Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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38 MAY 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED WOMEN'S BASKETBALL BY TYLER HORKA N otre Dame is not a house of cards. Far from it. It'd be selling head coach Niele Ivey and the job she's done in four years, each one yielding at least one more win than the one before it, short to label her program as such. But even sturdy ce- ment- and steel-based structures are susceptible to falling in detrimental en- vironments. Notre Dame's environment in another run to the Sweet 16 was cer- tainly detrimental. Again, just like it was last year when Notre Dame's starting backcourt im- ploded with a pair of season-ending knee injuries, Ivey can't catch a break. She could only put six players on the floor in a 70-65 loss to Oregon State at MVP Arena March 29 in Albany, N.Y. "Tough experience, tough loss," Ivey said afterward. Two of the six finished with four fouls. Senior forward Maddy West- beld had three before halftime, a num- ber matched by two more of the Irish's starters by the end of 40 minutes. Each time the whistle blew for an Irish in- fraction, it felt like the equivalent of a hole popping up in the hull of a boat in the middle of the ocean. "It threw me off defensively a little bit in the second half with playing as ag- gressive as I wanted to," Westbeld said. "That was really unfortunate." Since mid-February, the Irish did enough to patch such punctures. Fresh- man guard Hannah Hidalgo bailed 'em out. Or Westbeld made clutch shots and took games over. Junior guard So- nia Citron showed up and did the same. Those two gave it everything they had in combining for 41 points against the Beavers. Hidalgo only had 10 on 4-of-17 shooting. "You can't teach experience," Ivey said of Hidalgo's outing. Perhaps even more painful than Hi- dalgo's rare ineffective, inefficient game was Notre Dame's defense. The Irish gave up 70 points for the first time since Feb. 11. The Beavers shot 60.4 percent from the field as a team. They made it look easy. The Irish weren't able to win ugly against a top-tier opponent like they did in a 55-51 triumph over NC State, a similar team as Oregon State in structure and style, in the ACC Tour- nament title game. This time Notre Dame took on a lot of water. The blue-and-gold boat finally sunk. Everyone went into the water to- gether, though, keeping their heads dry. "I love my team," Ivey said. "That's the one thing that I know. This is an in- credible group, and we battled a lot this season. We left it on the floor, and I am just proud of who we are." Her ship stayed afloat for so long. Ten straight wins, the first eight of which vaulted Notre Dame into a No. 2 seed, is nothing to shrug shoulders at when 2022-23 Associated Press second-team All-American Olivia Miles didn't play a single second in any game all season. Most teams that lose a player of that caliber for a full season don't end up in the Sweet 16. Notre Dame, despite the season-ending loss, is not most teams. Road Ends In Sweet 16 Again For Fighting Irish Notre Dame's season ended in the Sweet 16 for the third year in a row under head coach Niele Ivey, but the future looks bright for the Irish. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT Date Opponent Result Mar. 23 No. 15 Kent State* W, 81-67 Mar. 25 No. 7 Ole Miss* W, 71-56 Mar. 29 vs. No. 3 Oregon State^ L, 70-65 * First and second rounds at South Bend ^ Sweet 16 at Albany, N.Y.