Notre Dame, led by Hidalgo and Miles, handed UConn its first loss

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Ahead of Thursday’s Top 10 matchup, UConn coach Geno Auriemma said he doesn’t think there’s a better backcourt in the country than the one his team is counting on with Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles would meet.

Auriemma’s assessment proved correct as the Irish, led by Hidalgo and Miles, handed the No. 2 Huskies their first loss of the season, 79-68, in South Bend, where No. 8 Notre Dame led almost from the start.

“This is a big win for us,” Irish coach Niele Ivey said. “Of course it’s just a win, but I’m really grateful for this group and really proud of our performance and the way we performed today with so much toughness and discipline.”

Hidalgo flirted with a triple-double (29 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists) and was the best player on the court while continuing to make a compelling case as the best player in the country. The sophomore scored or assisted on 48 of Notre Dame’s 79 points and became the first player in the last 25 seasons to record multiple games with at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists against the Huskies. Their first such game came in their first season in Storrs, Connecticut.

UConn had no answer for Hidalgo’s shooting from long range, where she made a career-best six 3s on 11 attempts. The Huskies managed a paltry 3-for-16 from the 3-point arc.

The Huskies trailed by as many as 13 points in the second quarter – their largest deficit of the season – but rallied in the third quarter to make it a one-point game. Until Hidalgo hit a 3 in the third quarter, a defining moment for UConn and a defining moment for Notre Dame. The Irish built on that shot and began the fourth quarter with a run that climbed back up to double digits and essentially put the game out of reach.

“Her talent is obvious,” Auriemma said. “She has a pretty unique level of talent. But I think more importantly is the way she attacks everything she does. She leads her team in so many different ways and I think it’s a really, really, really difficult battle for everyone of strategies, that you can use.”

Miles, who missed the entire 2023-24 season with an ACL injury, overcame a first-quarter hiccup when she hobbled off the floor after rolling her ankle and scored 16 points, including a team-leading nine points in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t know if there’s a better combination of guards than those two, considering how many different things they can hurt you with,” Auriemma said. “These guys are attacking you for the whole 40 minutes. And I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone up close who can do that.”

UConn has now lost three straight contests to rival Notre Dame for the first time since 2012-13. Ivey is the fifth head coach to win as many consecutive games against Auriemma, the sport’s all-time winningest coach, in the last 30 seasons, joining predecessors Muffet McGraw, Dawn Staley, Pat Summitt and Sylvia Hatchell.

The Irish’s back-to-back Feast Week losses to then-No. 17 TCU and unranked Utah in the Cayman Islands appear to be a distant memory as they now have three top-five wins, including overtime -Victory last week against then-No. 4 Texas. Notre Dame is the third team in the last 25 seasons to have so many top-five wins before January, joining South Carolina in 2021-22, which went on to win the national title, and UConn in 2016-17.

“We had a tough time. We came back and got back to work,” Ivey said. “They didn’t hang their heads. They just realized, OK, everyone needs to do a little bit more. And they were focused and ready and prepared. So I’m really happy with the courage and our response.”

“I hope the lesson was that if we play with heart, discipline and focus we can be as elite as anyone else in the country.”

The past week has once again confirmed that they can. While the Irish are led by the Hidalgo-Miles tandem, they received key contributions Thursday from Pitt transfer Liatu King, who Ivey called the X-factor with a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds. Guard Sonia Citron didn’t score many goals, but her defense made things difficult for 2021 National Player of the Year Paige Bueckers, who finished with 25 points but started slowly in the first quarter with just two points and went 0-for-4 from three.

What’s scarier for the rest of the country? Notre Dame — chasing its first Final Four since 2019 and first under Ivey — should get even better. Liza Karlen, who transferred from Marquette, made her Ireland debut after suffering an injury in preseason and Maddy Westbeld is expected back later this season.

“Obviously they lost two games, so there’s probably no team that you can say is unbeatable,” Auriemma said. “And if you put Notre Dame against any other team in the country, I don’t think anyone would be surprised if they won that game.”

ESPN Research contributed to this report.