Notre Dame Gets Sonia Citron Back But Lose To North Carolina

Notre Dame women’s basketball has not been able to escape injury misfortunes this season. Even in getting back one player from injury on Sunday, they saw yet another player sit out due to a new injury in their 67-57 loss to North Carolina at Purcell Pavilion.

The Fighting Irish (10-3, 1-2 ACC) welcomed Sonia Citron back to the starting lineup Sunday night after the star guard hadn’t played since spraining her right MCL on Nov. 15. Citron wore a large brace on her right leg but led all scorers with 18 points in her first action in more than seven weeks.

While the Irish were more than glad to have Citron back on the floor, they were forced to play without Maddy Westbeld, who suffered a concussion in the second half of last Thursday’s win over Pittsburgh. Including Olivia Miles and Jenna Brown, who are yet to play in a game this season, Westbeld became the sixth Irish player to miss at least one game due to injury. The senior had made 98 consecutive starts since the start of her career.

North Carolina (11-4, 3-0) jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, which was followed by an 8-0 Irish run, which was followed by a 14-0 Tar Heel run that was finally snapped when Citron hit the first of her three 3-pointers from the right wing to make it 20-11 late in the first quarter.

Besides the Citron trey, Notre Dame missed nine other shots to end the game’s first 10 minutes and trailed 20-12 at the first break. After missing their first four shots of the second quarter, the Irish hit 4 of their next 11 shots and 8 of 9 free throws to outscore the Tar Heels 16-11 in the quarter and pull within three points by halftime.

The Irish led 46-45 going into the fourth quarter after Citron scored nine of her points thanks to two more 3s in the third. Hannah Hidalgo added five points in the quarter but finished with 17 points in just the second game she has failed to reach 20 points in her 13-game career. She tied her career high with 11 rebounds for her third double-double of the season.

UNC’s Indya NIvar scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to give the Tar Heels a 52-46 advantage. The Irish missed their first five shots and turned the ball over twice during the 7-0 run by the sophomore guard, who led the Tar Heels with 16 points.

KK Bransford tied her season-high by scoring 12 points, with five of them coming in the fourth quarter. The Irish shot 19 of 31 from the field (31%) in the loss and were outrebounded 47-41 to lose the rebound battle in a third straight game.