University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes - NC State 80, North Carolina 66
February 21, 2016 | Women's Basketball
Press Conference
February 21, 2016
UNC vs. NC State
Coach Sylvia Hatchell
Opening Statement
Well, thank you all for being here. This is a special day for all of us. I'm really proud of these two young ladies (Destinee Walker and Stephanie Watts) – two dynamic freshmen. They make mistakes out there, but they're doing really good. We just got to get a little bit of post-play going with them. Rebounding was big and we scored four points in the paint, and they scored 26. So that's a big difference there. Hillary (Summers) got in foul trouble early, and that hurt us some. Rachel (McGirt) was in there. Rachel's a walk on for us. I thought she did a pretty good job when she was in there, but we just got to get more post-play, and rebounding was major. When we get that game a little stronger, that'll make these even a lot better because of the balance of everything.
We started out great. They were fired up and making shots. I thought we did really good, and State's got a lot of weapons. They're a very veteran team. Seniors and juniors, I think out there. Pretty much their whole team is juniors and seniors. I loved how we started off, but then they started making shots and we started making mistakes. It's been like that this year. We play really good at times, and then the momentum gets turned and it's hard to right the ship. But I thought we hung in there. We battled back, got it down. And then we had some shots. Jamie (Cherry) had a lay-up; Erika (Johnson) had a couple shots around the basket. We had our chances to cut it to five or six points, something like that. And we just couldn't seem to get over that hump.
I think you can tell a lot of things. These guys (Watts and Walker), they made mistakes, but they're both going to be great, great players. We just got to get a few more to go with them, and get a little stronger inside game. State, they played well. They got great shooters. They're a veteran team. Special day, and hopefully a lot of recognition for the Kay Ya cancer fund.
On starting out strong, but losing momentum
I said, look I don't want to hear that (fatigue) - we got to play through that. This is the situation that we're in, and we play through it. It's such a mental thing. If we had a few other players that we could rotate in there that would probably help a lot. Our fast break, we got going, started off the game good. We were aggressive. We were attacking. We were scoring. We looked good when we were fresh. And then we do get a little tired and we start making mistakes, especially mental mistakes. I thought we came out the second half, played pretty good there. But it just shows you how good we can be. I hate to say this, but if Xylina (McDaniel) would have been out there, that would have made a major difference - just her presence out there. She's such a body, and physical and rebounding and scoring around the basket and all that stuff. It's just her presence out there would have made a major difference. It is what it is, so we keep working, playing hard, and these kids get experience, and we got nine new ones coming in next year to add to these guys. I think these are the two best freshmen in the country. They've played a lot of big games this year, and they've come a long way and they're going to continue to get better.
Parts of the game that led to the breakdown in the second period
I know, like you said, we took from last game and this game we started out really strong. And our stuff was hitting shots in the first half. I think the second quarter is what really hit us because NC State closed the quarter on the 18-0 run, so the second quarter was what I think was our big downfall, despite starting hard in the first quarter.
Sometimes we didn't match up on transition defense well. That was one of the main things we tried to work on in practice, so that led to a couple quick threes. I know like two times down they got back-to-back three's so that hit us hard. I think that when we weren't playing well on offense, shots stopped falling on offense and I think that kind of messed up our defense, as well.
