BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A season steeped with promise ended in early heartbreak for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who suffered a 71-62 upset loss to TCU on Saturday in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
The defeat marked the final chapter in a late-season collapse for the third-seeded Irish, who dropped two of their final three regular-season games before falling in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.
Despite surging back from an early deficit to take a 35-33 halftime lead, Notre Dame could never find separation against the No. 2 seed Horned Frogs.
The Irish led by a point entering the final quarter but were outscored 20-10. TCU opened the fourth with a 7-0 run, fueled entirely by stars Hailey Van Lith and Sedona Prince, who combined for 47 points in the win.
Notre Dame’s stars live on the perimeter — Olivia Miles, Hannah Hidalgo and Sonia Citron. But the true battle of the game came in the paint, where senior forward Maddy Westbeld struggled to contain Prince, a 6-foot-7 center who provided a brutal mismatch for the Irish.
The Irish knew this would be hard. Prince finished with 20 points and 20 rebounds in a win over Notre Dame in November, an upset that served as a wake-up call for the Irish shortly before they launched into a 19-game winning streak.
Westbeld wasn’t available in that game — and her presence was crucial in disrupting Prince’s dominance in the low block Saturday. The senior held firm for most of the game as the Irish attempted to front, double team and trap Prince. But the physicality was difficult to overcome. Westbeld picked up her fourth foul less than a minute into the fourth quarter, forcing coach Niele Ivey to sit her until the final four-minute stretch of the game.
“I’ve been trying to figure (foul trouble) out this whole season,” Westbeld said. “You go in a space where people are saying you’re in foul trouble, and then you’re thinking about fouling and you’re trying not to foul and you can get in this space where it’s tough.”
Prince finished with 21 points and six rebounds for TCU.
And even when Notre Dame successfully shut down the center, the Horned Frogs fed the second half of their one-two punch — graduate transfer guard Van Lith, who scored 26 points on 10-for-21 shooting.
Photos: TCU 71, Notre Dame 62 in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament
Sunday’s win extended a redemptive journey for Van Lith, who became the first player to reach five consecutive Elite Eight games for three teams across her NCAA career. Van Lith had a block and a steal in the third quarter to spark a crucial defensive stand for TCU, then ripped off 12 points on 4-for-7 shooting in the fourth to complete the rally.
“Notre Dame is an extremely explosive team,” Van Lith said. “They’re super talented, extremely explosive. But we’re a little bit more mature. I think if we were going to play steady all game, I was going to take us over forty minutes. They might win 10 or 20 but we will win 40.”
While the paint battle was a crucial point of emphasis, the game was equally defined by the clear discomfort of Miles, who played through a left ankle injury suffered in a first-round win over Stephen F. Austin.
It was clear from the start that Miles wasn’t right. Her ankle remained heavily braced after an injury that diminished her play in the first two rounds of the tournament. She didn’t warm up with teammates until the final 15 minutes of pregame.
Each time Miles reentered the game, she bounced hesitantly on the balls of her feet, visibly grimacing. And she logged only 10 minutes in the first half while fellow starters Hidalgo and Citron played 20 minutes.
“Last game against Michigan she went off a lot of adrenaline and today she was a bit little sore,” coach Niele Ivey said. “She is resilient but she was fighting through some things.”
Those limitations didn’t prevent Miles from showing glimmers of the electric playmaking that elevated her to become the anticipated No. 2 pick in this year’s WNBA draft — dribbling behind her back, sinking transition 3-pointers, shimmying her shoulders and sticking her tongue out as she jogged back on defense.
Midway through the third quarter, Miles paused to fidget with her prescription goggles, took another dribble, then fired off a no-look scoop pass to Westbeld, who put the Irish up by four points.
On the ensuing play at the opposite end of the court, Miles backed down Prince in the paint to hold her ground on a rebound. Players rarely celebrate box-outs. But when Prince tipped the ball out of bounds for a Notre Dame possession, Hidalgo chest bumped Miles in celebration so hard that the taller guard nearly lost her balance.
Still, Miles could sustain those stretches of excellence for only so long. She played only 24 minutes — nearly half that of Citron and Hidalgo — and logged only 10 points and three assists.
Her co-stars couldn’t prevent the loss. Hidalgo struggled with the interior size of the Horned Frogs — who logged 10 blocks, including Prince’s six — and finished with 15 points on 3-for-19 (15.8%) shooting. Citron shot 4-for-15 and missed all of her 3-point attempts. The Irish finished 22-for-69 (31.9%) from the floor and made only 3 of 15 3s.
Senior forward Liatu King provided a thread of consistency for Notre Dame. While Westbeld absorbed Prince’s attention and the trio of guards dominated the perimeter, King found the cracks in the Horned Frogs defense — and executed every time the ball found her under the basket.
King made her first eight shots from the floor, collecting a shovel pass from Miles at the end of the third quarter to make a buzzer-beating layup for a one-point Irish lead heading into the final frame. She finished with a team-high 17 points.
The loss marked a crucial ending for Notre Dame. Four of the team’s five starters are expected exit the program — including Miles and Citron, who are predicted to be lottery picks in the WNBA draft. This senior class carried hefty expectations but failed to advance past the Sweet 16 in a frustrating stretch of missed opportunities.
