SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The USC women’s basketball team squandered an 11-point second-half lead and couldn’t hold off Hannah Hidalgo and Notre Dame in the fourth quarter.
Hidalgo scored 22 points and hit the go-ahead jumper with 1.9 seconds left, KK Bransford scored nine of her 11 points in the fourth quarter and No. 24 Notre Dame rallied past the 11th-ranked Trojans, 61-59, on Friday night.
Hildalgo finished with seven rebounds and five steals and Bransford had eight rebounds, four steals and three blocked shots. Vanessa de Jesus added 13 points, four assists and two steals for Notre Dame (4-1). The Fighting Irish, who went into the game averaging 18.0 steals per game (No. 5 nationally), had 16 steals.
Hidalgo, facing defensive pressure near midcourt, darted toward the basket and pulled up for a contested mid-range jumper near the right elbow that capped the scoring. Cassandre Prosper stole Kennedy Smith’s inbounds pass to seal the game.
Kara Dunn hit four 3-pointers and led USC (3-2) with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Jazzy Davidson added 14 points and eight rebounds but committed eight of her team’s 21 turnovers. Londynn Jones, who went into the game second on the team in scoring (12.8 per game), was scoreless on 0-for-3 shooting.
USC led 51-40 after a Kara Dunn layup with 2:13 left in the third quarter, but Notre Dame scored the final six points of the period and opened the fourth with a 6-1 spurt that culminated when Cassandre Prosper made a layup with 4:25 to play, tying the score at 52-all. Davidson hit a 3-pointer, and Dunn followed with a jumper that put the Trojans up by two with 1:38 remaining before Bransford answered with a jumper that tied it at 59-59 a minute later. Notre Dame outscored USC 15-8 in the fourth.
Hidalgo scored eight points during a 13-2 first-quarter run that gave Notre Dame its biggest lead of the game at 15-10.
Kennedy Smith made a layup that gave the Trojans a two-point lead with 2:27 remaining in the second quarter, and the lead was 33-31 at halftime. Hidalgo opened the third quarter with a layup, but USC scored 18 of the next 25 to gather an 11-point lead when Dunn – who scored nine points in the spurt – made a layup with 2:12 left until the fourth.
UP NEXT
USC hosts Tennessee Tech on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Galen Center.