NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - MISSISSIPPI STATE VS NOTRE DAME

March 19, 2023

Niele Ivey

Lauren Ebo

Maddy Westbeld

Purcell Pavilion

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Media Conference

Notre Dame 53, Mississippi State 48

NIELE IVEY: I'm almost at a loss for words. I'm so emotional. I'm so happy. This is beyond a dream come true. This is nothing but God. Today, honestly, I meditated, prayed, I was like, God, be with us today because we need You.

This group, the resilience of this team, the toughness of this team is unbelievable. Not a lot of people thought we would be up here headed to the Sweet 16 and we have a belief, lot of love, lot of trust in our locker room.

We know that anything is possible and I'm just so grateful to be able to say that I can lead this group and to be back dancing in the Sweet 16 is a dream come true, especially with everything that we're going through.

I credit these two right here. They were focused. They were ready. Ebo had an NCAA Tournament record in rebounds with 18. Both of them had ten rebounds at the half and Maddy ended up with ten rebounds; they were fighting for the last couple ones,.

But just their dominance, it started on Friday, the mindset, the confidence that is exuding in this team and our identity, and it's so fun to watch. It's so fun to be a part of. We had such an incredible fan base --

Sorry for being long-winded.

But we had an incredible fan base. We had over 400 seasoned student that signed up and came to the game and supported us, second-most in program his Troy right now and we had so many former alums that came out to support. That's what it's all about.

For myself, I want people to come out and watch what I get a chance to see every day. It's a blessing and we are so grateful, so grateful we're still dancing. But it started with these two right here, and we are looking forward to keeping the show on the road.

Q. 31 minutes tonight, how do you feel and how do you recover from all those minutes that you played?

LAUREN EBO: I feel, you know, I'm hurting a little bit. But no, obviously we have an amazing staff that works with us on recovery, so I'm just going to go home and eat some nice dinner and go to class tomorrow.

Q. How were you able to do what you did with 18 rebounds?

LAUREN EBO: I really don't know. I really wanted to win. I think that was it. I think keeping them off the board was important for us and rebounding, somewhere we struggled in the past month, so I just wanted to go out there and help us get to the Sweet 16, which thankfully we did.

Q. Two huge blocks there in the last 30 seconds. What's going through your mind when they go to Jessika twice in a row and then how do you pull off what you did there? Those were two of the biggest plays in the game.

LAUREN EBO: Just getting a stop. I mean, like I always say, I know I'm super repetitive with this but just doing whatever I can to help us win, and Mississippi State, they chose to go to their post player; and I knew that I was guarding her and I had to get a stop, which I did.

Q. Maddy, a feisty game both ways, everything was hard to come by. Do you feel like this one kind of puts you guys over the top in a way that so many different place had to handle the ball and make plays, and in the end, you guys do kind of come out on top?

MADDY WESTBELD: It really showed the resiliency of this team. Everybody tend up when they had to and it wasn't pretty a lot of the time. But KK came out so aggressive and so did Cas. I'm proud of this team the way that we showed our toughness; and for 40 minutes, it was up and down and they took their runs and credit to them. They played a great game, but I'm just so proud of the way that we came through when things got tough; and we didn't know where it was going to go but we showed resiliency and came out.

Q. Talk about the play you had in the fourth quarter, you got the offensive rebound and put your team back up to stop the Bulldogs' run?

LAUREN EBO: I'm very repetitive. I just try to do whatever I can to help us win. Thankfully I think actually one of my teammates tipped to me, so shout out to them. I'm thankful for my teammates that they are there and have my back?

Q. With what Lauren has done, now that you're going to the Sweet 16, what is your perspective on her?

MADDY WESTBELD: I have a lot to say about Eb. I think just being on the court with her, I know exactly what I'm going to get from her every time. She has her toughness for 40 minutes and I know I'm going to get whatever it takes out of her for us to win, and like she said, she says she's repetitive but like she shows it, every day. She doesn't say a lot during practice but when she does, it's very effective, and everybody listens to her and she's a great leader because all she wants to do is win.

And so having her on the court with me is so much fun because I know like we can mess up together and it's cool and we can laugh about it but we can still lock in, and so I can't say enough about her.

LAUREN EBO: It's cool (laughter).

MADDY WESTBELD: We're locked in.

Q. You could have gone anywhere you wanted to this year, and now to finally be going to the Sweet 16, does that validate your choice to come here and be with this program?

LAUREN EBO: I don't think so. I think my choice was validated as soon as I committed here, and since day one, I was locked in to Coach Ivey and the team and the staff.

So yeah, I couldn't have picked a better place to finish out my collegiate career, and I'm glad that I was able to go out for my last game here in this building, that is. I'm super thankful to be here and thank you for welcoming me.

Q. Olivia gave you a hug; how does that show the close-knit nature of this team?

LAUREN EBO: Yeah, obviously our team is so close, so we were just joking around, just messing around but no, I love Liv and I love our team. Yeah, it was just banter.

Q. What did make Loren so effective today: Ten points, 18 rebounds.

NIELE IVEY: I think what I loved about her is like she was really ready today and she knew that Mississippi State's offense went through Carter, and that was something we were focused on.

I talked about, we had to get the stops, protect the paint with her, and we had to establish our inside game and that was like one of my biggest keys going into the game. She stepped up with her experience and her size, I thought she did a phenomenal job. Obviously 18 rebounds, tournament record, but the presence she gave us on both sides of the ball. She had five offensive rebounds and it was just solid.

So I was really fortunate that I could play her even 30 minutes because the last couple weeks, I haven't had that opportunity to keep her in the game. I think she was locked and focused and realized she needed to step up against a really great post player.

Q. It was tied 41-all and 43-all; what was your message to the team, and how were you able to close the game on a 10-35 run?

NIELE IVEY: I had to call a time-out and I told them to breathe and relax. They went on their run and check they banged a couple threes and I felt like we were starting to lose our composure. We didn't get organized within the offense, not taking great shots and not getting offensive rebounds, and so I just talked to them about, keep our poise.

We knew that they were going to go on a run. So it's like, now we have to withstand the run. There's a little bit of adversity, and they just kind of locked in, and now we've got a chance to really execute, and obviously we missed a couple shots but Ebo got that one offensive rebound and put that basket back in, and that crowd erupted so we really needed a basket to settle us in. I just thought with their run, the energy, I needed to just settle them in, and I just talked about having composure and keeping -- staying poised within their run.

Q. I think your team was 11-for-21 on free throws and finished the game hitting eight of its final ten. What do you think that says about the mental makeup of your team and as a coach and obviously a high-level former player, what are keys to making those crunch time free throws?

NIELE IVEY: Yeah, also I talked about like it's game time. We have a couple minutes to get to the Sweet 16, and we need every basket, we need you guys to step up and have confidence, and again, be mentally prepared to step up and make a free throw. Free throws are mental and it's something that we do all the time, something that they do off the court, on their own.

And so like big-time players step up and make big-time plays and that's what Sonia did. She struggled a lot but she ended up with ten on out of 14 but she made the last four which were big, and big-time players step up in those moments. It's a mental thing and they sealed the game which was huge.

Q. I know you're not really a three-point shooting team especially with Olivia and Dara out right now, but 0-for-7 during the game, is that something you want to address as you go into the second weekend or are just going to continue to focus on scoring down low?

NIELE IVEY: Yeah, well, we missed -- two people missed, Maddy was 0-for-4, Sonia was 0-for-3, you know what I mean, like both of them shooting over 38 percent from the free throw line, they work on their shot all the time. I just felt like today they couldn't connect.

But I don't have any worry with that because I know that they are really great shooters and so I think whoever we play, they might show a little bit more zone, which is fine. I'm very confident in their ability to make the stretch from the three-point line. They just ended up being off today.

Q. We also saw you share a moment with Olivia there at midcourt after the game. What's it like to have someone who you put so much trust in, and she kind of runs the show for the entire season up until a month ago or a couple weeks ago; to share that moment with someone who is supposed to be on the floor in this game but you kind of get to share that moment any?

NIELE IVEY: Liv is like my daughter. I know as hard as this is, I know how hard this is for her to have to sit back and watch. I had to do it two times with my ACL.

So I just try to be that support system for her. She's doing a great job of keeping her spirits high because she knows our team needs it but I know deep down inside she wants to play. I always want her to feel still a part of it. That's what I feel like my teammates did. I'm asking her to look at the offense, talking back and forth in practice, I'm allowing her or trying to help her use her voice as a leader even on the bench, or even on the side, and it was a special moment because it's like, all the way up to this point, we needed Dara and Liv to help us get to this point.

It didn't happen just right now. Our team is picking up the slack from not having them, and we're playing for more than ourselves. But Dara and Liv helped us get to this point and they are always -- I'm always going to be that coach that's going to help them make sure that they know that they are still part of it and find ways for them to connect.

For me and her, she's so excited, so happy, and I just kind of talked about the game in the moments. But you can learn a lot also from being from the side, when she comes back, she's going to be a better person and a better leader and a better player. It's cool to kind of try to have those experiences and share the lessons that I've had because I know what she's going through. I try to make sure that she's staying connected and she's doing a great job.

Q. Going off of all that, you've been to a lot of Sweet 16s, does this one maybe feel different considering you're playing without two of your key players and it was really a battle to get to this point?

NIELE IVEY: I get it. I'm really proud of the effort. I'm really proud of the toughness and the resilience. It takes a lot of confidence and a lot of belief to be able to do what we're doing right now. I have a lot of players that are in different roles, somebody to run the point as you guys all know with the storyline, and that's very hard, very challenging, and it's my job to make sure that they are confident, they believe, and that we are over prepared. It's very strategic at this point.

And again, it's a credit to the toughness and the grit of this group. They want to keep playing. They want to keep dancing and they did that today by showing up and going all the way -- leaving it all on the floor and I'm just so proud as a coach.

Q. Sonia, Jenna and KK combined for nine turnovers today. What can they learn going forward after facing such an athletic team that's going to press them full court and things like that?

NIELE IVEY: Yeah, it was very similar to kind of Louisville, we knew it was going to be like that especially Coach Purcell coming from Louisville. So I knew that they were going to pressure us a lot. We worked on it all week, and I think sometimes you just have to learn in the moment.

So you've got to learn, okay, maybe I should have set a screen, maybe I should have worked hard to get open or maybe make a different moving to by the defense. So I think you learn by being in it, and unfortunately you're still creating turnovers but you're in it and then a lot of film. It's a lot of film to kind of see areas that we can get better.

I might utilize Maddy more to try to help us out, but I thought KK, even with her turnovers, I thought she did a really good job of going to get the ball and getting us the offense when I needed her to. Sonia was getting a lot of pressure and she was kind of wearing her down so I thought KK stepped up.

Also, you know, again, sometimes your turnovers, you learn a lot from. It's always hard to be in them and go through it but I think the experiences are going to help all of them the next opponent.