STORRS — Notre Dame star Hannah Hidalgo‘s reign of terror against the UConn women’s basketball team ended in historic fashion on Monday night at Gampel Pavilion when the Huskies reclaimed their crown in the rivalry for the first time since 2021.
No. 1 UConn preserved its undefeated record with an 85-47 victory over the Fighting Irish, holding Hidalgo to 16 points after the junior guard averaged a 30-point double-double against the Huskies across the last two seasons. Hidalgo shot 33% from the field and 1-for-6 on 3-pointers, also giving up three turnovers with just two assists.
UConn’s 38-point win was the largest in the history of its series with Notre Dame, shattering the previous record of 27 points set by the 2002 Huskies who went undefeated and won the NCAA Championship.
Huskies star Sarah Strong was dominant on both ends of the floor, logging her sixth double-double of the season with 18 points on 66.7% shooting plus 11 rebounds, three assists, three blocks and three steals. She became the third-fastest player in UConn history to surpass 1,000 career points in her 59th game, trailing only all-time greats Maya Moore and Paige Bueckers.
Behind Strong, the Huskies put together one of their most complete team performances of the season with seven different players scoring at least eight points and all five starters socring in double digits. Azzi Fudd and KK Arnold, who bore the brunt of the defensive assignment on Hidalgo, were the team’s second- and third-highest scorers respectively, and Arnold had a team-high five assists plus two steals. Despite going 0-for-4 on 3-pointers, Fudd logged 15 points and shot 7-for-9 inside the arc.
The Huskies had about as good a defensive start as they could have hoped for, holding Notre Dame without a made field goal for the first six minutes of the game. They limited the Irish to just 3-for-14 from the field, and Hidalgo started 0-for-4 with two of her team’s three turnovers in the opening quarter.
But while UConn locked down the Irish, they also struggled to get their own offense flowing. The team began the first quarter on a spectacular 8-0 run, hitting their first four field goal attempts and grabbing four straight defensive rebounds off Notre Dame misses, but the Huskies shot just 3-for-12 after after that hot start.
The Huskies found some momentum early in the second quarter after Strong sank the team’s first 3-pointer of the game to surpass 1,000 career points and end an 0-for-5 start. The home crowd rained boos onto the court after a foul call against Ashlynn Shade while guarding Hidalgo, but the junior guard immediately followed up the play with a pull-up 3-pointer of their own to illicit a roar that shook the building.
But UConn couldn’t string together consistent offensive possessions, and Hidalgo began to solve for their defensive pressure. The Notre Dame star sank her first shot early in the quarter and entered halftime with 10 points shooting 50% from the field. UConn’s rotations went through several disjointed possessions, allowing Hidalgo a clean look from the perimeter that resulted in Notre Dame’s first made 3-pointer, and she had a wide-open opportunity seconds later that just glanced off the rim.
Both teams went scoreless for more than two minutes to end the first half, and UConn’s drought lasted more than three minutes with three turnovers after the second-quarter media timeout. The Huskies maintained a nine-point lead, but Notre Dame kept second-quarter score even at 16-16.
The sluggish second appeared to light a fire under UConn, who put the game away minutes after they emerged from the halftime locker room. Arnold, who shoots just 32% from 3-point range, nailed a clutch shot from the left wing that pushed the Huskies’s lead back to double-digits, and Shade added her second perimeter make a minute later off an Arnold steal. The Huskies forced three turnovers over a 90-second stretch and scored points off of two for an 8-0 run.
Notre Dame took a timeout to attempt to recalibrate, but UConn’s offense continued to bulldoze out of the break. The Huskies extended the run to 12-0 before the Irish put points on the board, and they added another 6-0 streak to force Notre Dame to burn another timeout. UConn went on to outscore the Irish 27-12 in the third, and it shot 3-for-7 from beyond the arc after going 2-for-13 before halftime. Hidalgo was once again held scoreless and took a single field goal attempt in the third.
Sophomore guard Kayleigh Heckel kept the Huskies’ energy up through the fourth, hitting a 3-pointer that launched a 17-2 UConn run. Coach Geno Auriemma began to empty the bench with nearly three minutes remaining in the game, using 10 of his 11 available players, and the Huskies finished the final frame outscoring the Irish by 14.