How Hannah Hidalgo outplayed Vanderbilt basketball's guards in Sweet 16 loss
Hannah Hidalgo forced Vanderbilt basketball's Mikayla Blakes and Aubrey Galvan into inefficient performances in a Sweet 16 loss to Notre Dame.
FORT WORTH, TX ― Shea Ralph had no regrets about asking her stars to win a game for her. Mikayla Blakes regretted that it came down to the play it did. With Vanderbilt basketball down two in its Sweet 16 matchup against Notre Dame at Dickies Arena on March 27, Blakes got the ball and saw a driving lane to the basket.
But she lost control of the ball as she dribbled it to the basket for a turnover. "I can't perform for my team like that in a moment as big as this," Blakes said of that play in No. 2 seed Vanderbilt's 67-64 loss to No.
6 seed Notre Dame in the Women's NCAA Tournament. Hearing that, Ralph interjected. "I'll also say that obviously you want to be able to execute in the last possession of the game, and I think that's what makes this game fun," Ralph said.
"But that's not what lost us this game. We wouldn't be here without her, so there are lots of things that we could have done a lot better throughout the course of that game in particular, but those two plays at the end we got two great shots. I'm putting the ball in her hands every single time, and that's not why we lost the game.