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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2020

Greensboro, North Carolina

NC State - 57, Georgia Tech - 48

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by NC State head coach Wes Moore, student-athletes Aislinn Konig and Elissa Cunane. Coach?

WES MOORE: First of all, what a job Nell and her staff has done at Georgia Tech and her players. I mean, they make it so difficult for you to score. They keep the game close, oftentimes they keep it ugly. Just really proud of the fact that we had more assists than turnovers. Like I said, normally they win the turnover battle and today we were -- did a pretty good job of taking care of the ball and handling that.

What do you say, the zone we probably hadn't played five minutes of zone all year, but we felt like maybe we could get 'em out of their rhythm a little bit. Fletcher was doing a great job attacking one-on-one and you definitely don't want to help off their shooters.

So we decided to give 'em a different look and our players like I said did a great job. We worked on it a little bit this week and they just did a great job. I was real pleased with the way we rebounded out of it because that's your big concern.

I always think that the team that played the day before has the advantage early in the game, and that was obvious today, they definitely had an advantage. They looked a lot more comfortable and a lot more aggressive, but, obviously, if you have not played, you hope in the second half or in this case the second quarter that you maybe can take advantage of a little bit of fatigue or whatever.

Again, good win, get us going, hopefully, and proud of the team.

Q. In anticipation of this game did you feel you would have to play zone as much as you did? Fundamentally what did you do differently to get your offensive cranking the second quarter?
WES MOORE: I don't know. I think we got some transition going a little bit. We were able to get stops, which allowed us to get out and run. As far as the zone, I did feel like from watching film that the zone might would be something that we could use to disrupt them a little bit. I tell the players sometimes that and then we never use it if things go well but obviously things weren't going so well.

So, like I said, they did a great job considering we hadn't spent a whole lot of time this season working on it. Again, I don't know, second quarter, I have to look at the film but I do know we were able to get a little transition going and we started attacking a little better and quit playing, your Honor, so much one-on-one.

Q. Pan scored 30 the last time you two played and today only 15. What were you doing as a team that limited her impact today?
AISLINN KONIG: As a team we were trying to focus more on her. She has the potential to go off and be a huge player for that team and last game she scored and she has been playing well all tournament up to this point so we were trying to force other people to hit shots and helping off of players that we thought we would have a better chance of guarding.

Q. Coach, Camille hasn't played a lot this year. What kind of spark did she provide off the bench?
WES MOORE: I thought she did a good job. She has done a nice job all year. We went back to the senior rotation a little bit. I said to Camille hopefully over the next three years you appreciate my loyalty to the veterans. She was frustrated at times and she has handled it great. I thought she did a great job. She was able to knock down a shot or two. I thought she did a great job, gave us a big lift with Elissa being in foul trouble pretty early in the game. Camille has a lot of good skills and is going to be a really good player for us. Sometimes this time of year you go with the veterans but felt like we needed her today and she did a great job.

Q. Ais, when you guys were down early and you started to go on the run what did you say to your teammates?
AISLINN KONIG: What we were talking about as a team is we're better than what we're playing. We need to be patient. The shots aren't falling but we need to do the little things, play defense, take care of the ball and get rebounds and that's going to get us into motion to start scoring on offense.

Q. Elissa, when you came back in, I know for you establishing your position in the post this year has been and then got bumped off your spot. What were you thinking --
ELISSA CUNANE: Coach came up to me and said you gotta demand the ball inside and they were double-teaming, but we started knocking down shots so that opened up the double team more and I was able to score inside.

Q. Jakia Brown-Turner, ice water in her veins. That was a big shot?
WES MOORE: Yeah.

Q. How does she keep herself ready? When she takes shots like that what do you feel during the game?
WES MOORE: Again, I love it when Jakia gets open threes, and I forget who it was that kicked it to her but they did a nice job of drawing help and kick it go out. Was it you? Good job Elissa. That's your one assist for the day, good, go ahead and brag about it (Laughter.) You had as many assists as you did turnovers. I told her if she reached a point in the season she had more assists than turnovers, I would let her play point guard but I think we're pretty safe (Laughter.) But Jakia is a great player, she is a freshman, first time on that stage and you could tell at times it got to her a little bit but what a big shot, no doubt. Late in the game, still a couple of possessions and that was a big, big shot right there and happy for her.

Q. Coach, you guys hit a little bit of a skid to finish the regular season. But what are you most proud of in terms of the way this team is playing right now as you head deeper into the postseason?
WES MOORE: I think you maybe said we be weren't going to be a big factor?

Q. We can have an honest conversation, Coach. Let's get it.
WES MOORE: I appreciate it. It helps us, you know? This league is tough, y'all. We lost to Louisville. They're pretty good, okay? We lost to Duke, okay? Again, they were playing really well and had a lot of momentum. We lost to Georgia Tech. They beat Florida State twice. They're pretty good! They beat us once. So we didn't shoot it well the first six games in February. It wasn't any secret. We had kids shooting 17%, 18% from three that normally are shooting 35%.

So, yeah, we went through a tough time but we knew we got some great shooters. They're going to snap out of it. I do agree we're kinda built where we need to hit shots. We're not go to going to create a lot of offensive out of our defense and turn you over that much the way we play. But, again, you can't panic. Everybody goes through a stretch in this league, sometimes it's just a matter of who you're playing.

Heck, we were lucky to get out of Miami. I think we hadn't won in Miami since 2007, NC State hadn't. So tough stretch of games. We hung in there, and I think it was big winning our last two and coming over here a little bit happy, feeling pretty good and now this helps. It would be nice if we shoot about 50% from three tomorrow, I would feel a whole lot better.

Q. Wes, you guys hit a season low three 3's against them in the first meeting. You hit four today. What do they do so well against the three that makes it difficult for the shooters, beyond players missing shots?
WES MOORE: They play hard. They close out hard. I kept telling them on the bench, use the shot fake and attack some. But we're used to shooting threes. I don't know how many blocked shots they had. I haven't looked at that, but I bet every one of them came off threes, four, and probably came off shooting threes. Again, that's who we are. We don't want to get away from that too much, but we would like to work inside out, get some touches. They make that tough because they're going to double the post. Like I said, they got some length and they make it hard for you to get your shot off.

But, you know, again, like I said, we've hit a stretch here and there where we haven't shot it well but hopefully we kinda do like we did in the first half against Virginia the other day and come out and get hot and hit a few and get this thing rolling.

Q. Elissa, first quarter you were 3 of 16, shooting 18%, you missed eight three's. You're down 11 points. At 7:01 Ais hits the first three of the game. A minute later Camille hit a short jumper. It's the first two possessions you had actually put two possessions back-to-back where you scored. How big was that in terms of just regaining confidence for the rest of the game?
ELISSA CUNANE: It was huge. I think one emphasis we have had on our play is "next possession." We know that we're not going to hit a shot, we don't get the rebound, okay, next possession we are going to hit that shot, and I think the energy that especially Camille brought off the bench and us being on the bench cheering them on, I think that all helped to propel us.

AISLINN KONIG: I would argue it wasn't a lack of confidence for us, shots weren't falling. We were still taking good shots, and we were moving the ball around and attacking. I think it was more patience. That was the moment where we start to see shots go in and then it starts to click, and that is a lot of fun and allows us to get into a rhythm.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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