SOUTH BEND, Ind. – If there is a strength to Wake Forest’s game, it lies in its pace and solid work on the defensive side.

In the first 14 games, a field goal rate of 37 percent was forced and 57 points per game were allowed.

And the No. 3 Notre Dame women’s basketball team didn’t even flinch – it had 53 points at halftime.

Shooting 63.5% from the field AND the 3-point line in the first half, Notre Dame built a 22-point lead in the first half en route to a 100-64 win in front of an announced crowd of 6,753 spectators in the Purcell Pavilion.

How about this for a defining value when it comes to dominance? The Irish had 30 fast break points to Wake’s zero.

None.

It was the fourth time the Irish reached the 100-point mark this season, and they are the highest-scoring team in program history with 89.13 in 15 games.

The game was originally scheduled to start at 7 p.m., but was moved up a few hours to give fans a chance to watch the 13-2 (4-0 ACC) basketball team and the Orange Bowl football game with the scheduled start Watch at 7:30am.

Wake, which has never beaten an Irish team in 13 meetings, fell to 7-8 and 0-4 in the ACC, one of those losses coming in overtime to Louisville.

One thing Wake doesn’t do is put up a lot of points and only have one player averaging double figures.

So when the Irish took control early in the second quarter, it was a pretty safe bet where this whole thing would end.

After taking a 25-15 lead in the first quarter, the Irish defense went into overdrive, forcing seven of 19 total turnovers over the next 10 minutes and snapping long wake droughts to build a 53-31 lead at halftime .

Hannah HidalgoRanked No. 2 in the country at 26 points per game, he led the Irish with 23 points on 8-for-11 shooting, fueled by a six-steal performance. She also happens to be second in the country in steals with 4.0 games.

She didn’t need to come close to her average of 36 minutes per game (20th in the country) and played just 27.

There was plenty of help offensively, and the Irish finished with 24 assists on 37-for-67 field goal shooting (55.2%, 35.3% on threes).

Better yet, they reduced their turnover total to 11 from 21 last Sunday against North Carolina.

Forward Liatu King had 17 points while the Irish collected 48 points on the season, pOnia lemon had 16, Olivia Miles 13 (with nine assists) and Kate Koval 11.

Perhaps the most encouraging total was the 14 points provided by a graduate student Maddy Westbeld. Her effort at 4:17 in her first home game of the season and her first basket of the season with less than a minute left in the first quarter elicited the loudest reactions of the night from the crowd.

Westbeld sat out the first two months of the season as he recovered from foot surgery in August.

“The way the crowd embraced them at the start of the game was great,” the Irish coach said Niele Ivey. “As a senior, it’s so hard to have to sit out for so long, so I’m really happy for her.

“Having a lot of depth and options for rotations and matchups, I was really happy with this win. Given the physical condition and the length of the season, having more bodies will only help us to compete.”

After Westbeld didn’t take a single shot in her 13-minute opener in last Sunday’s win at North Carolina, the 6-3 player went 6-for-11 from the floor, including a pair of three-pointers in five attempts. She also had six rebounds – ND had a 41-33 edge at the boards – in 18 minutes.

“I think I definitely felt a lot more comfortable today as far as my body movements and everything,” Westbeld said in a postgame radio interview.

She began full-go training when the team regrouped after Christmas and knows she’s just starting to build her playing stamina.

“I feel like I’m getting better every day. I try to push myself… I just enjoy it.”

She also spontaneously gets used to new teammates King, Liza Karlen and Koval.

“I’m learning how they play and they’re learning about me,” Westbeld said. “We’re just building that chemistry.”

The Irish finished with 15 steals and six blocks and scored 25 points off those Wake turnovers.

The league challenges are getting a little tougher as Clemson is 10-5, 3-1 in the ACC ahead of a Thursday game that hosts the Irish Sunday (2 p.m. on the CW) and 15-0, 3-0 against Georgia Tech, finished 13th and visited South Bend on January 16th.

“It’s super exciting to have everyone back,” King said. “Coach Ivey always says, ‘Pick your poison.’

“Each of us can go out and make life difficult for our opponents.”

Or, like Thursday, they all can.

NOTRE DAME 100, WAKE FOREST 64: Box Score