NCAA women's tournament Sweet 16: Notre Dame stuns No. 1 Vanderbilt with Hannah Hidalgo’s triple-double
FORT WORTH, Texas — Hannah Hidalgo already had her unusual triple-double and the NCAA single-season record for steals when she made the play that ultimately sent Notre Dame to the Elite Eight of March Madness.
Mikayla Blakes ended up with two chances to answer for Vanderbilt in a matchup of two of the nation's top three scorers in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
The Fighting Irish's sparkplug was the one leaping with joy at the buzzer.
Hidalgo had 31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals and the assist on the go-ahead bucket in the final minute, leading Notre Dame to a 67-64 victory over the higher-seeded Commodores on Friday.
After soaring between two defenders to catch an inbound pass, Hidalgo immediately flipped a bounce pass to Cassandre Prosper under the basket for a two-point lead with 22 seconds to go.
The sixth-seeded Fighting Irish (25-10) will play No. 1 seed and defending national champion UConn (37-0) Sunday for a spot in the Final Four.
Blakes, the Division I scoring leader, rallied from a rough shooting start to finish with 26 points for Vanderbilt, but lost the ball out of bounds on the dribble after Prosper's go-ahead shot, then missed a 3-pointer as time expired.
The No. 2 seed Commodores (29-5) were in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009.
“It was like, we didn’t do all this work just for it to be over right now,” said Hidalgo, the No. 3 scorer in Division 1. “I was telling the girls, I’m like, ‘This is not our last game playing together. We’re going to figure it out and win this game so we can be able to play a game together again.’”
Kiki Rice scored 21 points and Lauren Betts added 16 to help No. 1 seed UCLA beat fourth-seeded Minnesota 80-56 on Friday night in the Sweet 16 of the women's NCAA Tournament.
The Bruins (34-1) advanced to play either LSU or Duke in the Sacramento Regional 2 final on Sunday.
This was a rematch of a Big Ten matchup earlier in the season that UCLA won by 18 points. Minnesota tried to slow the game down in the first half, working the clock down on offense and trying to limit touches for Betts.
Minnesota trailed 34-29 at the half before UCLA took over, scoring the first eight points of the third quarter to take its first double-digit lead on Gabriela Jaquez’s layup.
Minnesota never got within single digits again.
UCLA ran through the regular season with its only loss coming against Texas back in November. The Bruins went undefeated in Big Ten play and then cruised to the conference tournament championship, routing Iowa by 51 points in the title game.
They are trying to get back to the Final Four for the second straight season and reach their first national championship game.
Sarah Strong chose UConn over North Carolina instead of staying home, and the All-America sophomore forward is a step closer to a second national title after helping knock the Tar Heels out of the women's NCAA Tournament.
Strong, who is from Durham, not far from the UNC campus, had 21 points and 10 rebounds as the defending champion and overall No. 1 seed Huskies won 63-42 on Friday. UConn is going to the Elite Eight for the 30th time, and will face familiar foe Notre Dame.
“She’s just such a hard guard. I mean, I love the kid. I love the kid, who she is, her core. I love her family, but I really love her as a basketball player,” said North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart, who recruited Strong. “She’s so fun to watch. And she’s a problem, right? She hurt us in off-ball action and non-ball action.”
After Blanca Quiñonez made a layup at the start of the second quarter to put UConn (37-0) ahead to stay, Strong then made four consecutive field goals in a two-minute span. That was part of a stretch when the Huskies outscored fourth-seeded North Carolina 37-13 over the second and third quarters.
It will be the ninth meeting between UConn and Notre Dame in March Madness. Their first eight tourney games, the last in 2019, were all in the Final Four, including back-to-back national championship games in 2014 and 2015. UConn won both of those during its run of four consecutive titles.
