(Photo Courtesy of Notre Dame Women’s Basketball)

Through two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, the Notre Dame women’s basketball team is looking more and more like the team that rose to #1 in the country before losing three of five games right before the Big Dance began.

In front of a sold out and electric crowd at Purcell Pavilion, 3rd seeded Notre Dame dominated from start to finish in a 76-55 win over 6th seeded Michigan in the NCAA 2nd round. The Irish are headed to the Sweet 16 for the 4th straight year.

Hannah Hidalgo led the way with 21 points while Liatu King was fabulous with 18 points on 7-7 shooting and 15 rebounds for the Irish. They’ll next play 2nd seeded TCU Saturday at 1pm in Birmingham, Alabama. The game will be broadcast on ABC.

After rolling her ankle in Friday’s opening round win, Olivia Miles started Sunday and wore an ankle brace on her left leg. It did not seem to limit her as she scored eight points, dished out five assists and grabbed four rebounds in 28 minutes of action.

Sonia Citron scored 16 points and grabbed six rebounds and Maddy Westbeld added four points in the final game they will play at Purcell Pavilion in their careers.

The Irish jumped out to a 6-0 lead and thanks to relentless defense and hot shooting, exploded with a 13-0 run late in the 1st quarter. ND shot 75% from the field in the 1st quarter to lead by 20 after one. Michigan went on an 8-0 run early in the 2nd quarter but the Irish extended the lead back out and were up 46-28 at halftime.

Notre Dame used a 12-0 run in the 3rd quarter to go up 60-32. ND was up 61-36 after three and cruised from there, leading by as many as 35 points in the 4th quarter.