SOUTH BEND, Ind. \u2013 \u00a0The No. 18 Fighting Irish picked up right where they left off before the week off for the holidays, rolling past Pitt (7-8, 0-2) in a 94-59 rout to improve to 10-2 on the season and 2-0 in ACC play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Four players finished in double figures for the Irish, led by Hannah Hidalgo\u2019s 30-point outburst on 13-of-23 shooting from the field to go along with five rebounds, four steals and four assists. Iyana Moore poured in a season-high 23 points, including five makes from beyond the arc.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassandre Prosper notched her third double-double of the season, all coming in the last four games, with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Malaya Cowles finished with 13 points and seven rebounds.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s game was presented by Indiana Donor Network.<\/p>\n
HOW IT HAPPENED<\/p>\n
The Irish built an early double-digit advantage against the Panthers, going on top by a score of 25-12 with just over a minute left in the first frame. After the visitors cut it to eight, Moore knocked down the final shot of the first to give Notre Dame a 27-17 lead after the opening 10 minutes of play.<\/p>\n
The trio of Hidalgo, Moore and Cowles combined for 22 of Notre Dame\u2019s 27 first quarter points. The Irish turned five steals into 11 points to help build the 10-point lead.<\/p>\n
Notre Dame continued to extend the lead over the course of the second quarter, outscoring Pitt 24-12 in the period to take a 51-29 advantage into the halftime break. Hidalgo scored nine points in the stanza, followed by six apiece from Moore and Prosper.<\/p>\n
The two sides played a fairly even third quarter, as the Irish held a 72-49 lead heading into the final 10 minutes of regulation. Hidalgo scored 11 of the team\u2019s 21 points in the quarter.<\/p>\n
The Irish closed out the game with another 20-point quarter, outscoring the Panthers 22-10 to make the final score 94-59.<\/p>\n
NOTRE DAME STAT OF THE GAME<\/p>\n
The Irish were dominant in capitalizing on Pitt\u2019s mistakes, scoring 32 points off turnovers while holding the visitors to just seven points of ND turnovers. That also led to a major disparity in transition, outscoring Pitt 32-14 on fastbreaks.<\/p>\n
NOTRE DAME NOTES<\/p>\n
Notre Dame is now 38-4 in the all-time series against Pitt, winners of each of the last nine matchups.
\nThe Irish have won at least 10 of their first 12 games to start the year for the fifth straight season.
\nNotre Dame has recorded double-digit steals in 11 of 12 games this season.
\nThe Irish have now won 25 straight games against unranked opposition.
\nNine of Notre Dame\u2019s 10 wins have come by at least 10 points.
\nThe Fighting Irish have recorded 10 or more steals in 55-of-81 games since the start of the 2023-24 season.
\nHidalgo recorded her 13th career 30-point game, which is the program record.
\nWith 30 points, Hidalgo tied the program record for most games with 20 or more points in a career with 60, matching Arike Ogunbowale\u2019s record.
\nHidalgo passed current head coach Niele Ivey (348) for second in career steals in the all-time record book, as she now has 350 over her three seasons at Notre Dame.
\nHidalgo has now finished in double figures for scoring in 79 consecutive games (every game of her career), the most of any player in program history.\u00a0
\nMoore scored a season-high 23 points in the win, marking her 17th career game with 20+ points.
\nDe Jesus pulled down a season-high seven rebounds.
\nDe Jesus has recorded 5+ assists in each of her last four games and six of her last seven.
\nProsper tied her career high for blocks in a game with four.
\nMoore made her first career start for the Fighting Irish in the victory.<\/p>\n
UP NEXT<\/p>\n
The Fighting Irish head south for a two-game ACC road swing, taking on Georgia Tech at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday, Jan 1 in Atlanta. The game will be broadcast on ACCN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH BEND, Ind. \u2013 \u00a0The No. 18 Fighting Irish picked up right where they left off before the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[564,19776,38341,38340,38339,38342,38343,38351,3746,38344,73,75,74,38338,38349,38347,38346,38345,38348,38350,38337,38352],"class_list":{"0":"post-74074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-featured","9":"tag-fighting-irish","10":"tag-fighting-irish-baseball","11":"tag-fighting-irish-basketball","12":"tag-fighting-irish-football","13":"tag-fighting-irish-hockey","14":"tag-fighting-irish-soccer","15":"tag-more-headlines","16":"tag-notre-dame","17":"tag-notre-dame-football-stadium","18":"tag-pittsburgh","19":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","20":"tag-pittsburgh-news","21":"tag-und","22":"tag-und-athletics","23":"tag-und-baseball","24":"tag-und-basketball","25":"tag-und-football","26":"tag-und-hockey","27":"tag-und-hockey-schedule","28":"tag-university-of-notre-dame","29":"tag-women-s-basketball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}