Hidalgo, Macy Lead Notre Dame Women In Home-Opening Rout Of Stonehill
The Notre Dame women were back in Purcell Pavilion to kick off the 2026-27 season Friday night before a nice crowd and it went as well as head coach Niele Ivey could have hoped for, a 123-40 victory that saw great shooting and tremendous play from the front court trio of Leah Macy, Anaya Hardy, and Jacy Abii.
Hannah Hidalgo was her usual self with 27 points and 10 steals for the Irish and, even in a blowout, a continued tenacity to attack the ball defensively even as the game got out of hand in the second half. She’s simply the type of player you never want to stop watching, even though the game itself is never in question. And while she was credited with 10 steals herself, she’s responsible for at least a half dozen more with her relentless pursuit of the ball and passing lanes, and general pressure on whoever she is guarding.
While sticking to this point, this team, at least on this night, seems well equipped to maximize the type of pressure that Hidalgo brings. Macy and Abii for all of their physical skills, are very bright basketball players who are adept at anticipating the passes the opponents are hounded into making with pressure from Hidalgo and turning those passes into steals, and then those steals into points. It was Abii and Macy who led the team in assists on this night, with 7 and 6 respectively, and many of those came in transition from turnovers by Stonehill.
It was countless times that the duo of Macy and Abii led the break either off steals, rebounds, or blocks, and there was one sequence that really drew my attention. Macy defended the post on a drive from her player, blocked a layup attempt that was recovered by another Stonehill player, she then blocked that attempt, secured the loose ball and flew up the court, leading the fast break. She then dished to Hidalgo and continued to the basket, looking for the give and go, drawing two defenders. Hidalgo then skipped cross court to Madison St. Rose who drove to the basket for an easy layup. An assist and bucket for Hidalgo and St. Rose, but the entire play is set up by the defense, transition, and rim running from Macy.
Macy, who is coming off of a knee injury that forced her to miss her freshman season, has been better than expected to start her first season of major college basketball. She scored 27 with 14 rebounds against Villanova in Rome in the opener, and tonight it was 24, 8, and 6 on 12-14 shooting. In the first two games she’s 23-28 from the floor, and they may not be the most impressive part of her game. Her command of the game and ability to run the offense from the elbow extended was evident early, and she always seems to know what the right play is. And the good news is, she has really good front court running mates in Abii and Anaya Hardy, the latter of which is a really twitchy athlete, who got up and two hand dunked the basketball in warmups. Her rim running matched really well with Macy and Abii pushing in transition, and this all without mentioning Hidalgo who can obviously push the basketball.
A key for Notre Dame long term is the continued development of freshman guard Jenica Lewis who looks and acts the part already, but will need some time from a consistency stand point, which is true of any freshman guard. Her athleticism and playmaking is very evident, she had 15 points on 8 shots, 3-5 from 3, and she was seamless in both running the team with Hidalgo at the 2 and also playing off of her when Hannah was controlling the ball. Her own light is constantly green which may lead to some poor shot selection at times, but she does appear to have substantial range, so it makes sense she is willing to test the limits. The more she develops the more dangerous the team will be, and her role as first off the bench in place of either Hidalgo or Madison St. Rose I think is perfect.
The biggest question in the coming months is the development of at least one more bench player, the most likely candidate being freshman Bella Ragone, who is transitioning back from an injury. 6 players had scored for Notre Dame heading into the 4th quarter, and it’s hard to see the Irish being a national team if that is the case all season.
For now though, it was a bright start in the home opener, with all the new faces playing a major part, and the old hand in Hidalgo leading the way.
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