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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2019

Greensboro, North Carolina

Notre Dame - 95, North Carolina - 77

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by North Carolina Coach Sylvia Hatchell and student-athlete Paris Kea. Coach, an opening statement.

COACH HATCHELL: Once again, thanks to all the Greensboro folks for doing a great job here. The ACC, the Greensboro Sports Council, the coliseum people, they continue doing an awesome job. They've got it down to perfection. I want to make sure we don't take that for granted. So thanks to all those guys.

It was a hard-fought game against a great Notre Dame team, and they show why they won the national championship last year and why they're just so good.

I thought we battled really hard, especially in the first half, and pretty much first few minutes of the second half we kept fighting back and fighting back. But thought we ran out of gas a little bit probably playing back-to-back from yesterday because the rebounds were even and at the end of the game they outrebounded us by 12.

I'm proud of my team. Bailey, Bennett and Paris all had really good shooting. We shot right at 50 percent. That's pretty good against Notre Dame that we shot 50 percent. But we couldn't stop them. We couldn't stop their inside game.

They're big and strong and really, really tough right around the basket. But the fact that as a team we only had 11 turnovers. That's pretty good there. So you look at all the positives.

But I think we're peaking at the right time, even though we don't have Watts rights now, but we're expecting to have her back for the NCAA Tournament, but I think we're peaking right now. And we're looking forward to the NCAA. We've had a really, really tough schedule. I think today it was ranked eighth. It's been anywhere between four and eight throughout the whole year. I think it probably went up playing Notre Dame today.

But our strength of schedule has been tremendous. And our RPI is really, really good, too. So we're looking forward to Selection Monday and playing in the NCAA.

But it was a great Notre Dame team. It was hard-fought. And they showed why -- and they're very experienced. Gosh, what, four seniors, I think, out there. They started four seniors. And so they're just really, really tough and a great shooting team. But we battled hard. We fought hard. And we're looking forward to the tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Obviously it's been a couple years since you were in the NCAA Tournament. How good does it feel to have a team that's headed back there in a couple of weeks?
COACH HATCHELL: You're right. We went through a lot with the -- because we were top team in the country there until the NCAA thing hit, and we went through a lot there. But we persevered through it. It's over. And we're back to being one of the top teams, I feel like, in the country.

And our league is just so, so tough. And the fact that Paris is our only senior and we've got a great class coming in. Now we will definitely miss this young lady, no doubt about it.

But I just told the team in the locker room, I would not want to play us in the NCAA Tournament, because we're capable of beating anybody. We showed that by playing like we did. If we hadn't played back-to-back we probably would have had a little more gas there in the second half. But we're looking forward to it because I feel like we're just peaking right now.

We get Stephanie back that will give us even a little more firepower out there. And we're looking forward to it and I think it's going to be a lot of fun for this group of kids.

Q. I was curious, Leah Church hardly played today after a career high yesterday. What was the situation there?
COACH HATCHELL: We started her and she was out there. But she wasn't getting any looks. Leah is a zone buster. She's a shooter and zone buster. And defensively they were posting her up some. A little bit of difference in the size made a little bit of a difference there.

But she wasn't getting some open looks. So I made that switch. I put Jocelyn in there because of the rebounding, of her physicality and the rebounding and all that there. And Leah played what, 11, 12 minutes something like that. But she got a couple of shots. Where was she, Church, 0-for-2. She was in there for 13 minutes.

But she wasn't getting the looks and all. So I felt like we needed Jocelyn's size and rebounding and everything like that. So that's really -- but if you play us a zone and she gets open looks, that's when she's deadly.

Q. Paris, how do things change on offense when you get Janelle back in the mix, and how do you think she played today?
PARIS KEA: Janelle played good today. Looks like she had a pretty good shooting night. So, when she's in the game she can stretch the floor for us. Turner had to come out and guard her. Whoever was guarding her, the lane was basically open for me.

Q. Paris, having Shayla out there, she has 17 points, how does that open up more looks for you having another good guard?
PARIS KEA: I guess if I'm being trapped or face guarded and I'm not having any open looks, she takes care of business.

Q. How important is it going to be opening up you guys as more of a dynamic offense if you have Stephanie back for the NCAA Tournament?
COACH HATCHELL: She definitely helps us because her size. And right when she got hurt, she was -- of course she's a great 3-point shooter and driving to the basket -- but her defense had really, really come around and she was really helping us tremendously.

The last time we played Notre Dame, I mean, when the ball, when they were doing their high-low and throwing it into their post players, she was there. She was on weak-side defense. She was reading the passes and she would be there lots of times when they threw it into the post players.

And so we miss her defense as much as we miss her offense. So having her back would really, really help us out. So we're hoping that she'll be able to play, of course be a couple of weeks. But the first time we play will be, I guess, will be week from tomorrow. So we're hoping we'll have her back by then.

Q. After the NC State game you talked about the keyword for you guys is healthy. Having this big stretch of time off before the tournament, how important will that be for you guys to be back to where you were in that week before you beat NC State?
COACH HATCHELL: You must have been in our locker room. I just talked to them about using the time that we have -- of course next week is spring break, but we'll go Monday and Tuesday and I'm going to give them a little time off. I said, this is our time to heal up and get ready to come back and have a few good practices and go play.

But that is one of the things that I addressed in the locker room because we're a little bit banged up and all that. But we will definitely do that. And a lot of them will be in treatments and everything else.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

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