SOUTH BEND — A 34-16 scoring difference in the second and third quarters stymied No. 11 Duke Monday night in No. 1 Notre Dame’s 64-49 win over the Blue Devils at Purcell Pavilion.
With neither team above 30 points at halftime, a third-quarter surge generated by a lively defense powered the Fighting Irish to pick up its latest runaway victory against a top-15 opponent.
Led by Hannah Hidalgo’s 19 points and Sonia Citron’s 15, Notre Dame improved to 23-2 and 14-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and won its 18th-straight contest.
“Duke’s a really good defensive team and we just turned it on in the third quarter,” Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey said. “Our defensive intensity, it was incredible, something I’ve never experienced. I’m so proud of this group of managing and navigating the pressure that we have.”
A 41-28 rebounding advantage, including 23-13 in the second half, was a key difference between a sluggish and turnover-heavy first-half performance and the much-improved second-half showing. Notre Dame entered halftime with just two offensive rebounds but ended the game with 15.
“You gain momentum when you get the ball back,” Ivey said. “Obviously, the clock resets so you get to take more time off. You gain a lot of momentum when you get the ball back. We knew we had to be big on boards, so that stat was big for us.”
Hidalgo, a candidate for the country’s player of the year honor, was clearly unsatisfied with the 29-27 lead going into halftime.
Out of the locker room, she had much more to celebrate.
“I talked to the team about us really not playing our style and I talked about how we kind of dictated everything,” Ivey said. “As far as turnovers, we weren’t playing us. I talked about we got to fix us and that was handling the pressure, that was defensive stops, not turning over the ball. I didn’t feel like we had that in the first half.”
Notre Dame trailed 19-16 after the first 10-minute period. An aggressive defensive pressure by the Blue Devils was placed on the Fighting Irish’s many guards. That led to turnover issues and frustration for the hosts.
Despite the heavy defensive presence at the perimeter by Duke, it was Notre Dame’s 3-point attack that kept the Irish within reach. Citron’s triple gave Notre Dame a 22-21 lead and Maddy Westbeld’s trey at the end of the shot clock with 2:17 to play in the half tied the game at 27. A pair of free throws from Citron gave Notre Dame a slim 29-27 lead at the break.
With the last five points before the break, an Irish 22-1 run that stretched beyond the halfway mark of the third quarter forced Duke to take a second full timeout as the Blue Devils suddenly trailed 46-28. Two 30-second defensive stands, a pair of blocks and six-consecutive points began the scoring series in the third quarter.
“That run coming out of halftime at the start of the third quarter just kind of overwhelmed us and I had to take a couple timeouts there to settle our group,” Duke head coach Kara Lawson said.
“I do remember some turnovers by us and then that kind of fueled their transition,” Lawson said. “They’re really hard to stop when they’re running because they have so many capable ball-handlers, decision makers, scorers, passers and 3-point shooters as well. It just felt like the beginning of that third quarter they were playing downhill.”
Notre Dame outscored the Blue Devils 21-8 in the quarter and the lead never shrunk below double digits the rest of the way.
Notre Dame became the third different team this season to be ranked as the country’s top team. South Carolina began the season ranked No. 1 before UCLA upset the Gamecocks in Los Angeles. The Bruins had held the top spot before it lost its first game of the season against rival USC last week. This is the first time since 2019 that the Irish have been ranked No. 1
“We addressed it on Saturday so we could get it out ahead of Monday,” Ivey said about the ranking. “I said there’s a possibility, which I addressed Saturday. They know nothing changes with the goal, it’s obviously an honor. We just want to get better daily and that was my mindset.”
The Fighting Irish, which have now won 18-straight games, is also 23-0 when playing on U.S. soil. Notre Dame’s lone blemish is an uncharacteristic two-game slide at the Cayman Islands Classic in November.
The Irish are now 7-1 against ranked teams. They are 4-1 versus teams currently in the top-10.
Entering Monday night, Duke had won three of the last four meetings against the Irish.
MARCH PREVIEW
The NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee released its first batch of seeding previews for the current top-16 teams this past weekend. UCLA, which suffered its first loss last week, was tabbed as the No. 1 overall seed. South Carolina, Texas and Notre Dame rounded out the top-10. The Fighting Irish were the final team on the top line, despite besting the Longhorns in an 80-70 overtime win in South Bend earlier this season.
USC, LSU, Connecticut and NC State were chosen as the current four No. 2 seeds. Notre Dame beat the Trojans, Huskies and Wolfpack this season.
Notre Dame is next in action on Thursday on the road at Miami. Just two ranked teams remain on the schedule. The Irish will play at No. 13 NC State on Sunday and will welcome in Florida State on Thursday, Feb. 27. Notre Dame’s season finale is set for March 2 in South Bend against Louisville.
The ACC has never had a team finish 18-0 during the regular season. Notre Dame could be the first.
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COLLEGE BASKETBALL
(1) Notre Dame – 16; 13; 21; 14 – 64
(11) Duke – 19; 8; 8; 14 – 49
