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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2015Milessa CalicuttAmber CampbellDearica HambyJen HooverGREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA Wake Forest – 85 COACH HOOVER: I couldn't be more proud of this team. We came into the tournament with a determination about ourselves. Even the last two weeks of the season, I would say, that there was definitely a sense of urgency, and when you have all of our young ladies playing and doing what they do best, we're a very dangerous basketball team. Today I thought we were just relentless in all aspects of the game. A little too relentless to turn the ball over at first, but I thought after we kind of withstood all of the chaos that was creating, we settled in in the second half and just took care of the basketball. Q. You just beat a team that's not a bubble NCAA team, they're a lock NCAA team. What's with the magic pants? COACH HOOVER: Fear the pants (laughing). Again, this team, when they come in with that kind of determination, you're right, I told every one of their players good luck in the tournament because that's a tournament team. They're a top 25 team, and we knew when we played them back in January that we didn't put our best foot forward, we didn't play our best game, and we still had a shot at it. They had gotten 28 offensive rebounds against us in that game, and so we knew that we couldn't do that. We knew they're extremely talented. They're a very dangerous three‑point shooting team. Alexis Peterson is what we like to call a Deacon killer, but today that might have been the case had we locked them down on the boards. I think the boards probably were the determining factor and the difference in the game. Q. What are you doing to stop Syracuse from being able to hit the three? I think they started off 0 for 17. COACH HOOVER: Well, you know, one of the things, when the seeding came out, both Boston College and Syracuse are both great three‑point shooting teams, so for two days we got to talk about it and we prepared for it, and we talked about trying to be able to get out and dictate with our defense. Those are the two leading, I think, three‑point shooting teams per game made in the conference, and we held them both under their average. I thought we just did a really good job of locking in and really getting out and contesting them, and that's our thing always. Both of those teams shoot well. They're going to knock some down. We can't let that deflate us. We've got to contest it and make it be a hard, contested shot, and then we want to box out and get to the other end. Two days ago we started preparing for Boston College and we prepared solely for Boston College, and then last night we prepared for Syracuse. Q. Coach, the team committed 16 first‑half turnovers. How was that addressed in the locker room? COACH HOOVER: You know, I don't think I really said a lot about it in the locker room because I didn't want it to become such a mental thing with us. At that point I think a lot of those were early and we had kind of settled in. We just talked about a couple different looks we were running in our press break and we gave them a different look, and I thought that our kids did a great job executing the different look, and we changed things up a little bit. And just the poise that we came out with, and I'm sure they may have talked about it a little bit at halftime, but sometimes as a coach I think when you talk about it too much, it becomes in their head and then we're worried about it. We just drew up a couple things as a press break, what we were going to do and how we wanted to look to attack it. We were confident if we could get past the press, we knew we could score in the half court against them, and I think when you saw shot 62 percent in the second half, our confidence in the half court was very good. Q. What's been the keys to your career success in the ACC Tournament? MILLESA CALICUTT: Every year we just take it as a new season. We definitely pull a different side of us out for tournament time. I know this year has been definitely different because we truly have a vibe, all of us together, and we're pushing each other, and we had a frustrating season, and so we're not going to go out without a fight, so perfect timing for tournament time. DEARICA HAMBY: To piggy‑back off what she said, yeah, basically it being tournament time, knowing the season is coming to an end possibly, and nobody wants to go out, so just playing with a sense of urgency and playing hard. Q. Dearica, last time you played Syracuse you said the game plan on Briana Day was to force her left. Today getting her into foul trouble, what was the game plan? DEARICA HAMBY: I know for me, it was just to duck in on her and pose hard. She's long, she tries to come over, so we were pick up some early fouls on her, and that could have also been a game changer because she's really good at alternate shots and blocking the ball. We didn't have to really worry about that as much. Q. Coach Hoover, what was the key to the team fending off that late rally? I believe you folks did that without any time‑outs. You were never able to get them to the sideline and get them to regroup, and it was a furious rally. COACH HOOVER: Yeah, it was, and again, that's the danger of that team. They're such a great three‑point shooting team and they're so quick. Brianna Butler has got one of the quickest releases in the league, in the country probably. Again, I think our confidence at that point because we didn't get rattled in the second half with the pressure, I thought we just‑‑ I think it's a little bit of what these two young ladies said and that freshman sitting down there at the end being all quiet, we knew we had to step to the ball, and if we could step to the ball and take care of it in the half court we were going to be able to get good looks. I think Lis hitting a couple of those threes late obviously were huge. We had a couple big‑time rebounds I thought that were difference‑makers for us and just being able to knock down free throws today. Q. What enabled Kandice Ball to have such a good game today? COACH HOOVER: Well, Kandice, she's one about two weeks ago, too; in the practices going into our Miami and Georgia Tech week, she just was a monster rebounder in practice, like she just ‑‑ like a sense of urgency for her. She's our lone junior on the team, and she's really close with these two seniors and Susie Webster, who is another senior that probably doesn't get spoken enough about. Susie just pushes us every day in practice. She is phenomenal. She has been determined this year to get every rebound in practice that makes these guys have to work even harder, and she's been challenging Kandice and the other kids that get more time than Susie. And Kandice is just‑‑ I told her today, I'm going to need about five more of those one‑handed rebounds because I don't know how many she got today that were just one‑handed, but she right now is just ‑‑ that's made a big difference for us because we're not just relying on Dearica to do the rebounding, and that's huge. KK Atkinson came in and got seven rebounds, I believe. That's what it's going to take. It takes each one of us doing what we can do, and that's what Kandice brings to the table for us. She's a big that can rebound, she's physical, and she can finish right around the basket. Q. Amber, what made the Deacons' offense so successful in general today, and how much are you playing for the seniors? AMBER CAMPBELL: Actually being able to get stops defensively, and getting our hands on deflections, and how Coach told us, you know, that we just have to keep going. Our momentum took us to keep going and further, and yeah. Q. Coach, in the second half you really beat Syracuse in transition. Entering the game was that something that you targeted, that you wanted to do? COACH HOOVER: Well, we talked about it a little bit because if we could get stops, to kind of parlay on what Amber was saying, our emphasis was to get stops. When we played at their place, they shot 32 percent from the floor, and that was including 28 offensive rebounds that they probably shot 75 percent on, so we really felt like in the half court we could force them to one tough shot, and if we would get stops we knew we could run out on them, and we knew we wouldn't have to face the press. That was really one of our emphases was talking about forcing those tough shots and we had to finish it with a box‑out. Once we got a box‑out, we knew we could run on them. We were able to run on them up at their place a little bit, and I think sometimes you look at it and say, well, it's your second game, we want to push the tempo because they're going to be tired, but I'm going to tell you, these kids don't get tired, they just don't. At this time of the year, every team across the country, there is no such thing as tired. Q. Millesa, you've gotten hot from three at just the right time for your team. Are you doing anything different or are the stars aligned? MILLESA CALICUTT: That's a good question. I go through some slumps every now and then, but I guess I'm just feeling the rhythm. I like these Wilson balls here this year, and I mean, it's the last chance to go big, so got to help out my team in some way. Q. Dearica, I have two questions for you. First of all, how disappointed are you you're one rebound short of the record? DEARICA HAMBY: We have another game, so I'm going to get it. COACH HOOVER: She's benched for tomorrow. No, just kidding. DEARICA HAMBY: I'm really glad we got the win. That's more important right now. Q. A lot of times you've faced double teams down low, but today you were facing double teams getting the ball in on the full court press. What's that like for you? DEARICA HAMBY: It's frustrating, but especially in the first half my team was able to pick up where I couldn't contribute with the scoring. I know I only had like two shot attempts and maybe like four points, so they were able to knock down some shots and keep us within the game in the second half, and I'm not sure why we happened to be so open. Q. Dearica and Coach, what do you need to do to beat Duke tomorrow? DEARICA HAMBY: Millesa needs to hit some three‑pointers. The first time we played Duke we were really successful scoring the ball in the first half, and just spreading their zone out and then cutting to the basket and knocking down outside shots to open up the zone, and doing some pump fakes. They've got some big girls. COACH HOOVER: I think a lot of it is this time of the season we talk about defensive rebounding is the difference maker, and they start three big kids, and we've got to be able to keep them off the boards, and that's got to be an emphasis for us. And then we've just got to continue to do what each player on our team does. We don't talk a lot about Millesa, you go try to be KK, or Amber, you go try to be Millesa. We need Millesa to be the best Millesa she can be, and that's being able to knock down shots, helping players, being a settler for us at times, and that's Dearica doing what she does, that's Kandice Ball rebounding. Everyone on our team has a role, and when they step in and fill those roles to the best of their ability, like I said, we can be a very dangerous basketball team, and that's what it's going to take tomorrow. Q. You called Alexis Peterson a Deacon killer, obviously 66 points in the past two games. What is she able to do? You got everyone else down. How was she able to do that? COACH HOOVER: Well, I don't know what it is that she particularly likes against us or not. We switched up defenses on them a little bit, especially in the second half tonight. We totally went to some different things and just tried to throw different people at her. She's a great point guard and you can tell she really controls the team and controls‑‑ she's the coach on the floor for them and she's got a lot of confidence against us right now. She got 34, but the difference is that we still had 85 as a group, and we come out on top. I thought we did a really good job on Butler, and we really made her shots tough looks and tough contested shots, and that was really an emphasis. In the first half we kind of let Fondren go too much left, and so we talked about that a little bit at halftime, that we really had to force her to her right and take away that left side a little bit. Unfortunately we've got to see Peterson for two more years, so we'll keep throwing different things at her. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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