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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: KANSAS CITY

March 23, 2018

Kansas City, Missouri

Mississippi State - 71, North Carolina - 57

THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome the NC State Wolfpack, coach Wes Moore, Chelsea Nelson, Kiara Leslie, and Akela Maize. Coach, your thoughts about tonight's game?

WES MOORE: Mississippi State is a great team. We didn't have an answer for Teaira McCowan, 11 for 11 from the field, 15 rebounds. Foul trouble hurt us with our match-up there, having Akela on the bench quite a bit there.

But, again, offensively they took us out of what we want to do and you gotta give them credit for that. They really applied a lot of pressure and make it difficult for you to run your stuff and to be comfortable.

Again, great team, but couldn't be prouder of my group. All year long great resiliency and fight. Just couldn't be prouder.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes.

Q. Akela, matching up with Teaira McCowan, what was the plan going into that match-up and how did she make that plan difficult for you?
AKELA MAIZE: The plan at first was to push her up, make her uncomfortable way from the block so she can't just turn around and shoot it and also keeping her off the offensive boards. The plan did change. We started the second half sitting in front of her and trying to deny her the ball all together. So that worked out pretty well for the most part. But, yeah, she had a heck of a game. Congrats to her.

Q. Akela, was there anything that stood out or surprised you matching up with Teaira McCowan that you didn't see on film or learned more about when the game started?
AKELA MAIZE: You never know how strong a player is 6'7 until you go against them. I think that was the biggest surprise I had coming into the game, her strength. She was really strong.

Q. Kiara, seemed like your team was scrambling in the last five seconds of so many short clocks just to get a shot off. What made their defense so difficult where you were in that situation the whole game?
KIARA LESLIE: We knew they were going to deny hard. We've been working on getting open and making sure we were available for our teammates. They played great defense. That's what made it a little bit tough.

Q. Chelsea, Mississippi State got 44 points in the paint tonight. What challenges did they present that you weren't expecting from the offense for you guys on defense?
CHELSEA NELSON: They have Teaira McCowan in the paint so we expected them to go in the paint. I think we did a pretty okay job at one point, but their guards started scoring pretty well and they just had a great night tonight.

Q. Chelsea, Coach mentioned about the resiliency all year, Mississippi State got off to a fast start, you guys came back, took the lead and ended the first half well. What was it like going in down 5 feeling like you were in the game?
CHELSEA NELSON: We were confident even though we were scrambling a little bit. We got our composure throughout the moments of the game. It was just we had some mishaps and kinda weren't together. We started to come back together but it was a little too late. I think Kiara really stepped up, though.

KIARA LESLIE: Thanks, Chels.

THE MODERATOR: Okay, ladies, thank you. Questions for Coach?

Q. Coach, congratulations on a wonderful season. Teaira is most effective when she can go quick, when she catches and doesn't put the ball on the floor and goes up to make a move. How much did you want to double team her to limit her mobility?
WES MOORE: You talking about Teaira McCowan?

Q. Yes, how much do you want to limit her?
WES MOORE: In the first half we did try to double and we just didn't do a good job of getting there. I think part of it was we let the ball enter from the top. Whenever we are doubling we have to make the pass come in from the wing and our post has to get up on the high side and we didn't get that done well enough. Consequently when it comes in from the top it's hard to double.

I think that was part of it. We started the game behind, pushing up, hoping we could help in some. Then we tried to double it, didn't get that done. Started the second half with Akela in foul trouble. We decided to get in front of her but then you're opening yourself up to offensive rebounds. Hard to find an answer. She is a great player and you just don't see that size and I agree with Akela, her strength, which I kinda had a feel for it, but maybe on film it didn't come through well enough. She does a great job of using her body in there.

Q. Other than Teaira, how do you feel like you did on their other players, especially Vivians?
WES MOORE: Victoria Vivians seems to knock down about every open shot she gets and they've got so many weapons. Johnson can shoot the three. We did a nice job on her so proud of that. Schaefer can shoot the three; we took that away. Morgan hit the one three. She hit a couple of jumpers. You gotta pick your poison. We knew if we got up and showed big on pick on the ball with Morgan that, you know, we were going to be in trouble with the pick and roll and all that.

So we tried to go under picks with her and consequently she did hit a couple little jump shots at the foul line. She was, what, 4 for 10 and Teaira McCowan was 11 for 11 so you try to take McCowan away. It's not rocket science there, but you gotta give her credit. She did knock down some shots. I think for the most part we outrebounded them, which is an accomplishment in itself. We didn't really let anybody else go off, but obviously we didn't have an answer for Teaira McCowan. The foul trouble was very frustrating. Even when we were playing in front of her we got fouls, so I'm not sure exactly what the answer is there. But, again, great player.

Q. Wes, you've played obviously in your conference you have two No. 1 seeds in Notre Dame and Louisville and now having played Mississippi State another No. 1 seed. Can you give us an idea of how those three match-up having faced them?
WES MOORE: I don't know that I want to sit here and compare, you know, the rankings or whatever, but I will say Mississippi State, the way they play is different on a couple of fronts. First of all their defensive pressure. I was proud of our kids as far as handling the press. I don't think it really hurt us. The half court pressure is where we struggled. We had some shot clock violations.

I was stressing really the last two weeks because Maryland tried to do similar things, stressing keep our dribble because once you pick it up they're like piranhas in the water with red meat. They turn it up. We needed to keep our dribble. Our players got frustrated trying to get open, trying to make an entry pass, trying to run their stuff. That's what's difficult. You don't see that as much day-to-day and you don't see 6'7 every day, either. You can do a lot of things but when they're lobbing it up to her which they do a heck of a job on inbounds plays, they chunk it up there, there is be not a lot you can do about that. At times you feel pretty helpless. Great weapons, great team, Notre Dame and Louisville are great teams, also, so ought to be interesting.

Q. This was a big year for you. You talked about being picked tenth and making the first Sweet 16 in ten years. I know you're losing key kids but you have key kids coming back. Can you talk about building on what you've done the last two years, especially?
WES MOORE: We're proud of the fact that we've gone to the NCAA Tournament three out of the last four years and gotten a step further each of those years, that's what we reminded the team of. That doesn't help the seniors a lot except for you say they played a big part in us getting there. This year we had to replace our perimeter, 1-4 pretty much and the kids responded, did a great job. This year we're losing our two starting post players if you want to call 'em that. Now we've got to replace that. It's going to be a big challenge. You never know year-to-year how a team is going to respond, but I'm encouraged. We've got some good players already signed coming in and hopefully the ones we had that didn't get to play a ton this year inside will be able to step up and play well, Nae Nae Cole had a couple of buckets today. Hopefully we can keep it going, keep the momentum going.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, congratulations on a great season.

WES MOORE: Thanks for being here. Appreciate it.

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