|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2016Quentin HillsmanBrianna ButlerBriana DayAlexis PetersonGreensboro, North Carolina Syracuse - 80, NC State - 61 QUENTIN HILLSMAN: Obviously we're very pleased with the win, but got to give NC State so much credit. They're an extremely tough basketball team. We've pressured them for 80 minutes now this year, and by far they've been the best team that's handled our pressure this entire season, so we've got to give them a lot of credit. What can you say about Miah Spencer? She's a tough kid, and she was just tremendous in both games that we played them, and she really made it happen. She had 22 points tonight and only four turnovers in 40 minutes, and we pressured and we double-teamed her the entire game. It really says a lot about her. I really respect Wes as a coach. He's an amazing coach and they're definitely an NCAA Tournament team and he's just a guy that's been in the business for a long time, and I've always respected his coaching. Our kids just grinded it out. We just knew that we had to keep pressure on them no matter what the situation was, we had to continue to keep pressure and to speed the game up. They run such good stuff in the half court, that we wanted the game fast, that we wanted to get up and down, that we wanted to take some of their players out of the game and kind of take their legs so they couldn't make so many threes, and obviously we made 12, they made four, we won that battle pretty handily, and that says a lot about our team because they're a great three-point shooting team. But our kids just competed, and I've got to give them a lot of credit because we didn't do anything tricky, we just got in man and pressured them and got back down court and got our defense set, and our kids were just amazing tonight, and we just gave a lot of effort, and I'm just really proud of them. Q. How big do you think Cornelia Fondren's play was in the fourth quarter, especially when you have Alexis Peterson and Brianna Butler on the bench with four fouls? How much do you think she stepped up tonight? QUENTIN HILLSMAN: Well, it was huge. Corn is just a tough player who's going to compete the entire game. I think that going into this game, we knew that she would be big for us no matter what the situation was whether Lex was in foul trouble or not. And honestly I think that the foul trouble kind of helped Lex. She got her legs under her, she got some rest she probably wouldn't have gotten if she wasn't in foul trouble and the same thing with Butler. Corn was just huge. She handled the ball. She pressured the ball the entire game. What can you say about her, she was just amazing. Q. What was the key to those five three-pointers in the beginning of the third quarter? What was the key for that? QUENTIN HILLSMAN: Well, we just got some clean looks, and I thought that when we came out in that third quarter they went some box-and-one and we ran some stuff and got some other players some wide-open looks and we were just running some ball screen action, throwing the ball back to Taylor, she's wide open and knocking down shots, so we just ran some action that we thought we could get some open shots and get to them one on the backside on some throw-back action and we got it, and it was an amazing adjustment and actually we just wanted to get the ball into a scorer's hands and Taylor really came through big. Q. The game with NC State in Raleigh was tied down to the final few seconds. What did you do so much better against them today? QUENTIN HILLSMAN: Well, we had a tape, so that was the most important thing is that we had a tape, and we just wanted to make sure that we just kept the ball out of Miah's hands. We didn't want to foul her so much. Obviously, she shot 15 free throws I believe it was, but she just did a very good job of still attacking us, but we knew that the more that she had to play us 94 feet, that's going to wear you down, and we just really just wanted to take the ball out of her hands, and when she caught it we were able to chase her and make her either A, give the ball up or B, go all the way to the basket. So our goal was to make her run full-court sprints the entire night, and she did it. Q. Alexis, how much do you think Corn was able to change the game tonight and what did you see her doing well? ALEXIS PETERSON: Well, I think she did a good job of kind of controlling the pace there at the end. Corn is a point guard and she's an experienced guard, so she knew what we needed time and score, and she made the plays happen when we needed them, and she just attacked the basket and put the pressure on their defense. Q. Coach, 12 three-pointers overall. How big was the three-point game just overall? QUENTIN HILLSMAN: Well, it's huge. That's what we do, we're going to play points per possession. We're going to pressure you and shoot the ball, and that's what we did tonight. We didn't really turn them over, and we don't turn them over a ton. They were amazing against our pressure, but they play so fast and we don't allow them to run their offense, and that's the biggest thing with them, and it's huge we didn't let them run their sets so we can play fast and get some threes in transition. Q. Briana Day, in the first half, first quarter NC State was really pounding the ball inside. Later in the game they weren't able to have so much success inside. You got five blocks. What kind of adjustments were you making? BRIANA DAY: Just playing smart and just moving my feet. That's all. Q. Any update on Taylor's injury by any chance and if she can't go tomorrow what might be the plan to replace her? QUENTIN HILLSMAN: Well, that's why we talk about our depth. We have our full roster and she's rolled her ankle so you never know how those things will react, but Karen is amazing at getting our kids back on the floor, and if she's able to play, she will. If she's not, we're going to do what we always do. We're going to go next man up and use our depth to our advantage. Q. Earlier in the season you've talked about not doing player introductions because you have seven, eight, nine starters. Was it an option to not do them tonight and how did you feel about that? QUENTIN HILLSMAN: We're respecting our great conference, man. It's in the procedure book that you come out for starting lineups and you go to the foul line and you line up. We're in the best conference in the country and there's no way I'm going to buck our conference and their procedure, and that's what they do, and we're going to act accordingly. Q. Alexis, what's going through your mind when you guys hit those five threes in the third quarter? ALEXIS PETERSON: I just felt a big momentum swing. We talked about coming out with effort and energy, and I think when we can hit five threes in one quarter, it just helps our momentum. We start doing the digging more on defense, we start getting involved, getting everyone involved on offense, and I think it just helps. I think we're all locked in at that point. Q. Brianna Butler, what do you think the key is to sort of sustaining that later into games or do you think you need to impact already? BRIANNA BUTLER: I think our team is very well stacked. We have a lot of great players who can come in. We do look at the stats. We had five players in double digits which is key for any team to be successful, and I think that was huge for us. Taylor Ford came in the second half and stepped up and hit a couple big threes. Lex did a great job with the free-throw line, Briana Day stepped up, Corn did a great job in the fourth quarter as we were saying, so I think it was just more of a team effort and what was available for us at the time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|