University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes
March 20, 2006 | Women's Basketball
March 20, 2006
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2006 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship
Second Round
Memorial Gymnasium - Nashville, Tennessee
Monday, March 20, 2006
University of North Carolina (Tar Heels) Quotes
Head Coach Sylvia Hatchell
We'd like to congratulate Vanderbilt on an outstanding season. We knew they were going to give us a tough game tonight, and they did. Coming back in the second half out there, they are just a great team. Offensively, there for a while we couldn't stop them. The kids dug deep and we cracked down a little bit on defense and picked up our intensity some. I thought we came out of the locker room sort of flat after halftime, but we picked it back up. It was a great game. These two young ladies (Ivory Latta
and Erlana Larkins) continue to carry us. I thought the rest of the players did a nice job for us. Alex Miller (sophomore guard) played well for us tonight. We missed a lot of shots around the basket we normally don't miss. I guess Vanderbilt had something to do with that. We're just happy for the win. We're looking forward to playing in the Sweet Sixteen.
On differences in Vanderbilt's play from the first time North Carolina played them:
When we played at Myrtle Beach, we got up and it was pretty much the same all the way through. We won by 20, I think, down there. We got a pretty good lead and I think, in the second half, we beat them by one point. I think we scored 40 and they scored 39. It was very different today because they came back. I thought our intensity wasn't what it should be, and we missed some easy shots in the second half. Then they came down and made some threes and got their momentum going. Again, I think the crowd helped them out when they cut the lead down. I think that was a big factor. We played a lot of tough games on the road this year. We actually played better on the road than at home. They are sort of used to situations like this.
On the physical nature of the game:
When you get in the NCAA, everyone's fighting for it not to be their last game. They're going to play as hard as they can. My team loves playing like that. They love up and down the court and playing hard. Nobody's trying to hurt anybody out there. It's just physical because they're all wanting to win. We practice that way.
On how this game helps them in playing in the Cleveland regional:
Now that we've won, yes it will help us. I want to tell you that Vanderbilt is better than an eighth seed. There is no doubt about that. I would say they are probably a six seed compared to everybody else. They're better than their seed was. I think this will definitely help us. When you go through tough environments like this, it makes you tough.
#2 Erlana Larkins - F
On how this was a different game than played earlier in the year:
I think we played well at the beach and it was a little early in the season in December. We felt that Vanderbilt had enough time to get better in all aspects of the game and that they felt that they didn't play well then. I thought they played well tonight. They didn't back down.
On what happened at the start of the second half as Vanderbilt made a comeback:
We came out flat. I don't know exactly what it was. That happens to us quite often. We just felt that Vanderbilt knew that the first few minutes of the half were important so they came out and tried to cut into the lead.
On if the crowd picked up the Vanderbilt team:
I would say most definitely. I think the crowd felt as if we were pulling away and we saw Dee Davis raising her hands up. I think she kind of got the crowd into it. That's we they went on their little spurt so I would have to say the crowd helped them a lot.
On Alex Miller's performance tonight:
If I had to describe Alex's performance in one word, I would have to say priceless. I've never seen Alex come out and with that much intensity and fire on both ends of the floor. I just want to say thank you to Alex for choosing to play her best game tonight. She came out hitting on all cylinders. She felt comfortable hitting the three-point shot. She took it and it fell.
# 12 Ivory Latta - G
On the incident between her and Caroline Williams of Vanderbilt and did it spark the team:
I think it did give my team a lot of intensity. It wasn't anything between us. We squashed it and it's behind us. I apologized to her but it really wasn't anything. I think that was the turning point in the game for us. That boosted our team up and after that we just tried to take it away.
On what it was like when Vanderbilt cut it to three:
There wasn't any emotion. I just know we came together and we told each other to calm down, let's take our time on offense, let's play good defense and after that I know Alex came down and hit two three's. That right there just gave us that boost and we went on and did our little spurt.
Vanderbilt University (Commodores) Quotes
Head Coach Melanie Balcomb
Tonight it was a great game for the fans. I think we kept it competitive, but I have to give credit to North Carolina. They are an excellent team. I think we played hard and fought back with heart. I just don't think we played smart. We prepared for everything they were going to do. You have a game plan in a day. We just didn't execute that game plan. We didn't take their strengths away. We allowed them to do what they do well. I like the way we competed for 40 minutes and I like the way we fought back.
We are all disappointed that we didn't go farther. I think that we feel that we are a better team. I think we made it look like it shouldn't have been second round game. I'm not going to complain. I don't like my seed, I don't like the refing, I don't like a lot of things but it's not their fault. We are taking accountability on where we think we should have been. The way we feel, we feel we are way better than an eight seed. It's like to little to late. We weren't mentally tough enough and we didn't know our roles soon enough.
We didn't take care of defensive transition, we also turned the ball over too much in the traps. We were tentative in not attacking the traps and then they got easy transitions off the traps. We didn't get a checkout even when we did break a trap. Most teams that are that talented and athletic.
# 10 Dee Davis-G
On not being quite able to even the score:
We worked so hard and used so much energy trying to get back that we just dug ourselves into a hole and let it slip away. We worked hard the whole game. I can't take anything away from North Carolina. They're a great team. We just needed to buckle down more.
On building for next year:
We have a lot of work to do. To play the way we did today, it's kind of depressing to see that we wasted so much throughout the year. If we had played the way we did today, we would have had a higher seed. We just have a lot of work to do and a lot of preparation in the off-season.
#50 Karla Thomas-F
On play in this game compared to the earlier game with North Carolina:
I think we played we played with more intensity and heart than the last time we played them. Last time we didn't really make a run until the end of the game when it was over. This time we were in it with 10 minutes to go. I think the only reason we couldn't quite pull it off was that we didn't play our game when it got close. We stopped playing smart.
On the strengths of North Carolina:
It came down to stopping their strengths which included making defensive stops. We had to stop them from crashing the boards and we didn't do that down the stretch. They got a lot of key offensive rebounds. We made the stop and then they got the rebound.
#31 Nicole Jules-C
On her career at Vanderbilt:
During my first three years, I didn't work hard enough to be able to play in games like this. I made a conscious decision in the off-season that I was going to work harder than I had ever worked since I had been here. These are the games we live for. This is why we play basketball. I just wish we could have gone a little further.
