UNC women's basketball allows 13 threes in double-digit loss to Notre Dame

UNC's two-point defense excelled in its loss to Notre Dame on Sunday. The Tar Heels limited Notre Dame to four fast break points and 22 points in the paint. 

But against the Fighting Irish, which leads the nation in 3-point percentage, North Carolina's defensive success sputtered where it counted. 

The No. 17 UNC women's basketball team allowed No. 3 Notre Dame to shoot 62 percent from three — nearly 20 percentage points more than their average — in a 76-66 loss for North Carolina. In Notre Dame's previous five games, the Fighting Irish have averaged 11.5 triples per game. On Sunday, they recorded 13. By the end of the first half, Notre Dame found itself 8-12 from behind the arc, pushing the team to its first win over UNC in North Carolina since 2017. 

Two Notre Dame players and their shooting are to blame: sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo and senior guard Olivia Miles.

“When you play a team that’s really well balanced in their scoring front and just a lot of people can make an impact, that’s where it’s hard to keep track of two players and make sure that they’re not going to hurt us from three,” graduate forward Alyssa Ustby said. 

Hidalgo and Miles combined for 43 points and hit five 3-pointers each, which was Miles’ career high. 

But UNC still worked to keep the Fighting Irish off balance. Those two were the only Notre Dame players to score double digits. Their bench only recorded 11 points. 

And when UNC looked to make a comeback, a well-timed 3-pointer for Notre Dame extinguished the rallying effort.  

North Carolina had an 11-2 run in the third quarter, until a Notre Dame 3-pointer killed the momentum. After the shot, the Tar Heels went three minutes without a field goal. UNC survived on four foul shots from Gakdeng.

And it went on like this for much of the second half. A UNC run. A Notre Dame 3-pointer. 

With the fourth quarter underway and the Tar Heels' comeback hopes hanging in the balance down by 9, Miles drove right, then reversed, maneuvering inside the arc as Ustby and first-year guard Lanie Grant followed her. But right before she reached the paint, she twisted and kicked the ball back out to a wide open Hidalgo. Graduate guard Grace Townsend left Hidalgo alone, rushing to join three of her teammates under the basket to prevent a layup. 

Hidalgo drained the 3-pointer. 

After the game, head coach Courtney Banghart was not too critical on the defense, instead pointing the finger at North Carolina’s almost 29 percent 3-point shooting. 

“We can write all we want about our defense, our defense is pretty darn good,” Banghart said. “There’s two sides of the ball and we said that in our scout, and we knew that. To beat great teams, you have to be good on both sides of the ball.”

But the fact is North Carolina ranks ninth in the country in fewest points allowed per game. And in games against offensive power houses like Notre Dame, the Tar Heels need to be able to rely on its calling card. 

On Sunday, they couldn’t. 

@BeckettBrant