Notre Dame loses to Cal on the road, 80-69

The Notre Dame Women’s Basketball team continues to have a massively disappointing season. On Thursday night, the Irish had a late tipoff against the Cal Bears in Berkeley, and when it was all over with, Notre Dame lost, 80-69.

Irish Drop Road Decision At Cal

BERKELEY, Calif. –  The Fighting Irish fell to Cal inside Haas Pavilion on Thursday evening by a score of 80-69. The loss drops Notre Dame’s record to 13-8 on the season and 5-5 in ACC play.

Hannah Hidalgo led the Irish in scoring with 22 points while adding six rebounds, six assists and two steals. Iyana Moore also finished with 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including 5-for-10 from beyond the arc. 

Cassandre Prosper was the third player to score double figures, finishing with 10 points while leading the team in rebounding with nine boards.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Vanessa de Jesus scored seven of Notre Dame’s first 12 points, as the Irish trailed by three at 15-12 with 3 minutes left in the first frame. 

Cal pushed the advantage to six points before Hidalgo got a steal and score as the buzzer sounded to cut the lead to four at 24-20 following the opening 10 minutes of play.

Prosper scored the first bucket of the second to make it a one possession game at 24-22 before the Bears answered by scoring eight of the next 10 points to push their lead to eight at 32-24. The hosts managed to outscore the Irish by two over the final 7 minutes of the half, taking a 43-33 lead into the break.

The Irish came out of the intermission and began chipping away at the lead. Prosper scored five of Notre Dame’s first seven points of the half followed by a three from Moore to make it a four-point game at 47-43 with 6 minutes remaining in the third.

Notre Dame trimmed the Cal lead to two after a jumper from Hidalgo with 2:23 on the clock before Cal responded with an 8-0 run to push the lead back to 10. Hidalgo scored in the final seconds of the period to make the score 60-52 heading into the final 10 minutes of regulation.

Cal scored the first three points of the fourth to increase its lead back to double digits at 63-52. Moore helped spur an 8-0 run by knocking down two three-pointers along with a layup from Gisela Sanchez to pull within three with 5:48 left in the game.

Unfortunately for Notre Dame, it was as close as they would get the rest of the way, as the Golden Bears pulled away in the final minutes to win by a score of 80-69

UP NEXT

The Fighting Irish remain on the West Coast for the remainder of the weekend, traveling across the bay to take on Stanford at 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. local time) on Sunday, Feb. 1. The game will air on the CW.