'Mindset was to attack.' How Notre Dame women's basketball wore down Ole Miss in NCAA battle

SOUTH BEND — Possessing “the right six,” as well as getting off to the right kind of start, helped Notre Dame women's basketball deep six Mississippi, 71-56, in Monday’s NCAA Tournament second-round matinee at Purcell Pavilion.

Against a team that typically prides itself on being the aggressor, if not the bully, the Irish blindsided the Rebels 21-9 in the opening quarter, pushed the spread to 43-26 by halftime and went up 51-28 by early in the third period on the way to securing their third straight March Madness Sweet 16 appearance and claiming their season-high 10th straight win.

Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin was hearty-helpings both impressed with the hosts and disappointed in her own club’s play.

“I thought they came prepared for a fight, and I don’t think we fought,” McPhee-McCuin said. “When someone is prepared for a fight, and you don’t fight, someone is going to get beat up. I was expecting a game where both teams would get beat up. … I expected it to be a grind-out type of game, two teams that take pride in their defense — they more zone, us more man — (but) they just got the better of us.”

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Rebel senior standout Madison Scott concurred.

“They were the aggressors on both ends,” Scott said. “They were the more connected team. They were talking. They acted like they’d been there before. We have, and we didn’t act like it tonight, and they took advantage.”

“The mindset was to attack,” ND coach Niele Ivey said of her team doing that while still largely avoiding foul trouble for most of the game. “I wanted to be the aggressor, and I was really proud of this group for having the confidence to do that.”

The second-seeded Irish (28-6), who will meet third seed Oregon State (26-7) Friday in a regional semifinal in Albany, N.Y.,  got that better of the Rebels with the better blend.

“There’s this narrative, ‘Oh, Notre Dame has six (players in its rotation due to a bevy of injuries), but if you have the right six, it really doesn’t matter, and they have the right six,” McPhee-McCuin said.

“I know about having small rosters,” said McPhee-McCuin, who guided Ole Miss (24-9) to a Sweet 16 under that circumstance last season. “ … When you have a small roster, you are way more connected because there’s nobody that can sub in. There’s nobody that can help. When you have big rosters, sometimes, 17 to 24-year-olds feel like, ‘I can just take a day off because someone else will come in and help.’”

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Notre Dame's "Big Three" goes off

Senior forward Maddy Westbeld scored 20 points and made 8-of-13 shots from the field with a pair of 3-pointers and two blocked shots for the Irish; freshman All-American point guard Hannah Hidalgo added 19 points, four steals and four assists; and junior guard Sonia Citron scored 17 points in addition to leading all players in rebounds (10) and assists (six).

Westbeld played all 40 minutes, too, Citron all but 17 seconds and Hidalgo 38 minutes.

“Westbeld is an absolute stud,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I felt like she didn’t even miss. She carried them from the inside, and everybody (else) just did their job.”

It was the Rebel coach’s first chance to witness Hidalgo in person.

“She’s as advertised,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I think one of the things that I appreciate with her is just her competitive spirit, and that’s not something you can teach. That’s something that was born inside of her. She was completely relentless the whole time.”

Hidalgo’s electric play and Westbeld’s commanding presence were more than complemented by Citron.

“I don’t think we talk about her enough,” Ivey said of the all-around stamp that Citron puts on a game. “Sonia Citron is unbelievable. She’s so amazing, she’s so poised. She doesn’t need the spotlight. She just is a star. … She’s one of the best guards in the country.”

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Almost filling it up

ND didn’t match the sellout it had for Saturday’s first-round win over Kent State, but still drew 7,882 for a Monday afternoon game that didn’t have a time set until late-night Saturday.

Second-day attendance was just over 90% of capacity under the modified set-up for NCAA Tournament play.