Why Notre Dame has a top 10 player duo in the NCAA Tournament
With the NCAA Tournament beginning this week, ESPN tabbed the 10 best duos on the women’s side. Notre Dame freshman point guard Hannah Hidalgo and senior forward Maddy Westbeld made the cut.
Here’s why.
ESPN analyst Charlie Creme: “On an Irish team ravaged by injuries, Hidalgo and Westbeld have been the rocks. Hidalgo is Notre Dame’s leading scorer and top defender. Westbeld is the team’s top rebounder and most accurate 3-point shooter. Perhaps just as important, they’ve missed only one game combined for a team that is now only six players deep.
“While Hidalgo has been the catalyst for the Irish (a No. 2 seed in Albany 1) in her rookie season, Westbeld’s ability to take her game to another level late in the season has been the key to Notre Dame’s eight-game winning streak. No better example of their importance came in the ACC tournament championship game, when the two combined to score all but one of the Irish’s second-half points in a win over NC State.”
ESPN’s top 10 duos in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament
- UConn’s Paige Bueckers and Aaliyah Edwards
- Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and Hannah Stuelke
- Iowa State’s Audi Crooks and Addy Brown
- LSU’s Angel Reese and Aneesah Morrow
- Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and Maddy Westbeld
- Ohio State’s Jacy Sheldon and Celeste Taylor
- South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso and Te-Hina Paopao
- Stanford’s Cameron Brink and Kiki Iriafen
- UCLA’s Charisma Osborne and Kiki Rice
- Virginia Tech’s Georgia Amoore and Elizabeth Kitley
Blue & Gold says…
Notre Dame is in a good spot considering Hidalgo and junior guard Sonia Citron, the Irish’s second-leading scorer, could have been the pair chosen by ESPN. Westbeld is a good choice, though. She leaves her mark as a double-double machine, leading the Irish with 12 of those this season, and she’s a big-shot maker. Notre Dame would not have won the ACC Tournament title game without her back-to-back fourth quarter 3s that tied the game in the fourth quarter.
Impressively, Notre Dame beat two of the other nine tandems on ESPN’s list; those of UConn and Virginia Tech. South Carolina is a different monster. Cardoso could have been paired with freshman guard Milaysia Fulwiley instead of Paopao. The depth the Gamecocks have is unlike anyone else’s in women’s college basketball.
