Everything Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said about Irish win at Tennessee
Notre Dame came back from down 16 points to beat Tennessee in Knoxville on Wednesday, 74-69. Here is everything Fighting Irish head coach Niele Ivey said after the big win.
Opening statement
“I’m super proud as a coach with the way we responded and the way that we fought. To pull that victory out on the road is just tremendous for us. Incredibly proud of this group for this win.”
On taking Tennessee post Sara Puckett out of her game
“We’re always trying to front and deny to the high post. We felt like they had a great inside presence. A lot of their offense runs through their post. Obviously some great guard play, but yeah, that was a goal to try to deny up front. And then we had a couple adjustments and knew we were going to have to be really physical down in the paint.”
On a great third quarter for Notre Dame
“At halftime just regrouping and talking about what we need to get better at. Just didn’t feel like— we had kind of a glazed-over look at the beginning of the game. I just talked about playing our game. We weren’t playing the right way. We weren’t playing Irish basketball. We focused in on getting some more ball movement, getting some spacing within our offense and playing defense. I felt like we responded to that and played for a strong 20 minutes.”
On getting contributions from everyone who was available
“We know right now with our numbers being down that everybody has to step up. Everybody understands that we need balance from everybody. Everybody is going to have to do a little bit more. Not having [Cassandre Prosper], not having [Sonia Citron] and [Olivia Miles], obviously there is a lot of people that we don’t have. Everyone has to do a little bit more.
“KK [Bransford] is running the point. Sometimes she’s at the four. Nat [Marshall] is coming in and giving us great minutes for the last couple games. Everyone knows on this team they have to give more, whatever that is. Offensively or defensively or rebounding.”
On Notre Dame having the grit to win a game like that
“At the beginning of the game I just talked about trust. That was the one thing; trust, confidence and poise. We understood being on the road in an SEC environment, you have to have poise, especially down the stretch. So that’s a credit to this program. It’s a credit to Hannah [Hidalgo] being a freshman in the fire and someone that is just really listening and learning in it. She’s never been in this moment.
“I thought [Anna DeWolfe] did a great job settling us down. Did a great job with her poise, her experience. I thought she did a great job. Maddy [Westbeld], Kylee [Watson], our upperclassmen, Nat, and KK, she’s somebody that plays with a lot of poise. So we really relied on that at the end of the game. I was really proud of that. It definitely could have been a situation where we let the offense get scattered. We didn’t do that. We took it possession by possession, chipped away, and it worked in our favor.”
On Prosper’s injury status
“She’s going to be out for a couple weeks. Just soreness. Lower-leg injury soreness. She’ll be out a couple weeks.”
