Hidalgo Puts on a Clinic: Notre Dame Beats Miami 69-54 to Roll Into ACC Tournament Day 3
DULUTH, Ga. — You wanted to see why she won the award? There it was.
Hannah Hidalgo stepped onto the Gas South Arena floor Wednesday with two of the ACC's most prestigious honors freshly pinned to her name — Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year — and then spent 40 minutes reminding everyone that the hardware was never really in question. Twenty-eight points. Eight rebounds. Five assists. Notre Dame 69, Miami 54. Next.
The Fighting Irish didn't just win. They controlled. And for long stretches of the night, it felt less like an ACC Tournament second-round game and more like a graduate seminar on what elite women's basketball looks like when it's operating at full power.
Green and Gold Took Over the Building
Walk the halls of Gas South Arena before tip-off Wednesday and you knew immediately who had the numbers. Notre Dame's faithful showed up in force — bright green and gold moving through every corridor, loud and proud and buzzing with the kind of energy that comes from watching your program's best player get her flowers in real time. The Irish band rolled in dressed for the occasion: glittering green costumes, full costume energy, and enough noise to rattle the rafters. They had plenty to celebrate before the game even started.
Miami held its own in the stands. The Hurricanes' fans knew what they were walking into — their team was a 10.5-point underdog, a number that gets posted and immediately becomes either a weight or a weapon. For Miami's supporters, it was the latter. They filled their section, brought the noise, and made sure the Hurricanes felt every bit of it when the game was on the line.
Two passionate fanbases. One building. And one player everyone came to see.
Miami Drew First Blood — Then Notre Dame Woke Up
For a brief, shining moment, the upset script looked possible. Miami won the opening exchange, scored first, and dared the crowd to imagine a different ending to the night. The Hurricanes were locked in, sharp, and clearly unbothered by the underdog label.
Then Notre Dame remembered who it was.
The Irish settled into their rhythm quickly, and once they did the game's tone shifted in a way that never really shifted back. The first quarter had genuine tension — both teams trading punches, neither willing to give ground easily. But even then, Hidalgo was operating on a different frequency. Every possession she touched felt purposeful. Every defensive read she made looked effortless. Miami threw multiple looks at her trying to find a crack. There wasn't one.
The second quarter is where Notre Dame separated. The Irish found the paint early and often, scoring 18 of their 37 first-half points inside the arc. Hidalgo kept picking her spots. Iyana Moore added 11 points to keep Miami's defense from collapsing on one assignment. Malaya Cowles quietly grabbed rebound after rebound, giving Notre Dame extra possessions every time Miami thought they'd gotten a stop. By halftime the Irish led comfortably, shooting 16-of-32 from the field against a Miami team that went 9-of-24 and couldn't find the efficiency it needed to stay close.
Miami's Ra Shaya Kyle was everything the Hurricanes needed her to be on the glass — 15 rebounds on back-to-back tournament days is a physical feat that deserves real respect. But one player carrying the rebounding load can only do so much when the team around her can't convert on the offensive end.
The halftime score told the story. Notre Dame 37, Miami 23. The mountain just got steeper.
The Second Half: A Fight With an Inevitable Ending
Miami came out of the locker room looking for something — a run, a spark, anything to make the Irish reconsider their comfort level. And for a stretch, there were signs of life. Gal Raviv, who finished as Miami's leading scorer with 15 points, kept making plays. Ahnay Adams ran the offense with poise, finishing with 13 points and 4 assists. The Hurricanes were not going quietly.
But the same pattern that had burned Miami against Stanford the day before crept back in. The moments where the foot came off the accelerator — those brief lapses where an already-rolling Notre Dame team got free. Against a team you're already trailing by double digits, those moments are simply too expensive to recover from.
Notre Dame never panicked. Never had to. Hidalgo kept making the right play, the defense clamped down when it needed to, and the Irish ran the game out on their own terms. The fourth quarter became a formality dressed up as a fight — Miami gave everything they had left, showed real grit, and walked off the floor having competed until the final buzzer. They just ran into the wrong team on the wrong night.
Notre Dame 69, Miami 54. The Irish move on.
The Performers
NOTRE DAME
Hannah Hidalgo | 28 pts, 8 reb, 5 ast The ACC's best player played like the ACC's best player. Clean and simple. Hidalgo was the pulse of everything Notre Dame did offensively and defensively, reading the game several moves ahead and making it look easy in a way that only happens when someone has put in thousands of hours of unglamorous work. If the Irish go deep in this tournament, this performance is where the run started.
Malaya Cowles | 2 pts, 12 reb, 3 ast Twelve rebounds and nobody's going to talk about it. That's the life of a do-everything forward on a team with a superstar. Cowles was relentless on the glass, protected possession, and did it without any fanfare. The Irish don't win as cleanly without her effort.
Iyana Moore | 11 pts, 2 reb, 1 ast Eleven points of secondary firepower that kept Miami's defense honest all night. Moore's ability to score without needing to force anything gave Notre Dame a second weapon that made Hidalgo's job easier and Miami's defensive assignments harder.
MIAMI
Gal Raviv | 15 pts, 4 reb, 1 ast The most productive Hurricane of the night. Raviv competed, scored, and gave Miami a real offensive presence to build around in moments when the game felt like it was slipping away. In a loss, she stood tallest offensively.
Ahnay Adams | 13 pts, 3 reb, 4 ast Adams ran Miami's offense with intelligence and composure, finishing as the team's assist leader and co-leading scorer. She's a legitimate creator at this level and her performance was one of the few genuine bright spots in a tough loss.
Ra Shaya Kyle | 11 pts, 15 reb, 2 ast Two games. Two double-digit rebounding performances. Kyle was an absolute force on the glass — physical, relentless, and determined. She gave Miami every second-chance opportunity she possibly could. Back-to-back performances like that in a tournament setting don't go unnoticed.
What's Next
Notre Dame heads into Day 3 to face NC State with Hidalgo playing some of the best basketball of her already-decorated career. The Irish look dangerous, balanced, and completely locked in. NC State is going to need a game plan that nobody has cracked yet this week.
Miami exits with a group that competed hard across two tournament games, a pair of scorers in Raviv and Adams who belong at this level, and a rebounder in Kyle who is quietly one of the most productive players in this tournament. The record doesn't reflect how hard this team fights. That part is worth remembering.
Quick Hits
Hidalgo swept ACC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors heading into the tournament
Miami entered as 10.5-point underdogs — the largest spread on the day's slate
Notre Dame scored 18 of its 37 first-half points in the paint
Kyle posted double-digit rebounds in back-to-back tournament games
The Irish advance to face NC State in Day 3
