SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Paige Bueckers was trying to lead UConn back. Hannah Hidalgo wouldn't let her.
With No. 8 Notre Dame's lead down to one point in the final seconds of the third quarter, Hidalgo made a 3-pointer at the buzzer. The Fighting Irish took that momentum and quickly regained a double-digit lead in the fourth, holding off No. 2 UConn 79-68 on Thursday night.
Hidalgo finished with 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Bueckers, a 6-foot senior and fellow All-American, scored 25 points.
“Notre Dame has a lot of outstanding players, but Hannah is obviously the head of the snake,” Bueckers said. “She does a lot of great things offensively and defensively. She’s a pest. The best thing that she does is her energy and her attitude, and she leads her team with that and her fire.”
It was the second time Hidalgo led Notre Dame (8-2) to a double-digit victory against UConn. As a freshman, she had 34 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in Notre Dame’s 82-67 road win.
“(Hannah) was in the fire last year,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said. “She’s a big-stage player. She’s different in such a unique way, the way that she plays.”
This season, the 5-foot-6 Hidalgo has led the Irish to three victories over top-five teams. They had already defeated No. 3 USC and No. 4 Texas before handing the Huskies their first loss of the season.
Hidalgo came into Thursday averaging 24.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 4.1 steals, then made six 3-pointers against UConn (8-1).
“Her talent is obvious,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “I think, more importantly, is the way she attacks everything that she does. The way she attacks your defense. The way when she’s on defense, she attacks your offense. I think the way that she leads her team in so many different ways. You put all those three things together, and it’s a really, really difficult matchup for anybody. She does what she does. I don’t know that there’s a lot of strategies that you can use.”
Bueckers entered with averages of 18.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.3 steals. She was the focus of a relentless Notre Dame defense, and Auriemma said the Huskies need more balance.
“You have to take some of the pressure off of Paige,” Auriemma said. “Sometimes she’s her own worst enemy. She over-penetrates to try to get something in traffic to get to the free throw line … she makes it a little harder on herself than it has to be.
“If you’re going to play her the way they played her, which is what she’s going to see a lot of, we need other contributions. And Paige is going to try to carry the team by herself when she thinks there aren’t a lot of those contributions, and that’s not good for her and that’s not good for us.”
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