Hannah Hidalgo’s latest statistical milestone in Saturday’s near miss of another late-season takedown for the transformed Notre Dame women’s basketball team needs to be a reminder.
A gentle mental nudge about the greatness of the Irish junior point guard — and now second-leading scorer of all-time —as well as the missing context on exactly where to place her because of the mixed narratives and bigger pictures that have swirled around her.
And a not-so-gentle prompt that continuing to build an elite roster around the soon-to-be three-time All-American for the 2027 season is not only a nice ambition, it should be an outright promise that Notre Dame keeps to a player seriously in the conversation to be considered its greatest women’s basketball player of all time.
All of which was on display Saturday in Notre Dame’s valiant 65-63 loss to top seed Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinals at Gas South Arena in Duluth, Ga.
Hidalgo’s — and Notre Dame’s — final points of the game came on a 3-pointer at the top of the key with 70 seconds left following a steal by Cass Prosper. That pushed the 5-foot-6 junior past Skylar Diggins and into second place on the Notre Dame career scoring list, with only Arike Ogunbowale ahead of her now.
It also brought the fifth-seeded Irish (22-10) to within 64-63 in a game where they trailed early by scores of 10-0 and 15-2.
“I want to start with saying how proud I am of this team,” Irish sixth-year head coach Niele Ivey offered. “This team is one of the hardest-working teams I’ve ever coached. Resilient. They fought. We had a lot going against us. We had adjusted the physicality of this game, and they gave me everything.”
Everything but the game-winning basket on Notre Dame’s final possession of the game to extend its win streak to eight games and keep alive the chances for the Irish to be the first 5 seed to win the ACC Tourney in 40 years, when former member Maryland did so in an eight-team format.
Notre Dame’s missed opportunity
Duke’s Riley Nelson made one of two free throws with 52 seconds left to bump the Blue Devils’ lead to two points.
Nelson fouled, and the shot clock reset, giving Notre Dame the ball with 26.9 seconds left and the shot clock at 20. The Irish ran some clock then got three shots at a win or a tie. Hidalgo dished to Prosper for the cleanest look, a corner 3 that clanked off the rim.
“I talk about how I trust my teammates,” said Hidalgo, who finished with 24 points, eight rebounds, two assists and four steals.
“So, it would be very hypocritical of me to say I trust my teammates and then not kick it to them when they’re open. I trusted that I drove and I drew Cass’s defender, that she was going to knock down that shot. And I would do it again.”
Hidalgo corralled the rebound, dribbled out to the arc and launched an off-balance 3 with five seconds left that wasn’t close to finding the bottom of the net. Prosper, with the rebound. fed Iyana Moore for a desperation heave in traffic that Duke’s Toby Fournier blocked to secure the victory.
The Blue Devils (23-8) will face 2 seed Louisville (27-6) in Sunday’s title game at 1 p.m. EDT (ESPN).
“This group has grown,” said Ivey, whose Irish were dominated by Duke 82-68 in the Jan. 4 regular-season matchup on the road. “We’ve matured. We’ve learned how to play with each other and play for each other, and it has been honestly phenomenal.
“I talked to everybody about how much joy I have in coaching this group, so I told them, don’t hang your heads on this. It does not define us. It’s only going to make us better and stronger.”
What’s next?
If the Irish are going to reach the Sweet 16 for a fifth straight season, they’ll likely do so this time as a 6 seed, meaning they’d have to beat someone the caliber of Duke or Louisville — projected 3 seeds in the latest Bracketology — in the second round to get there.
Do they have what it takes to bust the bracket and get beyond that point, something the previous four Sweet 16 Irish teams have not done?
Ivey and the Irish have lots of time to figure that out. Selection Sunday isn’t until March 15 for the 68-team NCAA bracket (8 p.m. on ESPN), and the soonest Notre Dame would play again is March 20 in a first-round game someplace other than South Bend.
“They’re going to get a couple days off,” Ivey said of the coming week. “I think that’s the biggest part. Like Hannah said, playing back to back to back, especially in these types of matchups, is really difficult.
“So, credit to my performance team that got us ready every day to play. We’ll come back, we’ll get back to work, get back to doing the same things that we’ve been doing to put us in this position.
“I have a team that works really hard in practice, a great coaching staff. We’ll get back to the fundamentals, watch film and then prepare.”
What matters in the long run
But it’s also time to continue to work to make the 2027 roster stronger. Four of the players in Notre Dame’s seven-player rotation are one-and-done — grad transfers Moore, Malaya Cowles, Gisella Sanchez and Vanessa de Jesus. Guard KK Bransford, who redshirted last season and missed six weeks of this one with a knee injury, is expected back as is Hidalgo. But in this age of one-year contracts and commitments, that’s a priority for general manager Pat Garrity to make into a certainty.
Same with coaxing the ACC’s Most Improved Player, Prosper, back for another year, with her publicly leaving all her options open at this juncture.
Ivey, meanwhile, secured a consensus top 5 recruiting class of five players in November, four of whom are in the Rivals Industry top 25 individual rankings — 6-2 Jacy Abii (12), 5-10 Jenica Lewis (21), 6-2 Amari Byles (22) and 6-2 Bella Ragone (24).
The Irish also have 6-2 forward Leah Macy debuting next season after the former five-star prospect sat out this season as a medical redshirt.
But Garrity and the Irish administration need to make the commitment to add a player or two from the transfer portal later this spring to — in Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman’s words — leave no doubt.
No doubt about their commitment to Irish women’s basketball and no doubt about keeping a promise to Hidalgo to give her a chance to make a deep NCAA Tournament run to finish out her career.