Birmingham, ala. – Hailey Van Lith scored 12 of her 26 points in the fourth quarter to help the second seeded as a series 3 Notre Dame 71-62 Saturday in Sweet 16 of the NCAA female tournament.
Sedona Prince added 21 points for horns in horns (34-3), which qualified for the elite eight for the first time in the history of the school. The next step is Texas or Tennessee on Monday evening.
With the match equally at 52 at the start of the fourth, Van Lith took over. She scored five of the following six points for TCU to give the team’s advance. Each race that the Fighting Irish made, Van Lith and the horns with horns had an answer.
Van Lith, who started his career in Louisville before spending LSU last season, then TCU last year, is on the way to a regional final for the fifth time.
Notre Dame (28-6) was trying to reach the elite eight for the first time since 2019.
Liatu King scored 17 points for the Irish. Hannah Hidalgo had 15 and Olivia Miles finished with 10. But the star rear area was combined 6 for 29 on the field.
Notre Dame started slowly before rallying to an advance of 35-33 at halftime. Neither of the two teams led by more than four points in the second quarter.
The Irish seemed to have opened the match at the start of the third quarter, marking nine consecutive points. Miles was a large part of the race. She went behind her back while dribbling the ground in transition before launching a pass without a look for a lay-up. Then she hit a 3 -point before waving her arms to celebrate as she was heading down.
TCU was not shaken, however. Van Lith did some key defensive games to keep the horns in horns in the game, and they dragged 52-50 before the fourth before Van Lith took over.
The teams gathered in November in a Thanksgiving tournament in the Cayman Islands, and the horns in horns left with a victory after rallied to a deficit of 14 points. The Irish missing Maddy Westbeld and Liza Karlen for this match.
The horns in horns continue the best season in school history with the oldest tournament team. Their average age is 22.5 years. There are only two players on the list of children under 21.
The information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
