It didn’t matter who it was against. The Notre Dame women’s basketball team needed a get-right game in the worst way after blowing a 19-point lead on the road at Ole Miss.
The Fighting Irish got right on the road at Florida State three days later, indeed.
No. 18 Notre Dame (6-2) started out on a 20-0 run Sunday in Tallahassee, withstood a subsequent first-quarter push from the Seminoles thereafter and pummeled them in the second half to open up conference play with a 93-58 victory.
It wasn’t just the Hannah Hidalgo show, and that was the difference. Notre Dame’s unquestioned heart and soul do-it-all point guard only scored 2 points in the first quarter. But her teammates picked up her slack, pitching in 23 first-frame points between all of them.
In the end, two Notre Dame players finished with more points than Hidalgo. It was only the second time this season Hidalgo was not the team’s leading scorer. Just as in the first of those instances, senior Cassandre Prosper led the way. She had 21. Vanderbilt transfer Iyana Moore had 19 off the bench. Hidalgo had 17, and that trio was joined in double figures by center Malaya Cowles with 14 and fellow front court mate Gisela Sanchez with 12.
The bench points and rebounding were major differences between the loss at Ole Miss and the win at Florida State. Against the Rebels, Cowles and Moore combined for 14 points. Cowles had that on her own against the Seminoles. Moore’s 19 went and even further way. Ole Miss out-rebounded Notre Dame 42-27. The Irish had the edge in that department, 41-33, vs. Florida State.
The Seminoles dropped to 4-7 and won’t be a factor in the ACC. This game should not signal to Irish fans that Notre Dame is all of a sudden a powerhouse in the conference again. Beating anybody by 35 points, though, is a sign of progress.
The grind of league play is coming quickly after three more non-conference games. Then there’s another non-con game agains none other than No. 1 UConn on Jan. 19. It’s imperative for the Irish to learn from the two losses they’ve already taken but also get an idea of what makes them tick — what makes them play the way they did Sunday — with the calendar soon flipping from 2025 to 2026.
This still is still a flawed Notre Dame team. But wins like Sunday’s show some of those flaws can be overcome, and there are bushels of victories waiting for the Irish between now and March if they do the right things to capture them.