Hannah Hidalgo is the program's fastest player to 500 points in win over Pitt

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind – Irish earns a three-game win streak after starting slow in the first half and eventually finish 78-53.

Since the win over previously eighth ranked UConn, the Irish seem to have put the pieces together on both ends of the floor, despite a short roster.

Sitting at #14 in the country, the expectations are high for Notre Dame, and nobody knows that better than head coach Niele Ivey.

In the 25-point win over Pitt, the Irish led 36-27 at the half but Ivey said something at halftime to warrant a surge in the next 20 minutes.

"I talked about playing to our standard, I felt like there were moments where we lost, we had empty positions given of offensive rebounds and not being as dominant as I would have liked. So, I talked about fixing those things. Luckily, we can watch film and show them and then again, just playing to our standard and our standard is being aggressive defensively, you know getting out running in transition, and I felt like they responded to it," Ivey said.

It was enough to get freshman Hannah Hidalgo going. The New Jersey native got out to a slow start and still managed to drop 22 points on 6-16 shooting. In the midst of her struggles, Hidalgo also became the fastest in Notre Dame program history to score 500 points.

In addition, Maddy Westbeld finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds, earning her eighth double-double of the season.

Next up for the Irish is #16 Louisville on the road Thursday at 6 p.m.