In South Bend, Indiana, the No. 3 seed Notre Dame convincingly defeated No. 6 seed Michigan with a score of 76-55 in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament. This victory on Sunday propels Notre Dame to the Sweet 16 for the fourth year in a row, where they will compete in Birmingham against either TCU or Louisville. Earlier in the season, TCU managed a victory over Notre Dame in the Cayman Islands, while the Fighting Irish have bested Louisville in two ACC regular-season matchups.
Olivia Miles made her presence felt despite facing an ankle injury from Notre Dame’s dominant 106-54 win over Stephen F. Austin in the first round. Scoring eight points, contributing five assists, and securing four rebounds, Miles decided only 15 minutes before the game that she would take to the court. “I was leaning towards no, and then I started to feel pretty good leading up to the game,” she explained, acknowledging the challenge of playing through pain, “I was just like, ‘You know what? Let me play, because it’s my last home game, and I wanted to share it with these girls.'”
Key performances came from Liatu King, who achieved a double-double with 18 points and 15 rebounds, and Sonia Citron, who added 16 points to Notre Dame’s tally. The Fighting Irish jumped out to a quick start, leading 11-2, and extended their advantage to 32-12 by the end of the first quarter. Their performance was reflective of a team that had registered wins over formidable opponents like Texas, Southern California, UConn, and Duke during the regular season, rather than a team that stumbled in the late part of their schedule with three losses in five games. In contrast, Michigan began the game shooting just 1-of-7 from the field.
Hannah Hidalgo noted the team’s competitive spirit, “I think we have the fight because we want to win. We are competitors and we want to win and we want to get all the way to the National Championship, and that’s really where our fight comes from.” Notre Dame’s defense held Michigan to a season-low 55 points, notably beneath their average of 78.2 points per game.
Notre Dame’s head coach, Niele Ivey, emphasized the defensive focus, praising the players’ determination, “They came out with the same mindset, same energy as kind of what I talked about, dominant. And again, it’s a will; a will to win, understanding what it means to get to the next round and get to the Sweet Sixteen.”
Olivia Olson and Syla Swords, both freshmen, led the scoring for Michigan with 20 and 17 points respectively. Michigan’s coach, Kim Barnes Arico, highlighted the challenging first quarter and Notre Dame’s experience playing a pivotal role. “You just hope, as we’re getting our feet wet, that they don’t extend that lead,” she noted. “We weren’t able to stop it. We were a mess defensively. I’m not sure why. I think because they could, they could score like guards in every position, and then they sped us up.”
The performance of Liatu King stood out, as she achieved a flawless shooting record and attributed her success to her teammates’ ability to find her in open spots. “Credit to my teammates, first of all, they were able to find me,” she stated. “We saw mismatches… and they were just able to find me on the slips on the rolls and things like that. I really give credit to the point guards, and Sonia (Citron), as well, for just finding me in open areas.”
Coach Ivey expressed significant gratitude to Notre Dame’s trainer Anne Marquez, naming her the team’s MVP for her efforts in preparing Miles to play. “They have been working on Liv for the last 48 hours,” Ivey commented. “But (Anne) is my MVP.”
Reflecting on the season, Coach Barnes Arico remarked on her freshmen’s growth, stating, “They’ve done extremely well with it. They have to have these experiences to learn from them, but they’re so competitive, and you saw that tonight from all three of them.”