NCAAW: Can No. 4 Texas send No. 10 Notre Dame to a third-straight loss?

The first night of the second-annual SEC/ACC Challenge came with plenty of thrills.

The second night of the inter-conference competition will see nine teams ranked in the AP top 25 in action, with three games featuring matchups between ranked opponents. And two of those games will pit a pair of teams in the top 10 against each other: No. 4 Texas (7-0) vs. No. 10 Notre Dame (5-2) in South Bend (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) and No. 8 Duke (8-1) vs. No. 3 South Carolina (7-1) in Columbia (9 p.m. ET, ESPN).

So, with apologies to No. 14 Kentucky (7-0) and No. 16 North Carolina (7-1), who will meet in Chapel Hill (5 p.m. ET, ESPN2), No. 18 Ole Miss (5-2), who faces NC State (4-3) in Raleigh (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2), No. 5 LSU (9-0), who will welcome Stanford (7-1) to the Bayou (9 p.m. ET, ESPN), and No. 19 Alabama (9-0), who will travel to Berkeley to meet Cal (7-1), the two top-10 tilts will occupy most of our attention.

Will Texas send Notre Dame to a third-straight L?

All eyes will be on Notre Dame. Losers of two-straight games in the Cayman Islands, the pressure will be on the Irish to avoid a three-game skid and secure a home win. However, Texas is not the opponent Notre Dame wants to see marching into Purcell Pavilion.

After starting the season 6-0 against mostly uninspiring opponents, the Longhorns faced their first test on Sunday, meeting then-No. 12 West Virginia in the Gulf Coast Showcase championship game. Texas passed that test—even though they were not at their best. Rather, that Texas prevailed despite shooting 43.1 percent from the field and 22.2 percent from 3 is a testament to their team strength. Flush with talented players, the Longhorns reliably can count on someone stepping up and carrying them through tough circumstances. On Sunday, it was senior forward Aaliyah Moore and sophomore forward Madison Booker. While Moore was the engine for the Longhorns through much of the game, scoring a team-high 20 points, Booker rose to the occasion in the clutch, scoring four of the team’s final six points to seal the 78-73 win.

Not only are the Longhorns deep, in contrast to a thin Irish team that continues to deal with injury-related absences, but Texas also has the personnel to match up with Notre Dame.

For all the ferocity that Notre Dame sophomore Hannah Hidalgo brings to the court, Texas senior guard Rori Harmon has the goods to match her; she, like the more celebrated sophomore, can be a two-way force. Before she was sidelined by a season-ending knee injury last season, Harmon had her best game on the biggest stage, delivering a 27-point and 13-assist double-double as Texas defeated UConn.

Still without senior forwards Maddy Westbeld and Liza Karlen, Notre Dame also could struggle to hang with Texas’ surfeit of forwards for a full 40 minutes. While any team in the country will have a hard time containing the sweet scoring game of Booker, she not only is supported by Moore, but also by ever-efficient senior forward Taylor Jones, emergent junior forward Kayla Oldacre and promising freshman forward Justice Carlton, who was named SEC and National Freshman of the Week.

That this group is expert at getting to the line—the Longhorns rank third in the nation in free throw attempts per game and first in makes—is even more concerning for a depleted Notre Dame frontcourt that cannot afford foul trouble. And even though the Texas offense hasn’t missed too many shots this season, ranking second nationally with a field goal percentage of 51.4, this group also is pretty good at extending possessions when shots do go awry. Texas’ 17.7 offensive boards per game is the ninth-best mark in the nation, with Oldacre and Jones both grabbing at least three per game.

Unless the Irish triumvirate of Hidalgo and senior guards Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron are absolutely incredible, expect the deeper, bigger and stronger Longhorns to bully their way to the win.

Has South Carolina flipped a switch?

In two games at the Fort Myers Tip Off, South Carolina, fresh off their first loss in 44 games, allowed their opponents to score a combined 87 points. That sort of defensive dominance was to be expected; it is disciplined, attention-to-detail defense that has been the foundation of head coach Dawn Staley’s string of successful teams. (And the main reason why the Gamecocks collected championship rings on Monday night.)

What was more encouraging for the Gamecocks was how, in vintage South Carolina fashion, they were able to turn that defense into offense. After a still sluggish offensive effort against Iowa State, their first opponent in Fort Myers, South Carolina’s offense was revitalized against Purdue, putting up 99 points. Sophomore guard MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 14 points, leading seven Gamecocks who reached double figures. As the team shot only 25 percent from 3, they racked up points in ways that have proven sustainable for the Gamecocks over the years: turning teams to over to score in transition and creating second chances by dominating the offensive glass. 20 Purdue turnovers and 30 South Carolina offensive rebounds helped the Gamecocks’ take 87 shots to the Boilermakers’ 53 attempts. It was an opportunistically explosive offensive performance.

Duke and head coach Kara Lawson will be determined to prevent such opportunities. At last week’s Ball Dawgs Classic, the Blue Devils earned their No. 8 ranking, outlasting a pair of teams then ranked in the top 10 in Kansas State and Oklahoma. The victory over the Sooners was the product of an outstanding offensive performance, with the Blue Devils shooting better than 56 percent from the field and exactly 55 percent from 3. Don’t expect them to put up such sparkling percentages against South Carolina. Yet, Duke is one of the nation’s better shooting teams, with a number of guards capable of generating efficient scoring opportunities, headlined by senior guard Reigan Richardson, recently named AP Player of the Week, and junior guard Ashlon Jackson. And making shots will be key against the South Carolina. Forcing the Gamecocks to take the ball out of the basket—rather than allowing them to get their aforementioned transition machine going by running off of rebounds or turnovers—will require South Carolina play halfcourt offense, their weakest, or at least most inconsistent, area of the game.

The Blue Devils, however, must be ready to battle on the glass. Even if they can force the Gamecocks into difficult first shots, second-chance points for South Carolina could doom Duke, and give the Gamecocks the home victory.