University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Carolina 82, Appalachian State 52
December 14, 2014 | Women's Basketball
UNC vs. Appalachian State
December 14, 2014
UNC 84, Appalachian State 52
UNC Head Coach Sylvia Hatchel
Opening Statement
“Well it was good to play. We've ben off for eight, 10 days, something like that. I thought we were very sluggish at times but it was good to get back out there and play and everything. At times we looked pretty good and some other times we didn't. These three right here (Latifah Coleman, Stephanie Mavunga, Alisha Gray) did a really good job. It was good to let everybody play a little bit, but we're just trying to get back in the swing of things now that exams are over with. We know we have a big game Tuesday night with Oregon State. But Appalachian State kept fighting, kept coming back. They've got some nice players. Number 24, she's an outstanding player and 10 we had a little trouble guarding her up at the top. They just kept battling with us. We're glad to be back playing with exams behind us, of course we have Tuesday then we go to beach and play a couple games before Christmas. It was good to get back out there playing. “
On the team's defense causing turnovers leading to the fastbreak.
“We were trying to put some pressure on them and get turnovers. Get some rebounds and get some good outlets and get up and down the floor. We love to get out and run. I thought we had some times when we should have scored off the fast break and but timing was off and just fumbling the ball. Getting bumped inside there a little bit. We'll keep getting better and better at all of that but I love to play up-tempo.”
UNC Senior Latifah Coleman
On if the team was rusty
“We haven't played in two weeks so a lot of the first few minutes was a little rust because it was our first time really running up and down the court a lot because of exams so we hadn't got a lot of running in so today was the first time we got a running in so we were a little rusty in the beginning but we cleaned it up. “
On the team playing rushed at times
“I feel like a lot of times playing a fast paced game the we did rush some things but we regrouped sometimes and got it back together. We just had to calm down and get our focus back. That's why we huddle a lot so we can calm things down and talk about what we're rushing and then we can build off one another and play.”
Appalachian State Head Coach Angel Elderkin
On UNC's pressure defense
“I think the pressure that North Carolina brings is something that is really tough to simulate in practice and so as much as you prepare for it and you say oh we can go back door on certain things, I think when you actually face it I thought it took us close to 16 minutes in the first half before we even became comfortable and then the last four minutes we were able to go on an 11-5 run to close out the segment to give us some confidence going into the locker room. You show the pressure but if you don't have the bodies to simulate it it's really difficult and I thought it took our kids a little time before we adjusted and then it was just a factor of being worn out. Then you start the second half and it becomes real uptempo. We want to be uptempo and Carolina is uptempo and you try to match that and run with them and we just ran out of gas. So then now turnovers become fatigue and not so much play action and as much as we were just really really worn down by Carolina's pressure.”
“I think that was one of the things we really tried to talk about. Lets get the ball over half-court and run some of our sets that run some clock but then when they deny that reversal pass and they take away some of that play action it becomes almost like a panic and then you see us put our head down and try to drive and throw some bad things. So as much as you try to simulate that, it just isn't easy to run your stuff against Carolina. “
On Appalachian State's run at the end of the first half giving a boost of confidence
“We built on the last four minutes of the first half. We tracked the segments and thought that once we went to our ball screen action we were better and coming into the game we went away from it because of Carolina's traps on the ball screen. So at halftime we said we're not doing a good job of trying to run clock and running our sets so lets go to our quick hit ball screen to force the trap and try to play out of it and so our kids felt a lot more comfortable doing that. There was a point in the game around that four minute mark when I was like this could get ugly and then we subbed and we came together and then that last four minutes just really gave them confidence going in to the second half that we could compete with Carolina.
