14 of her 19 points in the first half.
Westbeld and fellow forward Kylee Watson set the tone on the defensive end of the floor against the ACC’s two-time Player of the Year Elizabeth Kitley. The 6-5 grad student has 76 career double-doubles and came into the night averaging 23.3 points and 11.6 rebounds, but Westbeld and Watson did the bulk of the work to help limit Kitley to 12 points (her third lowest of the season) and nine boards.
A 12-0 run by the Irish gave them a 32-18 lead in the second quarter as Virginia Tech missed four straight shots. The Hokies followed with a 7-0 run of their to cut the lead to six points. The Irish led 36-28 at halftime in what might have been their best defensive half of the season.
Sonia Citron was quiet in a scoreless first half, missing all three of her shots. She came out hot in the second half though, by hitting all four of her third quarter shots, including a 3, for nine points. She kept it going in the fourth quarter to finish the night 9 for 15 for 21 points.
Virginia Tech made a run to close to within five points late in the third quarter. They outscored Notre Dame 19-17 in the frame, but would get no closer the rest of the way.
Hidalgo had three steals to help the Irish to an 18-2 fastbreak advantage. They also outscored the Hokies 34-16 in the paint.
Virginia Tech has already clinched the No. 1 seed at next week’s ACC Tournament. The Hokies were looking to clinch the outright regular season championship. They can still do that Sunday when they close the season against Virginia.
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