How Notre Dame hunkered down on defense to beat Wake Forest

The Notre Dame coaching staff gave the Fighting Irish a halftime goal on Sunday: hold Wake Forest to 22 or fewer points in the second half. They failed, but barely. The Demon Deacons scored 23.

Notre Dame, already leading by 12 at the break, scored 30.

The Irish finished well below their season-long points average of 84.4, the best mark in the ACC, but when you only allow 56 it’s not so bad to score 75. Fifty-six points, after all, would be the best points allowed average in the conference. Right now, the Irish give up 60.0 per game, which ranks seventh.

Junior guard Sonia Citron is back in the lineup, and senior forward Maddy Westbeld has not been affected by playing with a plastic mask after missing one game with a concussion. Those two can score better than anyone on the Notre Dame roster not named Hannah Hidalgo, but it’s become increasingly clear how the Irish have to win league games.

Defense.

Notre Dame simply does not have enough depth with graduate student guard Jenna Brown, junior guard Olivia Miles, sophomore combo guard Cass Prosper and freshman guard Emma Risch out with injuries. Risch is already done for the season. It’s looking like Brown and Miles might miss the entire campaign too. Prosper has had a boot on her right leg for well over a month, going on two.

Citron, Westbeld and Hidalgo are susceptible to off nights shooting and scoring. But something that can show up night in and night out regardless of roster numbers?

Defense.

“Our identity is on defense,” Westbeld said. “Getting the ball out, rebounding and going. We can’t get into our flow offensively unless we do that. So that’s really something the coaches are emphasizing and also us on the floor.”

It starts with Hidalgo, quite literally. The 5-6 point guard has a knack for taking the ball away from opponents before rebounding, as Westbeld said, is even a possibility. She leads the nation with 5.5 steals per game.

Hidalgo relentlessly harassing opposing point guards lays the foundation for the four other Notre Dame players on that end of the floor. When they see her never take a possession off defensively, an identical approach naturally collectivizes. It’s impossible to not follow her lead.

“She just changes the energy of our defense,” head coach Niele Ivey said. “It’s contagious. Everyone is playing harder defensively because of the way she defends.”

Notre Dame doesn’t even have to employ a full-team press, either. Hidalgo does enough to get under the skin of the ball handler to disrupt the entire look of the ensuing possession. She plays 94 feet while her teammates get back and get set. Notre Dame, more times than not, ends up with the ball and a chance to extend a lead.

Wake Forest, on its home floor, did not lead for a second of Sunday’s matchup. Hidalgo scored the first three points of the game, and the Irish were off and running. Wire-to-wire wins are made possible by suffocating defense. It’s the way the Irish need to play from here on out.

“We always want to be better defensively and bring that dominance and bring that aggresiveness,” Ivey said.

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