Sonia Citron scored a career-high-tying 29 points to power No. 2 Notre Dame to an 81-67 first-round NCAA Tournament victory over No. 15 Kent State on Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Ind.
“I think my teammates were just finding me, and I was just getting good positions to shoot, and I was knocking them down,” Citron said. “Then I think I was getting a lot of my points off of just transitioning, so it’s pretty easy just open layups.”
Citron shot 13-of-20 from the field in her seventh career March Madness game, and also had six rebounds and four assists for the Irish (27-6). Hannah Hidalgo had a team-high 11 assists in her tournament debut to go along with 14 points, while Anna DeWolfe added 12 points and Maddy Westbeld chipped in nine points and 10 rebounds.
“She was fantastic tonight, and she’s exactly — she’s what we needed as far as just settling our offense down,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said of Citron. “I thought when the ball went through her hands, something great happened. She shot with confidence. She took the right shots. She played with great pace.”
Hidalgo — the Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year — also collected a team-high six steals.
The Golden Flashes (21-11) were powered by 20 points from Katie Shumate and 18 points from Janae Tyler.
After Kent State opened the game with a brief two-point lead, the Irish broke off a 22-3 run. Citron had nine points in the first frame on 4-of-5 shooting. Notre Dame went on to lead by as many as 21 points whole shooting 52.2 percent from the floor.
The Irish were outrebounded by five, but scored 23 points off 17 Kent State turnovers. Notre Dame also outscored Kent State 21-3 on fast breaks and 48-28 in the paint.
On Monday in Purcell Pavilion, the Irish will face the winner of No. 10 Marquette and No. 7 Ole Miss for the chance to go to the Sweet 16 for the third time under coach Niele Ivey.
No. 4 Indiana 89, No. 13 Fairfield 56
Sara Scalia scored 27 points to lead the Hoosiers past the Stags in Bloomington, Ind.
Indiana (25-5) also got 13 points each from Yarden Garzon, Mackenzie Homes and Chloe Moore-McNeil, the latter of whom also had a team-high six assists.
Fairfield (31-2) saw its 29-game win streak come to an end. The Stags were powered by 19 points from Janelle Brown and 10 points from Meghan Andersen.
The Stags led by five points midway through the second quarter and trailed by just four points at halftime. Indiana then broke off a 13-0 run in the third quarter to pull away, and outscored the Stags 25-7 in the fourth quarter.
–Field Level Media