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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2015Sylvia HatchellStephanie MavungaAaron RountreeGREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA North Carolina – 84 SYLVIA HATCHELL: First of all, it was great to be back here with all you guys. Appreciate y'all staying up late tonight. It's been a long day. These last‑day games or games at the end of the day, they're usually pretty tough. But I thought we came out of the gate pretty good, played well. Georgia Tech is a great team. They're so physical. They've got so many weapons. I mean, gosh, Whiteside and Davis, they just‑‑ on and on. They just bang and battle so hard in there, so we knew it was going to be a tough game and very physical. But I thought we came out and played well. They were in a triangle‑and‑two most of the time. Brittany did a really good job I thought on Davis. She was on her most of the time. We just tried a few different things, and we also backed off the point guard and put our other defender in the middle of the lane, so that helped us out some, also. The rebounding was always major, and we did get out‑rebounded, but I thought we battled them pretty tough in there. But we had some good shooting, especially down the stretch. Stephanie, when we got her the ball, did well, and had a really good game, and I'm proud of Allisha Gray for coming back out there. She's such a tough kid, and I think that actually motivated the team when she went out, and especially when she came back out there. It was a great ACC game, and we're going to get rested up, and we're looking forward to playing a really, really good Louisville team tomorrow. We played them a few weeks ago up there, and it was a great, great game. We led until just the last couple minutes, and so we feel‑‑ we're looking forward to playing Louisville tomorrow because of the game that we played with them a few weeks ago. But again, it's great to be back. We love Greensboro and the ACC, and it just doesn't get any better. Q. When you're at a tournament and they've had all these crazy upsets, do you address that with your team, and what do the upsets say about this conference? SYLVIA HATCHELL: You're right, I did, that anything can happen. That's how‑‑ again, I've been saying all year how great our league is, so really, you say upsets, but they're not really because we have‑‑ all the teams in this league, I mean, when we played at Virginia Tech, I was impressed with them, and then of course we played Wake Forest a couple weeks ago, and I was impressed again, because they've got a first‑round draft pick on their team. I just think our league is that good. I really think we ought to have at least 10 teams in the NCAA Tournament. I could actually see more than that. But it is a great league, and the competition is so good, and on any night‑‑ and that's why you have the tournament, because it's a new season for everybody, and I think Virginia Tech and Wake has proved that. Q. What did you guys do defensively to hold them to such a low shooting percentage? BRITTANY ROUNTREE: Well, just one of the things like Coach Hatchell said, we played off the point guard a little bit and one thing I did was guard Kaela Davis, so we played great team defense and played Carolina basketball. Q. Stephanie, what made you so motivated to have such a good game tonight? STEPHANIE MAVUNGA: I don't really know. I don't think I was motivated to have a good game, but I just knew that I really had to step up big, especially after having such a bad game the other day, and I felt like I let my teammates down the other night. I knew I had to just turn it around. The first half I remember Brittany said to me, come on, you need to get in and just kill, just kill. We're going to just keep going to you. I was like, wow, for someone to have faith in me like that and to say something like that, that means a lot, a lot of respect. I just tried to do as best as I could, and another thing is during the game when Allisha got knocked down, I didn't like that, so that's my best friend, so I was actually furious, so I think I really got ticked after that, and that also had something to do with it. Q. Coach, look ahead to Louisville tomorrow and your thoughts on that game. SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, first of all, the honor, it was special because I knew Bob when I was at little Francis Marion and we used to go up and play Clemson. That's when I first met him. So it was quite an honor because I knew Bob. It's amazing right before I came to the game tonight there was a special on TV about a man that had the same thing I had, acute myeloid leukemia and he just had a match and it was his story and everything. I was actually very emotional coming to the game tonight because of that, because it really is special to be back here. It means so much to me and all, and especially with these group of kids because they're just great. I love this team. Now, Louisville, they're good. They've got everything. Jeff does a great job with them. They're really tough. We had a great game with them up there. We got in some foul trouble. Allisha fouled out with‑‑ we were actually ahead when she fouled out with about four, four‑and‑a‑half minutes, wasn't that about what it was when she fouled out, and we were ahead, and we just couldn't hold it right down the stretch. But they're athletic and they'll battle us, and they've got shooters, they've got everything. We're excited about having another chance to play them because, again, like I say, we felt like we should have won the game when we played them in the regular season. Q. Coach, did you guys make a concentrated effort to feed the ball to Stephanie even though you had a couple players who finished with at least eight points? SYLVIA HATCHELL: Yeah, at times we did. We have certain things that we call, and the other thing is we got a lot of good penetration. Danielle was getting penetration, and as she drew the defense, she was dumping it off. She did that about three or four times to Stephanie and Stephanie got some easy buckets because of the penetration of her teammates. But we have several things that we run for Stephanie to get the ball, and we did that, and she was able to get it in there. Last year she was a freshman, and people didn't know that much about her, and she didn't get doubled‑ and triple‑teamed. Now about every time she touches it, there's two people on top of her. I think she could also get a lot of her points off of rebounds, missed shots, like when we beat Virginia the other night she got a rebound and put it back in at the buzzer and that's how we won that game. But we do have several things that we try to run to get Stephanie because if you can get Stephanie a couple buckets, she'll get going. Allisha is the same way. We run some things for them, and if they can get a couple buckets, then they get rolling, and that's pretty important for us. Q. How motivating is it to see someone such as Brittany working just as hard on the defensive end? How does that motivate you guys to work harder on the defensive end yourselves? STEPHANIE MAVUNGA: More than anything, to be honest, Brittany is the best, the best defensive player I've ever played with, played against, whatever. She's the best defensive player I've ever seen. I know that she gets on me a lot in practice, especially like in games, she's like, straighten up, and I'm like, man, she's working hard for me to just slack off. She'll play this great, great defense on a star and then maybe I'll let the ball get into the post and they'll score and sometimes that makes me feel bad because she's playing so hard and sometimes I just give up a play and I know I really can't do that. Her turning around and working really hard and you see her working really hard, and she does a lot of communicating on the court. Sometimes I'll be fronting my player, and she's like, I've got you, Steph, I've got you, Steph, and that assures me like she really does have me. You know, at first when I first got here, a lot of people told me they got me back there and then the ball would go over and the next thing I know it's a lob and it's a score, but not with Brittany. She says she's got me and she's probably going to get the steal, and if she doesn't get the steal, there's going to be a stop somehow. Something is going to happen. There's no way that someone is going to score and it's not going to be easy. I know that I can really count on her to be back there. Yeah, best defensive player I've ever known. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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