ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 2, 2023

Jakia Brown-Turner

Madison Hayes

Wes Moore

NC State Wolfpack

Postgame Press Conference

NC State 83, Syracuse 58

WES MOORE: Okay. Just proud of the way our team came out. Syracuse has been really hot. They're playing well. I think they're a legitimate NCAA team. And just proud of the way our kids -- especially there were certain things we knew we had to do well against them. One of them was try to keep them off the boards and do a good job there, and I thought for the most part, we got that done. Outscored them on second-chance points.

Gave up some points in the first half on fast break, but we did a much better job in the second half of that. Then offensively, we played much better. We had too many turnovers. As one of the coaches said, if we'd take care of the ball a little bit better, we might score 100.

Again, good all-around team effort. I thought everyone -- you know, Fair is such a great player. They've got so many players that can go off on you, and I thought these guards did a great job defending those players, and it's good to get that first win and move on.

Q. Your two kind of true post players today, Camille and River, combined for 30 points. Was that something you saw on film that you might be able to attack inside?

WES MOORE: Well, we feel like we need to do that. Those two are very efficient inside, and when we get them the ball, they score. Camille had a really good game against Pitt the other day, and we need to do that. That's what we've done in the past is work inside out, get them some touches. And then it's easier for our guards to get looks too when we get our post touch and are able to kick it out.

Both of them, I thought, played really well, and like I said, I thought on the boards they did a nice job. Again, we had some balance today, and that's what you want to see.

Q. Like Coach talked about, Dyaisha Fair coming into this game, one of the best players in the ACC, how did you stop her and how did you guys grade your own performance in holding her only to 11 points?

JAKIA BROWN-TURNER: Well, I definitely have to say Madison locked her down. We know she's a great player and great scorer, but we just had to help on her. Actually when she drove in the lane, we had to clog the lane up and make it hard for her. But Madison was on her most of the game, and she locked her down.

MADISON HAYES: I think I would rate my defense a solid 9 out of 10. I thought I could have done better on a couple of possessions, not just me but Saniya, as well, Saniya Rivers. She did a great job, as well. We have to be in the gaps and help each other out as a team, and that's what we did the whole game.

Q. James stuffed the stat sheet a little bit today. How important has her progression been this season to y'all's success?

WES MOORE: Yeah, I'm proud of Aziaha today because she started out rough. The first half she had zero assists and three turnovers and was just struggling. Told her you can either get down and have a bad day or pick yourself back up and let's go out here and rewrite another chapter.

I thought the second half she did a great job for the most part making good decisions and distributing the ball. At the end of the day she had five assists and four turnovers, hit some big shots for us. She's super talented, and just has so much potential. Sometimes gets a little excited and needs to slow down a little bit on offense, but definitely she was a big difference for us in the second half.

Yeah, we had five people in double figures, had another one with eight, another one with seven. That's exciting to see. That's what we want.

Q. Obviously the games have been up and down this season, but if you look at your side of the bracket, Syracuse, now Notre Dame, you guys have been competitive or beat the teams on that side of the bracket. What is your confidence level going through this tournament?

JAKIA BROWN-TURNER: I would say we're still just taking one game at a time, and that's all that matters during this time. We've beat them before but we're taking one game at a time and we're going to work on the next game and work on the next scout and get it done.

MADISON HAYES: Next game, Notre Dame, like Kia said, we played them last time and we beat them at home. It's hard to beat a team a second time, and they're a great team, so we have to come out ready to go. We can't come out slow this game. We've got to be ready to go the whole game and give it 110 percent. As long as we do that, I think we'll be fine.

WES MOORE: And they're regular-season champs, so challenge. Got a challenge.

Q. I know how disappointed you were about the turnovers that took place today, but outside of that deficiency, it looked like you guys played one of your best all-around games this season. How important was it for your team to come out here and display a heart-of-a-champion type of mentality, especially with you guys coming in as the three-time reigning champs?

WES MOORE: Yeah, you know, no doubt. We should be confident coming in here. We have had a roller coaster of a season, okay. We've had some great wins. We played a really challenging non-conference schedule and did really well in that. But we've had some disappointing losses.

We always, every year, we come here, it's a new season. We wipe the board. We come here, everybody is equal, let's go get it.

After this weekend, we'll wipe it clean again and we'll get ready for the NCAAs.

But you're right, it was a really good win. We scored 54 points in the paint today, which again, a lot of that was off penetration or just our post players, did a good job of sharing the ball.

You're right, we did a lot of things well, and hopefully we can build on that and keep the momentum. We've got some veteran players, and this is the time of year you live for. I call it March Gladness. This is the time of year you work for all year.

So we're excited about it, and we're excited about being in Greensboro. We've had, like you mentioned, three years in a row winning this thing, so I know these players are used to winning, and they don't want to go home.

Q. I just wanted to ask you about River Baldwin. She was an integral part of the game today. How were you guys able to make sure she was in the right position to succeed?

WES MOORE: Yeah, I thought River played really well. Seven for seven from the field, so very efficient there.

What I really loved is I thought in the second half when we're trying to hold on to a lead and maybe build on a lead, it seemed like she got about every defensive rebound there for a while, so that was comforting to see, knowing that if they missed, River was going to come up with it or somebody else was going to come up with it.

Yeah, I thought she had an outstanding game. Again, we're hoping to be here for a while, so you've kind of got to rotate them in and out and keep them fresh, but she definitely played a great game.