'Keep winning': Everything Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said after Irish victory at Miami

Notre Dame just keeps winning conference games. Convincingly, we should add. The Fighting Irish beat Miami, 82-42, in Coral Gables, Fla., Thursday night.

Here is everything Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said after another dominant outing.

Opening statement

“We’re grateful for this win. Really tough place to play. I thought we started the game very dominant and I thought we that carried through four quarters. A couple of things we we need to clean up, some of our turnovers, but just overall we had four and double figures. Defensively, we held them under their average. We did everything that we needed to do defensively.

“I thought [Liatu King] was amazing, having 11 defensive rebounds, 13 total rebounds and a double double. She’s so solid, she gives us so much, and she does a lot of things that she doesn’t even get the credit for. Just a sacrifice that she does for her and just being so super solid every game. She’s been a big key to our success. And so I just love when the stats kind of show the things that she does. She’s so super tough. And it’s just been just, like I said, just an incredible addition to our team.

“Really grateful for this win. We’re going to move on and focus on our game on Sunday, but again, always extremely grateful for the victory today.”

On Cass Prosper

“She’s been fantastic. I thought she had a fantastic game today. She’s another unselfish player. I think that her ceiling is so high. She’s healthier, she knows her role, she gives us such a spark offensively and defensively. I thought she didn’t great job. I say that overall, our guards a really great job overall on Hannah Cavinder.

“But Cass is just a spark. Her size, her versatility, she’s just been fantastic. And then she just a student of the game. Every game she gets gets she just gets better and better, and I think this season you guys are sitting a blossoming version of her.”

On Notre Dame’s defensive growth

“This shows the progression of what we’ve talked about. We came into this season saying that we want our identity to fall on our defense. I think with the addition of Cass coming back from injury, the addition of Liatu, has allowed us to do that. [Sonia Citron] is the best two-way defender, also bringing a lot of athleticism that helps us be a better defensive team. And I think they’ve just been locked in on, they’re at locking in on the scout. We really challenge them defensively in practice and I feel like we’re growing every day in that category, which I love, especially as a coach in this part of the season.”

On slowing down Miami’s Haley Cavinder

“Putting pressure on the ball. I think Hannah [Hidalgo] did a great job, especially in the beginning, the first half, I think maybe she had four points at the half, making sure every shot is a contested shot. We were super locked in on the things they run for her. And then Cass coming in putting size on her and also Soni coming in and putting size on her. But that was a big focus of ours was trying to limit her shots.”

On Notre Dame holding Miami to 0-of-16 from three

“That was something we were focusing on. We call it KYP — know your personnel. Knowing tendencies of everybody, we really locked in on that. And again, I just think the energy of our team, just getting better every game of knowing what to do defensively. We put a lot of pressure. Sometimes we’re switching one to four. We look to ice ball screens a little bit. We top locked some of their their staggered action. So we try to do different things to try to take them out of their spots, and I thought we did a great job with that collectively as a team.”

On staying motivated when Notre Dame is winning by so much

“I think just they understand that it’s a 40 minute game so we have to bring it. It’s our standard that we play against a lot of the time, and so I’m always holding them accountable to to be playing at our standard. So hopefully that shows the reason why that we try to staying energized in games like these.”

On discovering Cass Prosper as a recruit

“Actually a friend, it’s one of those recruiting services, reached out and talked about Cass being from Canada and um how she was gonna be on the radar. So I was very fortunate to have a somebody that had a little birdie who kind of told me that she was up and coming. Then got a chance to watch her in EYBL and then just followed her.”

On Notre Dame dealing with being No. 1

“I discussed it early when the possibility could happen on Saturday before it happened on Monday, so they knew the same messaging — got to keep the main thing and they know that they’re locked in. The goal is, down the stretch right now, it’s an honor, but we know that our focus is always the next 40 minutes. We have a very mature group, very experienced, so they understand what that level of expectation and pressure looks like. We talked about it and we’ve moved on.”

On Notre Dame’s 16 turnovers and what else the Irish need to clean up

“A lot of them were unforced turnovers, so making better reads in transition is something we try to break down every day in practice. Putting them in the scenarios against practice guys that makes them read pressure situations. So that’s what we do all the time, and that’s something that I think we could continue to grow in.”

On having the chance to clinch the ACC regular season title in the 16th of 18 games

“Yeah, I mean, the goal is the next 40 minutes and obviously that’s lingering, but our focus is on the next opponent, which is NC State, so we have to play great 40 minutes. It’s a really tough place to play. We let everything else fall where it falls, but our goal is the next 40 minutes, the next game.”

More on the possibility of being ACC champs with two games left to play in the regular season

“We’d be happy. Excited. But I don’t wanna think about the record. I think about of winning that game. It’ll be fantastic. We would be making history for ourselves, and that’s always something that is really incredible for us. I’m really proud of this group. I have a resilient team and we’re doing something special. Just wanna stay healthy and try to continue to to get better and keep winning.