Niele Ivey’s Notre Dame gets buckets and puts up big numbers. Courtney Banghart’s North Carolina boasts one of the nation’s stingiest defenses. Sunday’s style clash pits two of the ACC’s six ranked teams against each other, with the Fighting Irish opening as a road favorite.

How to watch No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No. 17 North Carolina

Venue: Carmichael Arena — Chapel Hill, N.C.

Time: 1 p.m. ET Sunday

TV: ESPN

Streaming: Fubo (try for free)

Watching in-person? Get tickets on StubHub.

Notre Dame hasn’t lost since Nov. 30. It already has three momentous top-five wins, including an 11-point victory over No. 2 UConn and a 13-point road upset of third-ranked USC. Hannah Hidalgo anchors an offense that’s seventh in field goal percentage and eighth in points per game. Hidalgo’s playing out-of-this-world basketball — 26 points per game on 50/44/84 shooting splits while averaging a Division I-leading 4.1 steals. Her heat checks are among the most thrilling parts of this sport right now.

Olivia Miles is coming off an ACC Player of the Week designation. She leads the conference in assists and 3-point shooting. With Miles (46 percent), Hidalgo (44) and Sonia Citron (39), Notre Dame touts high-volume efficiency around the perimeter. When the jumper is falling, games can swiftly spiral into blowouts.

UNC is a good team with a good home-court advantage, though. The Tar Heels are 10th in scoring defense, with their opponents shooting below 35 percent this season. Indya Nivar averages more than two steals a game, and Alyssa Ustby cleans the glass. The reliable five-year starter leads the team in minutes, points, rebounds, assists and blocks.

North Carolina is 1-1 against ranked teams thus far. It lost to Connecticut by 11 but beat Kentucky by 19.

Sabreena Merchant’s New Year’s resolution for Notre Dame: “Stay healthy. The Irish entered the 2023 NCAA Tournament without two starting guards after season-ending knee injuries to Olivia Miles and Dara Mabrey. In 2024, already missing Miles, Notre Dame lost forward Kylee Watson to an ACL tear during the ACC tournament. Thus far in 2024-25, Miles, Hannah Hidalgo and Cassandre Prosper are the only players who have suited up in every game, and Maddy Westbeld has yet to make her season debut. The goal for the Irish, even if it is beyond their control, is to have as many healthy players as possible when March rolls around.”

For UNC: “Practice free throws. It’s always confusing when a team has good 3-point shooters but can’t consistently make foul shots, but that is the case with the Tar Heels. They’re leaving so many points at the line by shooting 65.1 percent.”

Notre Dame vs. North Carolina odds

Memorable matchups: 2007 NCAA Tournament, second round — No. 1 UNC held on against a valiant ninth-seeded Notre Dame squad, 60-51. Muffet McGraw’s group had a 41-33 lead before allowing a furious 15-0 run. LaToya Pringle double-doubled.

2019 ACC Tournament, quarterfinals — The Fighting Irish dominated, 95-77, behind Arike Ogunbowale’s 28 points, while Jackie Young added 19 and nine assists.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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