IRISH GOODBYE: Duke women's basketball upsets Notre Dame 61-56 in ACC Tournament semifinals
The lights shone as bright as ever, and so did the Blue Devils.
In one of the proudest moments of the Kara Lawson era, No. 3-seed Duke women’s basketball earned a 61-56 upset victory over No. 2-seed Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament semifinals Saturday. Sophomore guard Oluchi Okananwa scored 14 points, and the Blue Devils outrebounded the Fighting Irish 38 to 26 to advance to the ACC Championship.
Duke entered the fourth quarter with a tenuous 47-42 lead, the fewest points through three quarters that Notre Dame had scored all season. Okananwa pushed the lead to eight with a 3-pointer, but five-straight Fighting Irish points, including a layup-and-one by Hannah Hidalgo, cut it to three. Delaney Thomas nailed two free throws with 7:15 to go, and an Ashlon Jackson steal led to a Taina Mair fast-break layup that brought the Duke lead to 54-47 with 4:49 left in the game.
After the timeout, Fighting Irish guard Sonia Citron cashed in a corner 3-pointer to cut the Duke lead to four, and following unsuccessful possessions on both sides, the Fighting Irish were left with 1:31 to cut into the four-point lead. Reigan Richardson secured a defensive rebound on a Hidalgo miss and dished it cross-court in transition to Okananwa for a layup.
Maddy Westbeld’s ensuing miss went off Thomas, giving Notre Dame another crack at scoring at the one-minute mark. Hidalgo’s scoop layup with 54.5 seconds to go cut Duke’s lead to 56-52 and forced a timeout by Lawson. The Blue Devils drained more clock thanks to a clutch offensive rebound on her own 3-point miss by Mair, and Jackson knocked in 1-of-2 free throws to give Duke a five-point lead with 22.5 seconds left in the game.
Citron’s miss on the next possession gave Okananwa her seventh rebound of the night and a trip to the free-throw line, where she cashed in on both attempts with 15.4 seconds left to grant the Blue Devils a 59-52 lead. Two Hidalgo free throws cut the lead to five, but Duke would not be denied en route to its first ACC Championship game since 2017.
Trailing by two at the halftime break, Duke grabbed a 36-35 lead in the third quarter with swarming defense. After the under-five media timeout, Jackson cashed in her first 3-pointer of the night after five misses, tying Duke’s largest lead at four. On the next possession, Hidalgo’s swarming defense forced an airball by Jackson, and Miles knocked down a 3-pointer to give the lead back to the Fighting Irish.
A patented Jadyn Donovan jumper served as the Blue Devils’ answer, and a Vanessa de Jesus steal led to a Toby Fournier layup in transition. Two free throws by Okananwa gave Duke its largest lead of the afternoon at 47-42; the Fighting Irish had been forced into six turnovers in the third quarter alone. The continued defensive pressure gave Lawson’s squad the marquee win.
The respect Notre Dame had for Fournier, the ACC Rookie of the Year, was immediately apparent, as she was frequently doubled in the paint by the Fighting Irish’s forwards. Duke’s attempts to feed the Toronto native on entry passes were met fiercely by a stout Notre Dame defense, and the Blue Devils had turned the ball over seven times by the end of the first quarter. Partially as a result of this, Fournier only recorded 16 minutes in the game and none in the fourth quarter.
Hidalgo made her mark in the first 20 minutes. She flew out of the post to intercept an Okananwa pass, cashing in for her third bucket of the night. Citron swiped the ball from Fournier’s hands, and Hidalgo gave it back to Citron for an easy layup. Hidalgo, the ACC’s leader in steals, wasn’t done just yet, as she took the ball away from de Jesus for another fast-break layup, bringing her total to eight on the afternoon. De Jesus would counteract the damage, though, hitting a corner three to cut Notre Dame’s lead to 17-16 at the end of the first quarter.
To get the second quarter started, Richardson collided with Westbeld, drawing blood from the Fighting Irish’s forward. The 6-foot-3 senior remained out for the rest of the first half, depriving Notre Dame of a vital interior presence.
After a 7-0 Notre Dame run, Okananwa cashed in a 3-pointer — Duke’s first field goal in nearly six minutes — to cut the Fighting Irish’s lead to two. Mair’s trey could not fall to keep the contest at 31-29 entering halftime, advantage Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish scored 17 of their 31 first-half points off the Blue Devils’ 11 turnovers, while Hidalgo alone had 14 points and four steals after 20 minutes of play.
One advantage Duke held throughout the contest was a more stout rotation, with 28 bench points compared to Notre Dame’s 14. De Jesus had seven first-half points in just six minutes of play, while Fournier and Okananwa secured the only offensive rebounds for the Blue Devils in the first half. However, foul trouble hurt Duke early on, as four players — Donovan, Mair, Richardson and Wood — had picked up two personal fouls prior to halftime.
The Blue Devils will take on No. 1-seed N.C. State in the ACC championship Sunday at 1 p.m.
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