Sonia Citron's Milestone Night Leads Notre Dame Past Virginia
Charlottesville, VA – Thursday's Notre Dame women’s basketball game at Virginia had a little bit of everything. The ultimate 86-76 Fighting Irish (13-2, 4-2 ACC) win over the Cavaliers (8-9, 0-6) featured milestones and records for two Irish players, a reunion with a former Irish player, a comeback attempt that fell short for the home team, and 56 combined fouls between the two teams.
Sonia Citron led the Irish with a season-high 28 points that was just one off her career high. Citron hit all 12 of her free throw attempts to help the Irish fend off a late rally that saw the Cavaliers cut what was a 20-point Irish lead all the way down to a six-point game with 2:51 to play.
Citron hit two of Notre Dame’s three 3-pointers in the game. She reached 1,000 points in her career with the second of her six fourth quarter free throws.
Notre Dame’s front court saw early foul trouble when Kylee Watson, Nat Marshall, Becky Obinma, and Anna DeWolfe all picked up their second foul in the first half. Obinma had come off the bench after Watson and Marshall each had two fouls only two pick up two of her own.
The Fighting Irish had 11 fouls by halftime and finished the game with 21 but no Irish players fouled out. Virginia committed 24 of its 35 fouls in a second half that saw the Irish hit 24 of 34 free throws. UVA’s leading scorer, Camryn Taylor, and London Clarkson each fouled out. They combine to average 23 points a game but tallied a total of 11.
Hannah Hidalgo scored 23 points to top the 20-point mark for the 14th time in 16 career games. She had nine assists and six steals as well. Her sixth steal came in the third quarter to give her 91 this season. It moved her past Irish great Skylar Diggins for the most steals by a freshman in program history.
Former Notre Dame forward Samantha Brunnelle played for the first time against her former team. The nation’s former No. 1 recruit from Ruckersville, Va played her first three seasons at Notre Dame before transferring to Virginia before last season. She was scoreless for the third time this season after missing both of her field goal attempts against the Irish.
Maddy Westbeld added 14 points and nine rebounds for the Fighting Irish. She had 10 points in the first half after a pair of left-hand drives past Brunnelle in the lane helpd the Irish hit their last three shots of the first half. Westbeld has scored in double figures in all but three games this season.
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