SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Mississippi coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin likes to say her team has 10 starters because of its depth. Notre Dame is down to just eight players because of injuries.
So the No. 7-seeded Rebels hope the numbers will work in their favor on Monday when they face the second-seeded Fighting Irish in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Last season, Ole Miss shocked top-seeded Stanford with a 54-49 second-round victory on the Cardinal’s home floor. The Rebels racked up 91 minutes off the bench in that game. On Saturday, Ole Miss finally wore down Marquette, using a late 12-2 run in a 67-55 victory.
The game plan won’t change for Ole Miss on Monday inside Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion.
“We try to wear everybody down, no matter what,” McPhee-McCuin said. “That is our style of play — 94 feet. …. Marquette didn’t have the legs when they really needed it, and that is because of the work we put in the first 30 minutes of the game.”
Ole Miss will be eager to make Notre Dame play an up-tempo game.
“What we try to do is make teams adjust to how we play, which is up and down, fast, and really make you have to work for every single bucket that you get,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I think naturally it wears teams down.”
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Notre Dame will counter with basically a six-person rotation that is used to putting in nearly all of the minutes on the court.
“We definitely just have to mix up some of our defenses,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said. “(We will) go in a little bit of zone. Try and match their physicality. (We) just can’t stay in one thing too long. I’m going to go see what works the best.”
Notre Dame features a Big Three attack of All-American Hannah Hidalgo (first in the nation in steals 4.6, third in the nation in scoring 23.1), Sonia Citron (17.1) and Maddy Westbeld (14.1). Citron scored 29 in the victory against No. 15 Kent State, and Hidalgo had 14 points and 11 assists. Hidalgo also had six steals.
Notre Dame’s offense runs through Hidalgo, but if teams put too much attention on Freshman phenom, the Fighting Irish know how to make them pay the price.
“Luckily, I have a lot of balance on this team,” Ivey said. “Hannah draws a lot of attention, and Sonia had a career high yesterday. (Citron) can run the point for me. KK (Bransford) can run the point for me. We have a lot of versatility within our offense, and I think that’s what makes us very special because we have a lot of players that can score at three levels.”
Ole Miss will use a team-defense philosophy against Hidalgo.
“When we play, when we defend, it’s not whomever we decide to guard Hidalgo,” McPhee-McCuin said. “It’s not that person against Hannah. It’s us against Hannah. So that’s our philosophy.”
FAMILIAR FOE
Kennedy Todd-Williams of Ole Miss played against Notre Dame three times as a member of the North Carolina Tar Heels. Todd Williams transferred to Ole Miss for this season, and said the playing style of the SEC is dramatically different from the ACC.
“The physicality was super different, and I think it’s kind of helped me prepare going in, especially playing against an ACC team,” Todd-Williams said. “There’s so many differences and similarities, of course, but it’s really just about the tougher team, and I’m excited to play an ACC team that I’m familiar with.”
UNC was 2-1 against Notre Dame with Todd-Williams wearing Tar Heel blue and white.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket/ and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
