Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey has preached consistency, consistency, consistency to her team all season. She’s finally starting to see it game after game. The No. 14 Irish (17-4, 7-3) defeated Pittsburgh (7-16, 1-9) on Sunday, 78-53, thanks to a balanced, clean performance. Notre Dame set the defensive tone from the jump, and the Irish never let up on that end of the floor. “I think we’re getting there,” Ivey said after the game. “As a coach, you’re never really satisfied and don’t want to get satisfied, but we are definitely trending in the right direction. The focus is amazing. The practices are purposeful. They’re all recovering well. I love the energy of our team.” Defensively, Notre Dame was locked in for 40 minutes. Pittsburgh did not score more than 16 points in any quarter, and the Irish allowed them to hit just a pair of shots in Q3 (2-18 from the floor) to close the door on the visitors. The Panthers shot 28.8 percent on the afternoon, including a 3-23...