The NCAA Tournament’s First Round was without any big upsets. No. 10 Virginia defeated the No. 7 Georgia Bulldogs, but no midmajors challenge and overtook a power conference opponent. That is ok for the women’s game because, as the tournament goes on, there are individual stars in the game that bring in viewership as the growing college sport continues its rise in the public eye. On Monday, the Second Round continues with arguably the strongest one-on-one matchup so far in the tournament when No. 3
Ohio State women’s basketball’s Jaloni Cambridge and No. 6 Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo give fans an early blockbuster tournament head-to-head.
In a game where teams try not to get sped up and try to control the tempo of a game, Cambridge and Hidalgo are All-American point guards who do not give opponents time to rest. For Hidalgo, the now three-time All-American is a known star in college basketball. From her introduction for head coach Niele Ivey’s 2023-24 team, in 100 games at Notre Dame, Hidalgo scored over 2,300 points and nearly 500 assists and steals. The point guard can seemingly do everything on the court, and even Hidalgo is impressed by the play of Jaloni Cambridge.
Both of the point guards spent part of the summer trying out for the Team USA senior team’s AmeriCup roster. Team USA and Duke Blue Devils’ head coach Kara Lawson chose Hidalgo over Cambridge, but the Ohio State star made a lasting impression on the Notre Dame guard.
“I thought I was the fastest one in the camp and she beat me by a mile,” Hidalgo told reporters. “I just remember her speed. She’s a great guard, a dynamic guard. Knows how to get her teammates involved.”
Ohio State and Notre Dame each play a game of pace, and it goes through the two point guards. For Cambridge, beating people by a mile is normal, and her play led a team that entered the season unranked, with a lot of questions surrounding team expectations, and was integral in getting the Buckeyes to the brink of their first Sweet Sixteen since 2023.
Cambridge started every game for the Buckeyes this season, which Ohio State needed every night. Last season, in her sophomore campaign, Cambridge needed time to adjust to the size and physicality and missed a handful of games due to an early-season injury sustained while going at the rim and making contact. This season, Cambridge led the Big Ten with 26.4 points per game and was second in win shares with 6.1, a metric that measures the impact of their play and how many games Cambridge’s productivity won for the Buckeyes.
That play and being top-10 in assists and steals in the conference made the guard a bona fide Big Ten Player of the Year candidate, even though she lost out to UCLA Bruins star center Lauren Betts, although there is an argument to be made for who is more important to their team’s success.
Regardless, Hidalgo has a similar game to Cambridge but has played it from the start of her college career. Notre Dame needed the junior to lead this season more than any of the previous two years. Due to graduation, transfers, and injury, at one point, the Fighting Irish only had six healthy scholarship athletes on the roster. Success for the Irish went through Hidalgo, and although the Irish struggled for part of the season, Hidalgo almost single-handedly led Notre Dame through an up-and-down season that turned a corner in mid-February.
After a double-digit defeat to the Virginia Cavaliers, in Virginia, Notre Dame won the last five games of the regular season and their first two ACC Tournament games. The Fighting Irish nearly topped Duke in the semifinal and lost by two points to the regular-season and eventual tournament champions.
In that run, Hidalgo scored 26.3 points per game with 7.6 rebounds, 5.4 steals, and 4.6 assists in that stretch. On Saturday, the guard nearly had a quadruple-double against the Fairfield Stags. She may have hit it, too, if not for the lopsided scoreline in the second half.
Monday will be a matchup of speed vs. speed and a complete basketball player vs. a complete basketball player. The winner may come down to which supporting cast can support the All-American at the top of each team’s program.
While Cambridge is a generational talent and will end near the top in a lot of Ohio State records if she plays through her eligibility in Columbus, Hidalgo’s experience and consistency are more of an issue for Ohio State than Notre Dame.
“You’re not going to necessarily stop her. But can we slow her down? We can make her really work for the shots that she gets. I think that will be the key,” head coach Kevin McGuff told reporters. “It’s not like we’re going to shut her out, but we don’t want to give her anything easy, we want to make her work for the shots that she does get, and hopefully through that kind of we can have some effectiveness.”
