It might take the whole flight home from the Cayman Islands later this weekend for No. 3-ranked Notre Dame (5-1) to figure out exactly what happened Friday evening.
A 14-point lead late in the third quarter and an 11-point edge to start the fourth?
That’s when Notre Dame pounces. When its energy and talent usually take over.
But Friday it all fizzled in a 76-68 Cayman Islands Classic loss to No. 17 TCU, which equaled the school’s mark for best win over a ranked team.
It unraveled rapidly for Notre Dame, which never really figured out how to get around, through or over the defense of the Horned Frogs’ 6-7 grad student Sedona Prince, the transfer from Oregon.
The Irish, coming off a win over then-No. 3 USC last Saturday and coming in shooting 50% from the field, was out of rhythm offensively.
In front of a sparse crowd in the 2,000-seat John Gray Gymnasium in George Town, Cayman Islands, the Irish shot just 34.7% from the field, which included 5-for-15 on 3s.
Hannah Hidalgo, the nation’s third-leading scorer, got a couple of points over her average, with 27 points (9-for-22), Olivia Miles had 16 (7-for-14) and Sonia Citron had 14 (6-for-14) that included a couple of 3s. That was it for double-digit scores for Notre Dame, who came into the contest with six players averaging double figures.
But Prince was a wall in the lane. She blocked eight Irish shots and influenced the rest.
Liatu King, the 6-0 Irish forward averaging 14.5 points and shooting 71% from the field, was held to eight on 2-for-9 shooting, and 6-5 freshman center Kate Koval, who came in averaging a double-double, was held scoreless while going 0-for-9 from the field.
Prince hit her average with 20 points, added 20 rebounds and stayed out of foul trouble, playing for all but 22 seconds. The other half of a powerful duo, former LSU and Louisville guard Hailey Van Lith, scored 19 of her 21 points in the second half, nine in the fourth quarter, and finished with seven assists.
“Credit to TCU,” Irish coach Niele Ivey said. “I thought they came out and played really, really good, a really smart game. They shot the ball really well from 3. Prince was fantastic and Hailey had an incredible fourth quarter.
“I just didn’t think that we played a complete game for 40 minutes, so we’ve gotta get back to the drawing board.”
Entering the final quarter with an 11-point lead, the Irish allowed eight straight points in less than two minutes to make it a three-point game.
The Irish led 61-57 at the 6:50 mark, but with an offense out of sync, they didn’t score again until the 4:05 mark on a 15-footer by Miles.
A 3-pointer by Agnes Emma-Nnopu with 3:45 to play gave TCU its first lead, at 64-63, since the opening minute. From there, the Horned Frogs capitalized on an Irish drought that lasted from Miles’ shot at 4:05 to Hidalgo’s bucket with 44 seconds to play. Most of those shots were from the perimeter as Prince locked up the lane.
The Irish defense fared about the same, struggling to keep Van Lith away from the basket as the Horned Frogs shot 61% in the final quarter and outscored the Irish 31-12.
Second-year coach Mark Campbell led the Horned Frogs to a 21-12 mark last season after TCU finished 8-23 the season before he arrived. His roster includes 11 players who started their careers elsewhere.
The match was another big test for Koval, who entered the game leading the country with 24 blocks.
“Kate got into foul trouble, so I thought she got kind of tentative,” Ivey said. “But Prince is playing really great basketball right now, so averaging 20 points and 20 rebounds, she was really a problem for us. It’s a tough matchup. You know that she’s somebody that just has a ton of experience going against Kate.”
The Irish will take on Utah (5-2) Saturday at 5 p.m. EST.
