After the No. 3-seed Buckeyes defeated Howard, 75-54, and No. 6-seed Notre Dame took care of Fairfield in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the two teams will now battle it out Monday in Columbus to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
For the Buckeyes, it would be their first Sweet Sixteen berth since 2023, having fallen in the second round of the tournament in each of the last two seasons. The Fighting Irish made the Sweet Sixteen last season but were eliminated in a 71-62 loss to TCU.
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Ohio State enters the contest with a 27-7 record (15-3 at home), with all seven losses coming against teams ranked in the top 25. Notre Dame, for their part, is 23-10, with a 6-6 road record. Still, the Fighting Irish have enough in their arsenal to make this contest interesting, so here are three things we’ll be watching closely in Monday’s contest.
En garde, er… guards!
Perhaps what everyone will be talking about on Monday is the showdown between the team’s two star guards: sophomore Jaloni Cambridge for the Buckeyes and junior Hannah Hidalgo for the Fighting Irish.
Hidalgo excels on both sides of the court: She is third in scoring in all of Division I with an average of 25.2 points per game, but she also leads in steals with 5.5 per game. Cambridge’s numbers are nothing to scoff at, though —the Big Ten’s leading scorer, she’s averaging 22.7 points per game.
Cambridge’s field goal percentages (49.3%) and three-point percentages (34.4%) both exceed Hidalgo’s (47.7% and 31.5%, respectively).
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While Hidalgo is undoubtedly one of the best players in college basketball at the moment, Cambridge’s speed has been a problem for opponents. Her quickness, if left unchecked, could be disruptive on Monday as well.
Both players have expressed a tremendous amount of respect for the other, and the matchup between the two should be an exciting one regardless of which team comes out on top.
Secondary scoring still counts
On paper, it can often feel like Notre Dame is The Hannah Hidalgo Show. Where no single player led the Buckeyes in points, rebounds, or assists against Howard (Cambridge led in scoring with 21, center Elsa Lemmilä led in rebounds with 11, and Chance Gray logged a team-high four assists), Hidalgo led her team in all three in Notre Dame’s 79-60 win over Fairfield.
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In fact, Hidalgo logged 23 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and a record-breaking 8 steals (now the school record for single-game steals in the NCAA Tournament).
But much like the Buckeyes have a lot of secondary scoring capability, as evidenced by the three players who logged 11 points apiece against Howard (Gray, Ava Watson, and Jaloni’s older sister Kennedy Cambridge), so too does Notre Dame.
Guards Cassandre Prosper, Iyana Moore, and Vanessa de Jesus are all capable of stepping up, especially from three-point range, so while the Fighting Irish lean heavily on their superstar, the Buckeyes will need to find ways to guard a team that could still find ways to win even if Hidalgo is contained.
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Because of this offensive balance, so much of Monday’s game will likely come down to tempo: Can the Buckeyes speed it up and force turnovers the way they did against Howard, or will the Irish remain comfortable and in control?
Points in the paint
One area where the Buckeyes might be able to establish an edge is in the key. While Notre Dame outscored the Stags, 44-22, in the paint Saturday, Fairfield didn’t have the Big Ten’s leading shot blocker.
The Buckeyes will, though, in Lemmilä, who logged four of the Buckeyes’ seven total blocks. The Finnish big isn’t the only threat to Hidalgo and the Irish, either. After returning from a midseason shoulder injury, Buckeye forward Kylee Kitts has steadily improved, making herself an additional threat to her opponents. She tallied a block against Howard as well.
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The Buckeyes also scored 10 points in the paint on their big 30-2 run alone.
For the Irish’s part, Prosper led with three of the team’s five blocks against the Stags, so the battle for control could certainly be a proper chess match on Monday.
It seems likely that whichever team wins the battle in the key will also win the war for that Sweet Sixteen spot.
The Buckeyes and Notre Dame face off Monday at 4 PM ET in Columbus. The winner will advance to the Sweet 16.
