SMU Women’s Basketball commemorated its seniors on Sunday, but didn’t have much to celebrate afterwards as Notre Dame ran away with an 88-63 win.
Although Zahra King posted an impressive 23-point performance, a costly 25 team turnovers were too much to overcome for SMU. Notre Dame recorded 18 steals and 26 points off turnovers.
“We really turned our defense on,” Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey said. “We just did a really great job of putting a lot of pressure on them.”
In addition to King, Ayanna Thompson scored 16 points and Sahnya Jah contributed 10 points with five rebounds and five steals. The Fighting Irish were led by junior Hannah Hidalgo, who had an electric 33-point, 11-steal game.
“Hannah Hidalgo speaks for herself,” SMU head coach Adia Barnes said. “She’s really hard to play against. Not only offensively is she tremendous in attack mode, but defensively she’s a monster.”
The first quarter started favorably for SMU, as Thompson drained her first three-pointer of the game and Jah completed a lay-up to give the Mustangs a 5-0 lead. Through five minutes, SMU remained neck-and-neck with Notre Dame, exchanging baskets on the way to an 11-11 tie with 5:22 remaining.
The Notre Dame offense methodically began to overpower SMU. Iyana Moore scored eight points for the Fighting Irish in less than two minutes of game clock, leading to Notre Dame pulling away 29-20 to end the first quarter. SMU limited the turnovers in the first period, only giving possession away four times to Notre Dame’s three.
SMU, though far sloppier in the second quarter, stayed within reach of Notre Dame. The Mustangs committed 11 turnovers in the second quarter alone, but were only outscored by Notre Dame 15-14. Hidalgo and Moore led the defensive charge for Notre Dame, pickpocketing SMU’s ballhandlers to create easy points on offense.
“My mindset is always to just strike fear in the ball handler and make them afraid to dribble the ball,” Hidalgo said.
At the end of the half, SMU trailed 44-34. King scored 15 of her 23 points in the first half, but Ivey said that King’s strong first half was the focus of Notre Dame’s second-half adjustments.
“[King] was a big area of focus for us in the second half,” Ivey said. “We tried to put a lot of pressure on her, start to deny her, which I thought was effective in the second-half.”
In the third quarter, Notre Dame scored 30 points, squashing any hope of an SMU comeback. The Fighting Irish scored on 13 of 18 possessions, many of which were created via steals. Coach Barnes said her team wasn’t quite at the same caliber as a team like Notre Dame yet.
“We could not guard them, we had a very hard time,” Barnes said. “Really good team basketball and just a lot better than we are right now.”
The fourth quarter was as unceremonious as the third. SMU’s offense lacked firepower, and Hidalgo’s quick style of play proved insurmountable. The Mustangs did draw even with the Fighting Irish, as the teams scored 14 points apiece, but it ultimately led to an 88-63 loss and the 14th loss in ACC play.
With eight seniors celebrated on Sunday, and only two regular season games left in the schedule, Coach Barnes has her focus set on the future of the program. Barnes said that she felt that the sophomore King gave SMU a strong foundation to build upon.
“I like that [King] has had to learn how to lead a little bit and she’s had to step outside herself,” Barnes said. “Those are all building blocks for the future. So we’ll get her back and add some really good players around her.”
With the loss, SMU dropped to 9-19 and 2-14 in the ACC. The Mustangs’ final two games before ACC tournament play begins are away matchups against Stanford and Cal. The Mustangs will take on the Cardinal next on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m.
