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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 2, 2018Wes MooreAkela MaizeChelsea NelsonGreensboro, North Carolina NC State - 51, Duke - 45 WES MOORE: Again, really proud of our kids. The first half we played extremely well and got off to a nice lead. And then, as you know Duke will do, they came out battling in the second half, and they did a great job with their zone defenses, and we kind of struggled there in the second half to score. But like these players have done all year, they handled adversity probably better than I do, and they just kept battling and found a way to get it done. Obviously Chelsea with 22 rebounds is amazing. Can't say enough about how hard she plays and the hustle that she provides us. And Akela, again, great leadership out of both of them. Again, nice win for us, and we're excited to be able to stick around. Q. Coach, that last inbounds play, is that something that is a set part of your package or did you draw that up in the timeout before the play started? WES MOORE: We've ran that for a long time, and we don't use it very often, but we felt like in that situation they had to have the ball, and they were going to really deny hard. It was a great job by everybody executing it, and Ace made a nice pass and Ke finished it strong. Again, it was a key bucket for us, obviously, but again, kind of a situational thing. Q. Wes, this was a really physical game for both teams. You've preached that you've got that depth and athleticism. How important was that today inside and out in order to survive basically this matchup with Duke? WES MOORE: Well, again, I don't know that I'm going as deep as I should be. I know we've got some kids playing a lot of minutes. Of course Chelsea did us a favor yesterday by only playing 20 minutes due to foul trouble, so now she was well-rested today and ready to go. So she's only averaging 30 minutes a game or so, so not too bad. But again, I just believe in going with the people that are getting it done, and these kids have been getting it done all year. We're going to ride them as long as we can. They'd rather play than practice anyway. They're excited about being on the court in front of people instead of in the gym doing all that other stuff. Q. Coach, (indiscernible) is a spot up shooter, but it wasn't really falling today. But she had five assists. There was one play in particular late in the game, Greenwell tried for a steal and didn't get it and she could have dribbled out and run some clock but she attacked and ended up getting a lay-up, I think, for Leslie. Can you talk about her development as a play-maker? WES MOORE: Yeah, Ace played a lot of point guard in her high school career, in her summer travel ball and all that. But yeah, the play you're talking about, it was good on both ends. Ace did a good job with the vision and seeing it, and then I thought Ke really did a nice job finishing against contact. That was a big bucket, also. There was times today I didn't feel like I helped us a whole lot. I felt like this was going to be a game where we were just going to have to spread them out and play basketball, and there was times there when we kind of got stagnant, but that was definitely a big basket for us. Ace is capable of doing some things like that, point guard-esque, so to speak. Q. Akela, can you talk about Chelsea's performance today? AKELA MAIZE: Wow, amazing performance. 22 rebounds? Like that's crazy. That's awesome. She played hard. As Coach says, she always plays hard, so we can always count on Chelsea to bring that aspect of her game. But even going inside when we did with her, she finished very well, and yeah, I'm just proud of her. Q. Wes, you opened the game with Kaila on Lexie Brown. Were you planning on keeping her on her most of the game because I know she got two quick fouls and then you switched Kiara on her? WES MOORE: Yeah, we knew coming in we might have to slide some people around. I thought Kiara's size and athleticism helped us a little bit in that matchup. And you're right, then Ealey got in some foul trouble, also, which kind of dictated what you do, as well. But we've done that all year, whoever the hot hand is. Kiara usually guards the hot hand or the leading scorer for the other team on the perimeter, and I thought she did a nice job. I'm thankful Lexie is okay. That was a little scare for all of us because obviously Duke's going to the NCAA Tournament, and she's a great player, so you want to see her have an opportunity to play on that stage again. Q. Chelsea, there are a lot of individual battles outside and in. Talk about working against Erin Mathias and Williams inside the paint, and Akela, working to get as many rebounds as you did. What was the key to winning those battles inside to get the rebounds at both ends? CHELSEA NELSON: As long as I just -- I need to read first, I would just look at the floor and validate where my player is and try to make her go the way I don't want to go and just go straight to the basket and grab it with two hands. AKELA MAIZE: Yeah, like Chelsea said, we just have to read their defense, and especially on rebounding, kind of going around them and finding gaps, like Coach always preaches, is really what we did today. Q. For either Chelsea or Akela, you held them to, I think, four points the second quarter. They held you to five points the third quarter. What were they doing differently to start the second half that you were not able to take advantage of the -- what was the defensive switch? CHELSEA NELSON: I just think that maybe they held us to five because they started to drop down on the post, and they would start the help and probably pick us off when we drove, and I think that was a big issue. AKELA MAIZE: I also agree with Chelsea. Q. Coach, great defensive effort against a very good offensive team. Can you just give us some general statements about what worked so well defensively holding them to the least amount of points they've had all year? WES MOORE: Well, I think, again, individual effort. I thought some kids played really hard and bought in. I think that's been the key to our season. They've bought in to trying to take away team strengths, and they've bought in to rebounding. If you do those two things, even on a bad night, you have a chance to win. Obviously 51 points on our part probably isn't going to win a ton of games, but tonight defense and rebounding was able to carry us through. You know, we just try to, again, help on the people that need to be helped with because they're great scorers. You've got Lexie Brown out there, you have to help some on her. It's a team effort. So even though Kiara was on her a lot and did a great job, everybody provided some help and tried to slow her down a little bit. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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