Hannah Hidalgo in Caitlin Clark's Company With Historic NCAA Offensive Success
The No. 3 seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball team advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the 2025 NCAA Tournament by beating the No. 6 seed Michigan Wolverines by a score of 76-55 on Sunday.
There was some concern among Notre Dame fans heading into this matchup, given that rivalry games are always tough contests. Not to mention that Olivia Miles was coming off suffering an ankle injury during the team's first-round game, which was another reason why this second-round matchup could have been tough.
Ultimately, the Fighting Irish didn't need Miles to do much because they could rely on Liatu King (who scored 18 points and added 15 rebounds), Sonia Citron (who scored 16 points), and superstar sophomore Hannah Hidalgo, who had a game-high 21 points on an efficient 8 of 14 shooting from the field.
At one point in the third quarter, a graphic appeared during the broadcast showing that Hidalgo reached an impressive milestone of scoring 1,500 points and amassing 300 assists during her first two seasons. The only women's college basketball player aside from her in the past 25 seasons to reach this offensive milestone is former Iowa Hawkeyes superstar Caitlin Clark.
Hidalgo reached this feat in 66 games while Clark did so in 62. Clark also had over 150 more assists than Hidalgo during this time.
Caitlin mention during the Notre Dame game. Hannah Hidalgo is cooking pic.twitter.com/tPOmJWOcve
— correlation (@nosyone4) March 23, 2025
Last month, Hidalgo praised Clark on an episode of Rachel DeMita's Courtside Club show on February 11 by saying, "Caitlin is a phenomenal player. I'm a big fan of hers. And so to be able to team up with her, who changed the game just tremendously, and how she still is changing the game, will honestly be someone that would be so great to team up alongside of."
It's hard to imagine the Indiana Fever would be positioned to draft Hidalgo when she becomes eligible. But getting to see these two compete in the WNBA some day will be awesome.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.