Women’s Basketball: Three takeaways from Vanderbilt’s Sweet 16 loss to Notre Dame – The Vanderbilt Hustler

No. 2-seed Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball (29-5, 13-3 SEC) fell to No. 6-seed Notre Dame (26-10, 12-6 ACC), 67-64, in Fort Worth, Texas March 27.  
“A lot of people didn’t think we would accomplish the things that we did this year,” head coach Shea Ralph said after the game.  “Yeah, we lost the game today, but I think we’re winning in terms of the things we’re doing right now. We are winning on and off the basketball court, and this is just the beginning for Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball.”
The Commodores struggled to shoot early, only making two field goals in the first quarter. They never quite recovered, only shooting 35.2% from the field and 27.8% from behind the arc. Notre Dame led for most of the contest, and star guard Hannah Hidalgo did not let up, keeping the momentum going for the Fighting Irish despite late pushes from the Black and Gold.  
This contest also featured former Vanderbilt starter Iyana Moore facing off against her former team. Moore spent four years with the Commodores before transferring to Notre Dame for her final season. She averages 12.2 points per game for the Fighting Irish and shoots 39.8% from 3-point range but only scored four points with no 3-pointers made on eight attempts.  
Let’s take a look at three key takeaways from this Sweet 16.  
The matchup everyone wondered about 
A key storyline coming into this game was the battle between two of the top guards in Women’s College Basketball: Blakes and Hidalgo. These two are not strangers to each other; they helped lead Team USA to a gold medal in the summer of 2025 at the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup. But today, they wore different uniforms.  
Hidalgo got it going right away for the Fighting Irish. When the game opened, she immediately swiped the ball from Galvan and made a layup. She had 16 points and 7 steals at the half and terrorized every Vanderbilt player on the floor. Hidalgo finished the game with a near quadruple-double: 31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals and 7 assists.   
“She’s just a special player,” Ralph said about Hidalgo. “I think you have to respect how hard she plays all the time on both sides of the ball. She gave them the effort that was needed to win the game for her team.”
Blakes struggled to settle in early, not scoring until 2:12 left in the first quarter, and not making a field goal until 5:55 in the second quarter. The Notre Dame defense smothered her and she did not get a single uncontested look all game. She finished the contest with 26 points — 12 of those came at the free throw line.  
Small ball lets Galvan step up 
For much of the second and third quarter, the Commodores utilized a small-ball lineup, with Jada Brown, Ava Black, Aubrey Galvan and Blakes on the floor all together. All four guards are under six feet tall. Justine Pissott and, sometimes, Aiyana Mitchell played the 5 position. In the fourth quarter, Ralph opted for a lineup with Pissott at the 4 and Mitchell at the 5, taking Black out of the game. This lineup generated the most offense for the Commodores, as more players could space the floor. With fewer clogged lanes and more room to operate, Galvan began to find her openings. 
“I thought Justine did a really good job at the five, spreading the floor out and handling the ball,”” Ralph said. “Mitch is our best screener. So when it came down to making defensive stops, blocked shots, protection at the rim, rebounds and someone to get Aubrey and Mikayla open, she was our girl.”
Galvan took advantage of those opportunities. She drained back-to-back 3-pointers at the end of the second quarter, providing a massive offensive spark to the Commodores. As the contest continued, she made more acrobatic layups, threw no-look dimes to her teammates and played with the confidence that has defined her game all season. She nailed two clutch free throws with 56 seconds left in the game to knot the score at 64. Galvan finished with 24 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists but could not hit the game-tying 3-point shot in the last possession of the contest.  
“During the second half, we knew that our season was on the line, and we just had to dig into each other and stay together,” Galvan said. “We definitely emphasized that when we were going back out onto the court during the second half.”
Unsettled 
The Commodores struggled to settle in through most of the first half. They turned it over 10 times in the first quarter alone, almost reaching their per-game average of 13.1. Vanderbilt finished the game with 23 turnovers, and Notre Dame scored 23 points from those opportunities. 
Many of these turnovers were live-ball turnovers, with Hidalgo pestering Vanderbilt’s guards and not allowing the offense to settle. This allowed the Fighting Irish to score 27 fast-break points. In contrast, the Commodores only scored nine fast-break points and four points off turnovers in this contest.     
In addition, while the small ball lineup created more offensive opportunities, it also gave up size and length in the paint. This created more driving lanes for Notre Dame’s guards, and the Fighting Irish scored 54 of their 67 points in the paint.  
This contest marks the end of the Commodores’ historic season, and the end of Sacha Washington, Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda, Pissott and Brown’s careers in a Vanderbilt uniform.  
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