The defending champs: How UConn's defense disrupted Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame en route to another Final Four

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Nearly two minutes into the second quarter, Notre Dame All-American Hannah Hidalgo jumped into a defender and threw in a circus shot. She pumped her fists and yelled in celebration against the undefeated and top-seeded UConn Huskies. 

It was Hidalgo's first points of the game after missing all four shots in the first quarter. One game earlier, Hidalgo had a historic performance in an upset of second-seeded Vanderbilt, recording the second 30-point triple-double in women's NCAA Tournament history. She posted 10 steals against the Commodores to help jumpstart her offense; against UConn, she recorded only two.

UConn has the potential No. 1 pick in the NCAA Draft for the second straight year, Azzi Fudd. Forward Sarah Strong could easily be the top pick in two years. But in a 70-52 win against No. 6 Notre Dame to make their 17th Final Four in 18 years, it was the Huskies' defense that took center stage. 

The Huskies have been nearly impenetrable this season, leading the nation in both opposing field goal percentage (33.3%) and points allowed (50.1). No other major college team ranks even top 10 in the latter. UConn has now recorded 10 straight games holding opponents to fewer than 55 points, and has held its four NCAA Tournament opponents to only 47.8 points per game. 

Notre Dame averaged more than 76 points per game in its first three tournament games. Against UConn, though, the Fighting Irish were stymied. They shot just 39.1% from the floor. Perhaps the most impressive stat: After recording 27 fast-break points in the win over Vandy, the Fighting Irish were held to zero by UConn. 

"They do everything right," Hidalgo said. "The margin of error is very small. They do a great job of rotating and helping when they take away the first option, and then they rotate it well. They do a great job of denying and being extremely physical." 

Hidalgo was compared to Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor and a free safety for her defensive prowess in the days leading up to the game. On offense, UConn did the equivalent of running the ball away from her, swinging the ball to the opposite corner and using All-American Azzi Fudd as a decoy for stretches to try and tire her out. 

On defense, UConn threw the kitchen sink at Hidalgo to try and get the ball out of her hands and make shots difficult. 

"They iced her, they hedged her, they did a lot of different things," Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said. "I thought they did a good job of mixing it up and showing a lot of different defenses. They switched one through five, so she had to read a lot and they had a lot of bodies in the paint. They tried to make every shot really tough for her."

Hidalgo is one of the best players in the country, and still managed to get hers. After the acrobatic score, she followed a miss and pushed it in for a second-chance layup. Then, she hit back-to-back long jumpers to cut the lead to four points, one a foot-on-the-line deep 2-pointer that she implored the officials to review to no avail. 

Through sheer force of will, Hidalgo kept throwing her body into traffic, trying to create opportunities. She got to the free-throw line 10 times, a handful of calls that left Auriemma screaming in frustration at his bench. 

But down the stretch, the Huskies tightened up. They leaned heavily on the full-court press, preventing Hidalgo from even bringing the ball up the floor consistently. And while UConn was able to go nine deep with high-quality players, Notre Dame was stuck at seven with three players recording more than 35 minutes. 

Hidalgo finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds and three assists, but shot only 7-of-19 from the field. No other player on the Fighting Irish finished with more than eight points. UConn got 20-point performances from All-American Sarah Strong and freshman Blanca Quinonez. 

UConn (now 38-0 and on a 54-game winning streak dating back to February 2025) is a young team after graduating WNBA draft picks Paige Bueckers and Kaitlyn Chen last season. But in exchange for youth, the Huskies have followed with relentless defensive effort. While their stars help pave the way on offense, it's the defense that's starred during their first undefeated run to the Final Four since 2018. 

"Some teams that we've had were really good defensively, but we had to be good from the 3-point line in because we just didn't have the players the last four years, even including last year," Auriemma said. "This team can do more because we have more players, so we started the season the very first day with that kind of aggressive mindset… we can afford to go that hard because we can bring somebody off the bench that can continue that kind of pressure." 

In the waning seconds, Hidalgo recorded her second steal of the game and went in for her only fastbreak layup. UConn reserve Ayanna Patterson swatted it, and the buzzer sounded. 

This squad, filled with underclassmen, has the third-best point differential of any team of the 21st Century. When the Huskies head to Phoenix for the Final Four next weekend, the champs will be defending their title. UConn will attempt to become the first back-to-back national title winner since 2016.