Notre Dame's Niele Ivey makes satisfied admission after Louisville win
03/02/2025 04:04 PM
2024-25 has nearly been a dream season for Notre Dame women’s basketball, but the Irish have had to deal with some adversity of late. Notre Dame lost two games in a row to end the month of February against NC State and Florida State, raising questions about its viability as a title contender.
On Sunday, Notre Dame responded how a championship-caliber team should and often does. Niele Ivey and company played one of their best games in a long time, soundly handling No. 25 Louisville 72-59 in the regular season finale.
After the game, Ivey was relieved that her squad finally looked like itself again before the ACC Tournament tips off, via Tyler Horka of On3 Sports.
“I felt like we played to our standard today, and I'm hoping we can utilize this win and take that into next week because next week is 0-0,” Ivey said, per Horka. “A new season, and we're excited to be in March.”
The loss to NC State in what was a great game on the road against another elite team is nothing to be concerned about for Notre Dame, but it was stunning to see such a talented Irish team drop a game to a good Florida State team at home. Notre Dame had one of its worst outings of the season on Thursday, so it was refreshing to see the Irish clicking again against Louisville.
As is the case a lot of the time for Notre Dame, Hannah Hidalgo was the top player leading the Irish to the win. She finished the game with 20 points while adding nine rebounds, and six assists while knocking down a pair of 3-pointers.
Olivia Miles didn’t have the same volume that she does at times, but the future top WNBA Draft pick had a massive impact. Miles finished with 15 points and hit a huge buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter that gave Notre Dame a ton of momentum heading into the final 10 minutes.
With the regular season in the books, Notre Dame women’s basketball will now be focused on winning the ACC Tournament title after splitting the regular season crown with NC State. If it can do that next Sunday, the Irish will certainly be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament as they chase a national title.
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