University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Pitt 76, North Carolina 60
February 19, 2016 | Women's Basketball
NORTH CAROLINA POSTGAME QUOTES
Pittsburgh 76, North Carolina 60 Ÿ February 18, 2016
North Carolina Head Coach Sylvia Hatchell
Opening Statement
“I'd like to erase the first half from the history books of basketball to be honest with you. If we had played the first half like we did the second half, it would've been a whole different game. I don't know why we started out so lethargic. We had our first six plays set for different players, and we usually have been pretty successful running those and getting some good looks and scoring, but we didn't score off of any of them. We were so flat in the first half. The second half, we scored 44 and they scored 31, but we were so far down that it's hard to come back. Pittsburgh's good. There are no excuses. We should've played better in the first half. Our intensity level in the first half, it just wasn't there. Why? I do not know. We've got to have more leadership on the court. It's got to come from the players, and I'm just going to keep challenging them there to do that. This one is over. We learn from it, and we've got a big weekend coming up. Hopefully we'll put on a little better performance on Sunday and start the game a lot better than we did tonight. I don't want to make any excuses. I'm still trying to figure out why the first two quarters were like they were. We'll keep working, and hopefully play a whole game like we did the third and fourth quarter.”
On adding Paige Neuenfeldt to the roster
“Paige is a great athlete. Volleyball is her sport. I watched her play volleyball here for several years, but she is a tremendous athlete. She played basketball in high school. She's rusty, but she is an athlete. She doesn't have a bad shot. She can jump. She's got size. I felt like, down the stretch, you never know when somebody's going to get hurt or we're going to have foul trouble or something like that. We've had some situations that she could give us some depth there. She is a tremendous athlete and a great kid. She's an academic All-American. We worked her out last week. We worked her out three different days before I made the decision. At practice, it gives us another player. Paige helps us in a lot of ways. Like I said, she's an athlete. She's rusty, but she's got skills, and she can get up. And all volleyball players have great timing on the blocks. I wish we would have had her the whole season.”
On her leadership role
“I feel like I'm just going to use what I've learned since I've been here. I feel like I'm not a really loud leader, but I definitely feel like I'll be able to help, especially with all the freshmen coming in. Plus, we have some other players who have been here. I think I'm just going to try to teach them the best way I can and help them out.””
On turning the game around in the second half
“I think coming out of high school, I did play what I consider a lot of minutes on my high school team. But I learned that the transition from high school to college basketball is fast paced. It's a lot harder than high school. I play a lot of minutes, but I think that with practice that I'm coming along.”
