GREENSBORO, N.C. — After going 24-4 and winning a regular season title for the first time since 2019, four Notre Dame women’s basketball players have earned postseason ACC honors.
Olivia Miles — All-ACC First Team
Miles finished just behind Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley for the ACC Player of the Year award, but she earned a spot on the First Team for the second time. The 5-10 guard out of New Jersey leads the Irish to this point in rebounds (7.2), assists (6.9) and steals (2.1) per game. Until this weekend, she was also the leading scorer and still remains second in that category (14.3).
The sophomore is also all over the national map. On Monday, she was announced as one of five finalists for the 2023 Nancy Lieberman Award, which is given to the nation’s best point guard. She has also recently been named to the Dawn Staley Award Late Season Watch List, Naismith Midseason Watch List and Wooden Watch List. She earned the No. 4 spot on ESPN’s Top 25 Players List in November, and Miles was named the ACC Player of the Week Dec. 5 and Dec. 19.
Sonia Citron — All-ACC First Team
Last season’s ACC Rookie of the Year finds herself earning top honors once again. Citron leads Notre Dame with 14.5 points per game and is also good for 5.5 boards and 2.3 assists each contest. She had an eye-popping day at Louisville on Sunday, scoring 27 (a season-high) and making multiple critical defensive stops. She has posted at least 24 points in three games this year, which is the most of any Irish player.
Citron has been seemingly near-automatic from 3-point range this year. She hits nearly half of her shot attempts from deep (45.1 percent) and she had a 48.1 percent success rate from behind the arc at home. Citron nearly broke a school record against Virginia when she hit her first six 3-point shot attempts.
Maddy Westbeld — All-ACC First Team
Westbeld can truly do it all, and she showed that on several occasions this season. In addition to leading the team in blocks and recording a career-high 35 of them this year, Westbeld puts up 10.9 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. She is just a single point shy of 1,000 career points in an Irish uniform. She has also improved greatly in the assist category, averaging 2.4 a game and leading Notre Dame in the assist category seven times this season. She had never led the team in assists in a game prior to this year.
A forward who can also shoot from deep, she has been critical to Notre Dame’s offense, particularly since Dara Mabrey went down with a season-ending knee injury. Westbeld is shooting 35.7 percent from deep on the year. She has hit at least a pair of treys in six games.
Westbeld missed the All-ACC cutoff last season, but she was the 2021 ACC Rookie of the Year. She began this season on the Katrina McClain Award Watch List Award, which is given to the country’s top forward.
KK Bransford — All-ACC Freshman Team
Just 24 hours after being named ACC Rookie of the Week and a couple hours after earning USBWA Freshman of the Week honors for performances against Georgia Tech and Louisville, Bransford is one of five freshmen to earn a spot on the rookie team.
In total this year, Bransford has brought valuable depth to Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey’s roster. She played in all 28 games and made seven starts while center Lauren Ebo recovered from injury. Bransford has put up 12 performances with 10+ points and four games with 6+ rebounds.
When coming off the bench, no other freshman in the ACC has been as dominant. Bransford leads the league with 65 made field goals and 50 made free throws in a non-starting role. Her 8.6 points per game off the bench is second in the conference.
The complete list of ACC Postseason Awards can be found here.