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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2019

Greensboro, North Carolina

North Carolina - 80, Georgia Tech - 73

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by North Carolina and to my left is head coach Sylvia Hatchell, Paris Kea, Leah Church and Shayla Bennett. Coach, a brief opening statement and we'll go to questions.

COACH HATCHELL: Thank you for being here. I love the ACC Tournament. And first I want to say to all the Greensboro folks, thanks for doing a great job. Without a doubt we have the best tournament in the country, and they just do a super fantastic job. So I want to say special thank you to the ACC, to the Greensboro Sports Council, the coliseum people and all those folks.

We knew Georgia Tech was going to be really tough. They always are. We always have very physical games with them. And we beat them by one point a few weeks ago at our place.

And we were a little shorthanded today with Janelle out and Stephanie. It's a day-to-day thing with Stephanie. She had hyperextended her knee in the Virginia game. So, it's a day-to-day thing with her.

And then Bailey will play tomorrow. But these guys stepped up. Of course, Leah making six out of eight 3s. The kid can shoot the 3s. If she's got time to get set it's usually going in.

And then I challenged Shayla to be a little more aggressive to the basket and she was. She did a really super fantastic job there.

And then Paris, the first half, she didn't score like normal. But at halftime the TV people interviewed me and wanted to know what I was going to do to get her going. I said we were going to post her up. She looked at me like I was crazy. But we did; we posted her up a lot in the second half. But Paris did a great job with that.

The outstanding thing is she had nine assists and no turnovers against a team that presses and does a lot of things that causes problems out there. But to have nine assists and no turnovers and two steals, that's pretty outstanding.

So everybody else just looks at all the scoring that she does. So I've said enough. I'll stop so you can talk to those kids. But I'm just really proud of them. And we're looking forward to playing a great Notre Dame team tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Coach, you talked about the players stepping up. How big was Jocelyn off the bench? She's usually like an energy-type player, but she scored a career 14 points today?
COACH HATCHELL: I challenged them all to step up, and they did. Jocelyn made some big baskets, had some big rebounds. And she's a physical-type player. She loves a game like this. I mean really, in practice, you know, she's knocking people all over the place. And she loves that. But she stepped up and helped us a lot. And Jaelynn Murray did, of course. And of course these three up here as well.

Q. Paris, you had a big home crowd. You're from Greensboro. What's the experience like playing in your hometown?
PARIS KEA: Playing here in the coliseum is absolutely amazing. It's always great to see a lot of faces and family and friends that I haven't seen in a while. It's just an amazing atmosphere in Greensboro and I absolutely love it.

Q. Coach, how important was the turnover margin today? They committed 15. Your team only had five. They were forcing over 18 a game in ACC play. How was your team able to take care of the ball like the way they did today?
COACH HATCHELL: That's what I was talking about with Paris and -- not just Paris but some of the other ones as well.

The turnovers we did have, we passed the ball to them. We threw the ball inbounds and then we just got a little lazy there. But Paris had several games this year where she had only one or two turnovers. For a point guard that's really outstanding.

But that was huge and we knew they were going to come after us and that taking care of the ball would be really important especially against their presses.

Q. Coach, you subbed Olivia Smith in at the last moment to score those, to shoot those free throws, and that was her first free throw attempt all season. What was your mindset behind that?
COACH HATCHELL: Well, Olivia is a really good shooter and practice, we do drills and stuff. She hardly ever misses.

And the rule is that -- that's what I was talking to the ref so much about -- the rule is that whenever you come out there -- and they called the trainers out -- and Paris has to go out, her sub has to shoot the foul shot. No one on the court can do that, because I was going to send Leah up there but Leah was already out there. So someone off the bench had to shoot her foul shots. And so that's why I put Olivia in there, because she's really a good foul shooter.

Q. For any of the players, at one point I think Janelle was up in the coach's box. She was standing up a lot this whole game like an assistant coach. What was she saying to you guys and how big was it for not only you guys but Murray and Na (phonetic), the girls who don't play that much, to be in their ear and kind of coaching them along.
PARIS KEA: I mean, she was basically encouraging us, anything to get us going and bring the energy, really.

LEAH CHURCH: Same thing. I know when I came off the court, maybe if I missed a shot, she'd say you got the next one. Just like what P said, she was just always encouraging.

SHAYLA BENNETT: I think she was trying to keep Murray engaged in the game, and always making sure we were all making the right plays and being an extra coach.

Q. Leah, a career high 20 for you today. But also early in the second half, I think there was a stretch where you forced three straight turnovers, took a charge, stole one off the inbounds and took an elbow to the face. How pleased were you overall today, not just the 3-point shooting?
LEAH CHURCH: I was just trying to take advantage of this awesome opportunity. It's been a dream of mine to play in the ACC Tournament. To have this chance, I didn't want to waste it. I wanted to do whatever I could to help my team whether it's taking charges, knocking down shots, just having energy out there. I was just trying to do my part.

Q. Notre Dame tomorrow, obviously you guys beat them in January. And you'll be getting Janelle back. So any of the three players, what's the mindset going into that game?
SHAYLA BENNETT: I think bring her back is obviously going to be a big deal. They're going to have to play her inside, which is going to open up our outside. And I think it's just going to give us better opportunities because they're going to be focused on her because obviously she didn't play today and she's a big factor on the team.

Q. Paris and Shayla, how does your role change when you guys are a little bit short staffed and you don't have Stephanie and Janelle out there?
PARIS KEA: I think I've become more of a facilitator they were face guarding me tonight. I maybe only been face guarded once or twice throughout the whole season. They trap most of the game.

And so Church probably had most of my assists. But just facilitating the ball, two people on me, somebody's open and finding them.

LEAH CHURCH: My role, I think, is just, like I said, being as vocal as I can be because Janelle is a vocal leader on the court and just trying to make shots. That's always my role.

SHAYLA BENNETT: For me, I think my role would be like Coach Hatchell said, to be more aggressive because obviously Janelle is not in there; it's like next player up and keep my teammates involved and not try to overdo it but just play my game and help my team.

Q. Coach, at what point was the decision made or did you guys know that Janelle wouldn't play this game? And what was the conversation like with Murray on getting her second career start?
COACH HATCHELL: Well, the situation at Duke the other day, it was excessive unsportsmanlike behavior. That's not Carolina. That's not how -- and she was very sorry for that situation. But she had to -- the consequences were to not play in this game. And she accepted that.

And I told her, I said, "Look, your role needs to be" -- because they're roommates and best friends -- I said, "I want you to coach Murray; talk to her about what you would do in situations." I said, "I want you to make this her greatest moment since she's been at Carolina. I want you to help make this her greatest time of playing basketball at the University of North Carolina."

And so I talked to her about her role today with Murray and not just Murray but the team. I thought she did an outstanding job. She was so positive over there and talking to the kids and helping her teammates win. And she'll be back out there tomorrow.

And it takes all of them. Olivia making that foul shot. Bailey talking to her teammates and helping Murray and Naomi and all -- and then Stephanie as well. They all are contributing in their way. May not be time playing on the court. But it's the mental part is tremendous.

The chemistry out there with this group today was tremendous. The teamwork, the chemistry, and those kids that didn't get time, they were a big factor in that. So just proud of the whole group.

Q. To follow up on that sentiment, I think a lot of people have said this team has a short bench. But obviously the bench stepped up big time today. How important do you think that is going forward to prove that when you do have multiple regulars out, that everyone can kind of step up?
COACH HATCHELL: I tell them probably all the time, probably every day you never know when you're going to be called upon. Always be ready. We had several situations this year where people have had to go in there, someone gets hurt, someone would get in foul trouble or something like that. And just like today with Olivia.

And so that's why in practice -- Olivia works so hard in practice to make her teammates better. And so you never know you've got to be ready when that opportunity knocks. And so, like I said, I preach that about every day probably. So that was good.

And I told them before the game: I believe in you guys; I know you can do this. And I had Mack Brown come and talk to them the other day before we left. Mack and I are really good buddies, and we go back a long, long way. And he came in and said some things to them. And he actually sent us a message this morning.

And I'm sure these things they've heard before. But he was just really good about preparing for tournament time and creating an edge and things you have to do and stepping up, being a team player and the mental part of it and just all that. He was really good.

And they listened and they took that all to heart today. And when we came out of the locker room, I felt a sense or a spirit of oneness with this group.

You can just feel that and sense it, especially when you've been coaching as long as I have. I could feel that and sense it with them and on the bench today. And we had timeouts. You could just -- you could feel it. It's like the wind, really can't see it but you can feel it. And I could feel that today. I think they could, too.

Q. Paris, if it came from Mack Brown, we'd love to hear it. But where did you find your edge in the second half and what helped you get going; Coach said you were posting up more, but what else was going on for you?
PARIS KEA: Well, I feel like there were a few calls that I didn't get. They were very physical. So I just had to learn to just play through the foul really down the stretch.

If you've never seen heart, you see heart in Church. She brings it like no other. And I think that her grit kind of brushed off on me in the second half. And I just wanted to give my team whatever it took to get the win.

Q. Shayla, looked like your knee was bothering you a little bit. You played all 40 minutes. Did you ever think about putting a fist up and asking for a sub for a minute or two?
SHAYLA BENNETT: No. Two minutes left in the game, I played 38 minutes, two more minutes wouldn't hurt me.

COACH HATCHELL: When she got hurt, the assistant coaches were saying, "Oh, Shayla needs a sub."

I said, "No, she doesn't. Not Shayla." I've seen this kid play too much. "No, no, she's staying out there. She don't need a sub." She's never -- she's one of those that's never hurt. These three up here, hu-huh; they don't get hurt.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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