Everything Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey said after beating Stanford

Notre Dame beat Stanford in South Bend on Thursday, 96-47, to run the No. 3 Fighting Irish’s record to 20-2 overall and 11-0 in ACC play. This is everything head coach Niele Ivey said after the game.

Opening statement

“Just really happy to be back at home. We came off a really tough stretch, so I thought the energy of the crowd was amazing. I really appreciate everyone coming out to a really late game. Really great statement win for us. We did a really great job defensively. We forced the most turnovers this season with 29. Then converting on those turnovers with 45 points. Just really proud of our effort on defense.

“I thought these two, [Olivia Miles] and Maddy [Westbeld], did a great job of setting the tone for us. I thought Maddy was super efficient today. There was one stretch when she was 5 for 5. Really looked for her. She was really great. Liv did a great job with her pace. Her three-point shooting was fantastic today.

“Collectively, just the whole team. I thought we had great contributions from the entire group. Hannah [Hidalgo] with 24. Cass [Prosper], I think is playing amazing right now. Thought she was a great spark off the bench. Then just getting the opportunity for our starters to get rest and also getting everybody on our roster on the floor was just a great feeling as a coach.”

On keeping the foot on the gas in a blowout win

“They know that, all the coaching staff, we want to make sure that we always set the tone, that we never take our foot off the gas and no matter what the score is we play a certain way. The standard, for us, is defensively. I was really proud of this team for not looking at the score and being efficient on the floor on the offensive and defensive end.”

On beating Stanford by 49, the worst loss in Cardinal history

“It’s a big statement win. This is a storied program, and for our group to come out and play at such an elite level, I was really impressed. I was very proud of our group. They run a lot of the same action, so I thought we did a great job with the scout. And just imposed our will defensively against a program that has had so much success. Says a lot about this group. I’m grateful and blessed to be able to coach such incredible young athletes and women.”

On keeping Miles in the game after picking up two fouls

Miles: “I had to convince her.”
Ivey: “Yeah, she gave me that look.”
Miles: “Laughs.”
Ivey: “I mean, I trust my seniors. Maddy, I trust all of them. I talked to her about it. I was very happy she didn’t get her third. When you do have that trust, you get a chance to allow them to play through some things. That’s what I did. She didn’t get her third, so I was very happy with that. But, over time, building that trust, I know she needed to be on the floor to be able to push pace and do what we needed to do. Be the floor general. I didn’t want to change that up at that time.”

On Liatu King playing physically with a face mask on

Editor’s note: King is wearing a protective face covering after getting elbowed in the nose at Louisville on Feb. 2. Ivey is not sure exactly how long King will have to wear it for, and the Irish aren’t sure if there is a fracture. Her nose was too swollen for a clear MRI this week.

“She just does so many things. She does all the dirty work. She had 5 steals. I thought she was great defensively. I was worried, contact this week, she was not allowed to have any contact around her. Maddy can speak on that having to go through that last year. But she does so many things well for us. She doesn’t always have to score the basketball. She does a great job rebounding. I just thought she was really active even with the mask. She’s a super physical player. Unfortunately she has to wear this mask for a couple more weeks.”

On what opened up the Notre Dame offense as the game went on

“I thought they took better shots. I thought we executed better, so we got a couple actions on some pin downs. [Sonia Citron] hit one. Maddy hit one. I thought in transition, we had a chance to get downhill and got better touches and got inside the paint. I think in the first quarter we shot a couple jumpers and didn’t really get a lot of offensive rebounds. So then we looked inside and got downhill.”

On Notre Dame sophomore guard Emma Risch

“She had some cartilage, more damage and scar tissue that they had to fix. So she’s done for the season. It’s still her hip. It’s just unfortunate, but on the road to recovery. Just praying for her.”

On Notre Dame’s 26-2 run to finish the first half and the all-around team effort it took

“That’s a big piece of who we are. One of our core values is love, and you can tell this group really loves each other and they’re unselfish. There is a lot of sacrifice that goes into having a team with so much talent. The goal is the goal. They want to win, and they’re very competitive. When you have an unselfish group, it looks like that. They all do a great job of trying to play their roles but also try to make each other better.”