Niele Ivey sends clear message to Notre Dame after back-and-forth first half vs. NC State

After a hot start, NC State only connected on two of its final 11 shot attempts in the first quarter. Following the period, Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey evaluated her team’s first frame in the ACC Tournament Championship.

“I thought we settled in a little bit,” Ivey said. “They got hot early. We’re just trying to find good offense in transition. I thought we did a good job of settling [down] when they started out fast.

“We need to get stops so we can run in transition. I think that’s when we’re at our best. But Sonia [Citron] got us started really well and we’re trying to get Hannah [Hidalgo] and Maddy [Westbeld] going, as well.”

Sonia Citron led the Fighting Irish through the first quarter, tallying seven points and three rebounds on 3-5 shooting. Notre Dame leading scorer Hannah Hidalgo followed closely behind with five points in the first 10 minutes.

Notre Dame’s slow start is an unusual look for the team, which has been red-hot as of late. The Fighting Irish entered the ACC Tournament as the No. 4 seed and defeated five-seed Louisville and one-seed Virginia Tech to reach the finals.

Notre Dame stuns fans in blowout win over Virginia Tech

Notre Dame did more than simply defeat the Virginia Tech Hokies, they dominated them, walking away with an 82-53 triumph. In the win, the Fighting Irish shot 52% from the field and a jaw-dropping 64% from beyond the arc.

“Today was just an incredible display, to be honest,” Ivey said. “I thought we were clicking on all cylinders. I thought they started the game with such confidence and grit and toughness.”

Four players for Notre Dame scored double figures, highlighted by Citron’s 19 points and seven rebounds. The win was Notre Dame’s seventh in a row. Niele Ivey couldn’t be prouder of her team.

“Our motivation, our focus just shifted the last couple weeks,” Ivey said. “We had a couple tough losses, learned from those losses and got back to work. This team has been committed to our vision and our goal the entire season, but sometimes losses kind of bring light to things that we need to get better at, and that’s what we did.

“We’ve done a great job of just working to get better, finding a way to get on the same page. We really talked about gelling together and focused on that for the last couple weeks, and then just building momentum off of our wins.”