The Ladies host #3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish today at 6 PM. The game will be broadcast on the ACC Network extra platform. The Irish are 17-2, 8-0 in conference. They have played 6 currently ranked teams and one team currently receiving votes. Their two losses were to back to back to #9 TCU and RV Utah in November. They have beaten #5 Texas, #6 UConn, #3 USC, #15 UNC and #20 Ga Tech. We also beat Ga Tech. Both teams also beat Wake Forest.
Notre Dame has two of the best guards in the NCAA in #3 sophomore 5'6 Hannah Hidalgo and #5 junior 5'10 Olivia Miles. The rest of the starting lineup are seniors: #11 6'1 guard Sonia Citron, #20 6''0 forward Liatu King and #21 6'3 Maddy Westbeld. I don't know who the Hokies have that can guard either Hidalgo or Miles out front or who can guard Westbeld down low. Last time I wrote about playing a team this good, I said the Hokies would have to get career games from several players to have a chance; and they did it. Against Notre Dame, I'm not sure career games by the whole starting lineup will be enough.
All the starters score in double digits led by Hidalgo at 25.4 and Miles at 16.4. King averages 12.6 ppg and 10.7 rpg. The starters except Westbeld average 32-35 min/game. Westbeld who started the season injured is only averaging 21 min/game.
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The Irish win the rebounding battle by 12 per game; average 19.1 assist to 14.9 TOs per game. They shoot 49.7% overall and 41.2% from three. Only King who does not shoot threes shoots less than 35% from three. Hidalgo and Miles average 43% and 43.6% from three; they average 49.2% and 53.6% overall. King and Westbeld average 56.4% and 59.1% overall and Westbeld shoots 38.9% from three. Notre Dame has a lot of strengths and not many weaknesses. They are picked to win this game by 18.5 points with the over/under at 151.5. I hope we an keep it that close.
LET'S GO HOKIES!
Comments
Let's go hokies! Avoiding an NC State or FSU repeat would be a win here
Unfortunately only way they don't hit the over is if the Hokies fail to score.
Notre Dame has scored at least 80 points in 13 of 19 games. 90 or more points in 9 games and over 100 in 4 games.
Did not get the over, we did, in fact, fail to score. :.(
Kind of hoping that ND caught the flu on the way over. Might be the best way we could win if their players aren't 100%.
Anybody else surprised LSU or USCe hasn't backed a truck of NIL money up for Hannah?
maybe ND has a truck, but she is in the Caitlin Clark camp of getting real NIL deals and not needing the pay for play version
ND got Riley Leonard like $4M in NIL. Imagine they can scrape up a few Sheckels
I feel like none of our games are on TV
ND is incredible though so maybe this one is for the best
Just told my wife how dumb this is. The ACC is so terrible at promoting itself. ND is ranked #3 and is one of the best teams in the country. Why would you not show this game on ACCN at the 6 PM slot?! Instead, they're showing unranked FSU at BC, a team in the bottom half of the conference.
Rose with her first foul 30 seconds in
Strong start but we let the dribble penetration get to the the basket way too easily the last 3 minutes or so of the quarter.
I've already had my fill of Hidalgo and Miles barking at and talking to the refs
Down 36-32 at the half. ND had a 8-2 run to end the half. VT lacks the talent and depth, but this team fights and plays hard. Hope they can keep it close in the 3rd quarter.
I get the foul trouble but you have to play your best 5 right now before this gets completely out of reach. You have to trust your players to guard and not commit another foul.
Brutal 3rd Quarter
Anyone know what the hell the double technical was for? Zero explanation here at the game.
Looked like Wenzel and Hidalgo both mouthing off at each other. Didn't really see much beyond that.
Hidalgo was jawing like she did ALL game long. Wenzel jawed back at her in response instead of going directly to the VT huddle. They gave them both a T, but that was Wenzel's 5th foul. I know it's frustrating as all get out to have to take that crap all game long, but Carleigh can't do that sitting on 4 fouls. With Suffren out for the rest of the year, Wenzel is too important to this team to get disqualified by a foul not in game action.
At the game. No explanation was provided. Assumed both were mouthing off to each other. And as noted elsewhere, Hildago was mouthing off to the refs the entire game. Miles was only slightly better.
The lady ref is a total shill for the ACC/ND. At the beginning of the game she essentially told Duffy to shut up...she wasn't going to hear Duffy's arguments. But then later the ref was actively looking to ND's coach for input...putting her arm around her and everything. Such a joke.
Well, we covered
The refs blew it open in the second half like I was afraid they would after the Hokies played better than expected in the first. I went in expecting to lose but keep it close. The refs were not going to let that happen. It was one of the worst officiated games I have ever seen and I was at the infamous "bullshit" game when Buzz was coach.
Refs were bad and obviously in ND's hip pocket. ACC must keep ND undefeated in conference play.
I will also say that WBB refs are almost all bad, though not as obviously one-sided as this game; just bad.