If you watched the broadcast of this game, it’s clear to you that Hannah Hidalgo is Notre Dame’s key player. Selecting key players for Louisville is a little tricky, however, as someone seems to be a star every game. That’s the secret to this team’s success, and it was on full display tonight.
The big star of this game for the Cards is Reyna Scott. She came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points and stabilized her performance at the guard position. Notre Dame rushed the ball several times to close the gap, but Renner and company kept their composure and never allowed the Irish to regain the lead. Coach Walz said, “I thought Rayna Scott did a great job today. We did put them in some ball screen situations off the bounce and it really gave them some problems and she took advantage of them. Did a really good job around the rim.”
Tatiana Roberts had 19 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. McKenley Randolph had 10 points and 7 rebounds. Elif Istanbulluoglu scored 11 points after returning from illness.
Coach Walz said: “The team effort tonight was outstanding. Really, really happy and proud of them. That’s one of the things that makes our team good, we can adjust and play different styles, they had a lot of lineups tonight but we were still able to play our bigs… In the second half, we were able to mix things up.” He added in the fourth They cut it to seven in the quarter and then “boom, we hit a three and got back to ten… We withstood their run and I thought our defense did a really good job in the fourth quarter. We were up by eight or nine points and we let them use the entire shot clock to attack. Even when they scored, it only took them 30 seconds. So overall, I thought we did a really good job.”
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On Hannah Hidalgo, he said: “My main focus today is, hey, Hannah Hidalgo, no matter who she’s guarding, doesn’t take the ball. They told me in the press room that she’s only had three games in her career with less than 2 steals, and two of them were against us. I never claim to be the smartest in the world, but I’m certainly not stupid, so why are you letting the guy she’s guarding bring the ball up the court? I mean, this kid leads the country in steals.” “
The Cards will continue on the road and travel to North Carolina on Sunday. Game time is 1pm and can be watched on ESPN2.