ATLANTA ― Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey and the No. 18-ranked Fighting Irish led by as many as 14 points against unranked Georgia Tech on Thursday to open ACC conference play.
And they and lost, 95-90, in overtime.
‘Frustrating loss for us. Didn’t feel like we came out ready to play today. It’s my job to get this team ready,’ an emotional Ivey said postgame.
‘We just never adjusted to putting more pressure defensively on them. Great team win for them. For us, it’s a big lesson. We have to come out with a sense of urgency, and we have to come out with a sense of toughness ― and that’s what we lacked today.’
As Ivey spoke about her team’s perceived complacency, she appeared frazzled. Her signature curls were tucked into a bun for the entire game. The cadence of words, usually even and confident, was choppy as she did everything she could to avoid sounding uneven. Perhaps it was the bright lights of the postgame presser, but the Notre Dame coach’s eyes looked more watery the longer she answered questions.
The Fighting Irish went on an 11-0 run at the 7:27 mark of the third quarter, pushing the lead to 14 points. Ivey said while her team ‘normally kind of [takes] off’ with that kind of offensive burst, defensive lapses doomed them. It left the door wide open for Georgia Tech and Walker, who finished with a career-high 33 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, to climb right back in.
Georgia Tech finished Thursday’s upset victory shooting 53% from the field and outscored Notre Dame’s bench 21-11. The Jackets’ bench production included four huge 3-pointers from Catherine Alben, including a buzzer-beating shot at the end of the third quarter to cut the lead to six and a dagger shot with 2:38 remaining in overtime. What’s more, the Yellow Jackets outrebounded the Fighting Irish 42-36 and earned more than half of their 95 points (52 points) in the paint. Georgia Tech just kept applying pressure and never let up, a metaphor for what could be happening to Ivey in South Bend.
Ivey may not admit it, but her seat appears to be getting hotter by the day.
Under the St. Louis native, Notre Dame has made four straight Sweet 16 appearances. But, the underwhelming performances at the worst possible time are starting to feel familiar. For example, during the 2024-25 season, just days before March Madness, Notre Dame had three ranked losses to ACC opponents over a five-game stretch, including a double-overtime 104-95 loss to NC State, where the wheels came off in the final minutes. Sound familiar?
Looking deeper and not fanning the already hot flames, Ivey deserves some grace for coaching a revamped roster. The Fighting Irish lost four players to the transfer portal, including former starting guard Olivia Miles, as well as all-around glue player Sonia Citron, to the WNBA. Junior Hannah Hidalgo is the lone returning starter. Ivey’s new-look starting lineup currently includes a rotation of grad transfers, seniors and Hidalgo, as the team battles injuries ― which isn’t exactly ideal for a roster that needs consistency and cohesion as it hits the toughest parts of its schedule.
During three of the six years of Ivey’s head coaching tenure, Notre Dame’s offense and defense have started and ended with Hildago. If she isn’t hitting, the Irish have had a tendency to falter in big moments no matter who else is on the court. Still, what happened Thursday at McCamish Pavilion shouldn’t have happened at all.
Notre Dame opened conference play with a loss to a scrappy, yet unranked team and play Duke, which is on a five-game winning streak, on Sunday, January 4. Not to sound dramatic, but the NCAA tournament conversation hasn’t begun and the Fighting Irish are potentially staring another disappointing elimination in the face.
Ivey knows it, too, even if she won’t say it now.
‘[Today’s game] kind of put a mirror to their face about things that we have to be better at,’ Ivey said. ‘I didn’t think that we were focused, ready to play today. I thought it took us a while for us to get going within our identity of what our expectation is, and our standard … We didn’t do that today.’
Whatever Notre Dame’s identity is, it needs to find it quickly, or it won’t survive the back half of the season. And, if Ivey wants to keep the heat under her seat at bay, the Fighting Irish’s upcoming slate is a good place to start chipping away with consistent defense that doesn’t sputter in crunch time. Notre Dame plays three ranked opponents over the next two and a half weeks, including No. 16 North Carolina, No. 13 Louisville and No. 1 UConn ― no pressure ― on January 19.