Notre Dame PG Hannah Hidalgo ties ACC record with 10th Rookie of the Week award
Nobody has won more ACC Rookie of the Week awards than Notre Dame freshman Hannah Hidalgo. The Fighting Irish point guard earned the honor for the 10th time this season on Monday tying Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson for the most ever.
Latson just set the mark with the Seminoles last season. Hidalgo has a chance to break it a week from today.
Hidalgo scored a career-high 35 points against Georgia Tech last Thursday then backed it up with 22 more against Pittsburgh yesterday to average 28.5 points, 6.5 assists, 4.5 steals and 4 rebounds in the two games that went toward winning her 10th ACC Rookie of the Week award. She shot 51.2 percent from the field in the two games, which was the highest shooting percentage of anyone in the ACC on a minimum of 30 attempts.
For the season, Hidalgo is averaging 24.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 5.0 steals. She uncharacteristically only had 1 point in the first quarter of Sunday’s game against the Panthers. She had 7 in the second, then she hit a three in the first 30 seconds of the third frame and was well on her way to putting up her usual numbers. She has scored at least 20 points in 19 of Notre Dame’s 21 games.
“She’s a gamer,” Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey said. “She’s somebody who no matter what is always going to be competitive. I thought she was a little frustrated in the first quarter but found her way in the second half, and her teammates do a great job of trying to settle her down and encourage her on the court.
“And that’s just something that — she’s a freshman at the end of the day. Even with her having not made the shots and free throws that she normally makes, she still ends with 22. With her being a dynamic player, she’ll still find a way to be impactful. She’s always going to wear her heart on her sleeve and leave it all out on the floor.”
Hidalgo scored 34 points on national TV against then-No. 8 UConn two weeks ago. She has a chance to continue to show the world what she can do when Notre Dame plays at No. 15 Louisville (19-3, 8-1 ACC) on Thursday night. The game is on ESPN at 6 p.m. ET.
Hidalgo has scored 30-plus points four times, and three of those instances were against ranked teams. She finds a way to elevate her already incredibly high level of play to even greater heights when the lights are the brightest.
