NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL 1 SEMIFINAL - UCLA VS SOUTH CAROLINA

March 25, 2023

Dawn Staley

Brea Beal

Bree Hall

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

South Carolina Gamecocks

Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference

South Carolina 59, UCLA 43

DAWN STALEY: Super proud of our team to play against a tough UCLA team that they give people problems. But I thought we did a good job of disrupting, and then I thought our fans did a great job of just lifting us up even through our woes on the offensive side of the basketball.

But once we got it going, we felt their presence.

Q. Brea and Breezy, their game was defense, but it seemed like y'all brought your defense, as well. How much was that an emphasis coming into this game to say they can throw what they do right back at them?

BREA BEAL: Well, I feel like we're a very defensively minded team. We definitely do a lot of work in practice, whether it's ball screen, whatever the case may be.

I think for games like this when offensive scoring is very low, we definitely rely on our defense to keep their scoring lower than ours.

Q. Kamilla has that chase-down block. What does a play like that do for the energy and momentum of the team?

BREE HALL: Really just brings so much energy, just not only to our bench but to the fans. It really gets us going, and it really just brings us together and makes us know we can do this. Yeah.

Q. Breezy, what do you feel like is the biggest thing you've learned from playing alongside Brea? And then, Brea, do you see elements of your own game in Breezy's?

BREE HALL: I think one of the biggest things is communication, honestly. I think last year I kind of struggled with screens -- well, I did struggle. I struggled.

But I think this year I just really took in all what Brea has communicated to me, to communicate early when there's a screen, call it early. And I think Brea's mindset is to get through it, and last year I would kind of stop and call a switch, and this year I'm a lot more tougher, a lot more stronger, as well.

BREA BEAL: For the second part, I definitely see a lot of aspects. With her she definitely came in, energy was always high, and I think she definitely took a lot of the calmness, I would say.

And definitely her discipline and ability to be patient. Definitely when her name is called, she's able to go out there, knock those shots down or make herself a target or get other people open, make good passes. I definitely think her ability to stay strong throughout the course.

Q. Brea Beal, Zia just told me in the locker room that she feels like she learned her defense from you in a lot of ways. What does it mean to hear that from a teammate, and what defensive aspect do you bring to the floor?

BREA BEAL: It feels good. Like I said, we're a defensively-minded team. When we come to this part of the season, we definitely need our defense from every single individual.

So for her to be able to lock down who she's guarding, it does a lot for our team and makes it easier for our team, and it definitely impacts the game.

Q. Brea Beal, all your teammates in the locker room were saying you were the calming force out there. When maybe shots aren't falling, what is it that calms them? What is it you do out there on the floor to calm everyone down?

BREA BEAL: Definitely in some spurts where we maybe were getting quick shots and then we get a rebound for the third time, it's grabbing the ball and saying woosah and get the ball, let's do it, a high pick-and-roll, just kind of taking time to ourselves and just really calm ourselves, not necessarily yelling or telling somebody to stop what they're doing. Just kind of being a calmness without using my voice I would say in a sense.

Q. Brea Beal, Kierra was saying in the locker room she could feel you guys blowing up UCLA's sets. Do you feel that in the middle of a game, and how good does that feel when you can feel the other team breaking down?

BREA BEAL: Definitely for us we do a lot focus with knowing our scout before the game. We definitely reviewed amongst ourselves their play calls, their main play calls. We have to know it to make the game more so on our side.

I definitely think us, especially the upperclassmen, making sure we all know their play calls for the game.

Q. Breezy, I was talking to a lot of your teammates in the locker room, they said this is a great moment to see you flourish on this stage. They said you've been working hard. What's been the difference, and how gratifying is it to finally see your game come together on one of the biggest stages in?

BREE HALL: I think the biggest difference is my confidence, honestly. I think last year I kind of struggled, especially at this time, with my confidence and knowing what I'm supposed to be doing out there on the court.

And I think just Coach has really been in my ear, telling me to just do what I do best. And it's just a great feeling, it really is, because, if you guys haven't seen, on the bench, every time I score, they're so excited, so happy. I'm coming out of the game, Zia and Ki are giving me a hug, and it's really a great feeling.

Q. For both, you played in so many big games since you've been playing at South Carolina, and it seems like you've got another big one coming up on Monday night. Have you had time to actually enjoy the process? I know sometimes you have to stay so focused, but have you enjoyed or get to enjoy any of the things you accomplished as the year goes on?

BREA BEAL: Yeah, definitely, especially being a part of this program and our preseason. This is just what comes with it. As time goes on, we're able to go home and kind of take in our wins and our small team wins, as well. Especially for the seniors, we're able to go back to our room and just kind of think about the memories we had to each other.

So we definitely have time to, but definitely having the schedule we have and played the games we have, it comes with it, and we're kind of used to it.

Q. Brea Beal, you've kind of become known for your defense, your defensive abilities. At what point in your playing career did you kind of embrace that, did you kind of become, this is the player that I'm going to be, things of that nature? When did you embrace the role of being a defender?

BREA BEAL: I mean, I feel like naturally I just began to embrace it. It definitely came with some hardship, but throughout time I just walked into it. It's not necessarily something I was just like, I'm this defender, I'm the best defender. It came naturally, just as well as offensively, it's just something you've got to be patient and just accept as time goes.

Q. This is the second time this month on this floor you've taken a team that gave you trouble last time and dominated them the second time, almost being the first. What about the second time over makes it so y'all dominate so hard and why you were able to do it today?

BREA BEAL: I feel like going back to our preseason games, we're just getting started, especially in November, the month of November. We're just learning each other. We got a new point guard, Ki, we were learning her, Raven was coming back, things of that nature.

Definitely as time goes by, we're able to learn what each other does in those situations, how do we get out of those tough situations.

Definitely when we are able to play these teams a second time in the tournament, we're able to make those adjustments. And, again, we've learned a lot from each other from the beginning.

Q. I know you've had her for four years and have probably stopped being surprised, but does it surprise you how dominate Brea can be on every end of the floor doing everything that needs to be done?

DAWN STALEY: No, that's what she does. Brea has been our utility player. She gives us what we need at any given time.

I think what I love about her is she's walking in her truth, and her confidence is at an all-time high. It wasn't always that. You come into our program, and you're asked to be -- not even asked. It just happened and developed into her being a fourth or fifth option of our offense, when she came in scoring the most points in the state of Illinois. That's a huge feat.

But it took her time to just really relax and see where she could find spots to be effective. Now that she's a senior, she sees it. Like we're very, very comfortable with her being out on the floor, and we'll miss her dearly.

Like we'll miss the fact that we're comfortable. Like we're comfortable with her. There's certain things that we don't have to say over and over again because she's the coach in the huddle, and she's the coach over in the dorms, and she's the coach in the hotel, and we don't know play calls and they have to get together and get the play calls and make sure they have them.

Q. You're a coach, so as good as you guys played defensively, as part of you sitting there saying, hey, we only had 25 points in the first half and we'd better pick that up?

DAWN STALEY: Yeah, we have a tendency to shoot ourselves in our own foot with just sometimes we're rushing. We're so amped up. I've got some players that just really want to win so bad, and they really think that they can do it in like one possession, in one shot. Until we just calm down.

But we also have to play into that, as well. Zia wants to win, Zia wants to "ugh," and Zia will want to shoot the ball every time because she creates her own rhythm. And sometimes as a point guard, I try to tell our point guards, give her a shot. Like give her a shot that we can expect so we can go rebound.

But Zia is going to have those times in which she's just going to rear off and deviate. I'm fine with it. I've got to let her express herself the way she needs to express herself. The way we rebound the basketball, we could afford ourselves a possession or two here or there.

Q. How much of Kamilla's growth from last year to this year is her confidence or understanding how good she can be?

DAWN STALEY: I think once you've been to a situation, once you've transferred and you're used to being the focal point and then having to come to our team -- I mean, she was a focal point for us, but she just wasn't ready.

Sometimes young people aren't ready to walk into that because of whatever it is, terminology, you just aren't comfortable. You didn't have a year under your belt with them. They don't know you, you don't know them. It just took some time.

But I do think Kamilla went home for basically all of the summer, and then when she came back, she just came back renewed, with a really good understanding. Raven Johnson is healthy, so she has some familiarity and some comfort in being on the floor with Raven.

Q. I asked your players this, but this is the second time this month that y'all have taken a team that brought you close and been able to dominate. Why are you able to do that, and what is it about your players but also the scout?

DAWN STALEY: I mean, I don't know. I think we all make adjustments. We all see where we can do better. I mean, do-overs are pretty good if you win the game or not, to see if you can make some adjustments.

But I just think we're much more mature basketball team. We know each other. We're a lot more linked up. We communicate a lot better. We've developed our grad transfer in Kierra Fletcher, and then Raven has grown up. We understand our roles, and because of that, we're a much leaner basketball team than we were back in November.

Q. We've seen Brea Beal kind of slowly rise up those WNBA mock draft boards. What makes her such an attractive pro prospect the closer and closer we get to the draft?

DAWN STALEY: I mean, she's seasoned. She's smart. She's a willing passer. She's knocking down her 3 ball. She's getting to the basket. I mean, she's an elite defender, and she's someone that can play a complementary role.

But she does great things. Like she's a stat filler. You're going to need somebody like that on any -- doesn't matter, because a lot of people say, go where you fit in and go with the style of play and -- any team, any of the 12 teams -- there are 12, right? Any of the 12 teams could utilize a player like Brea Beal.

Like, you don't have to worry about her. She's going to come to practice. She's going to work. She's going to come early. She's going to leave late. She's going to communicate. She's going to be low maintenance and high performing.

You ask any WNBA coach if they could have six of those players, they're going to take them. They're going to take them without a doubt because it makes their job a lot easier.

Q. Were you able to change the flow that UCLA had this game compared not first game based on a study of the film? Because it just seemed like the first game they led a good ways. Tonight they didn't really have any offensive flow.

DAWN STALEY: I think when you play somebody for the first time and they play zone, they play sagging, and they really hadn't played that way in the beginning of the season, so although you may be anticipating it a little bit, I thought they would play a lot more man than they played the first time around, so it took some adjusting to.

But we were ready for the sagging, the zone. I mean, I know it didn't show in the amount of points that we scored, but we got good looks, and I just thought that for us, they were really, really sharp in November. Like they knew what they wanted to get.

Our defense wasn't as sharp as it needed to be, but now that we had a chance to look at them and feel them and see where they want to get some shots, we just tried to disrupt, try to make them catch it a little bit further out, have a little bit better rotation, call the switches a lot earlier, and just decrease the amount of times that they got wide-open looks. Now, you seen when they got wide-open looks, they knocked them down.

Q. When Emily Bessoir went down in the third, you took a time-out of your own. Coach Close talked about that in the presser, but if you could speak to your relationship with Close and also what you were thinking in that moment.

DAWN STALEY: I mean, I don't like to see players go down in any situation. If we can control the situation, we can get -- you never know what type of injury it is, so you want to get medical attention over to them as quickly as possible.

It was the right thing to do. It was the right thing to do to make sure the young lady was okay.

I know Cori -- I would have done it for anybody, though, but I know Cori well, and I know the type of coach and person that she is. She would have done it -- she would have done the same thing had one of our players went down.

Q. Coach Staley, we have all four No. 1 seeds on the men's side out, two No. 1's on the women's side out. Your team hasn't even left the door open for your opponents. Has there been even more of a, I guess, thought that you don't want the opponent to get that idea that they could pull an upset?

DAWN STALEY: I mean, we're watching. Obviously we're watching with just enjoying March Madness, and yeah, it does. It does make you a little bit nervous when you're in the driver's seat, so to speak, being the No. 1 seed, that teams are lurking.

Does it force you to just tighten up a little bit more your game plan and making sure that you're crossing every T and dotting every I? Yes, it does.

But for me, I'm going to rely on the habits that we formed all season long, and if we do that, I mean, we've won every game. I just hope that we're able to play like we played for the 34, 35 games that we've played. That's my prayer for our team is to do that.

Q. From your vantage point, Kamilla chases down, gets the block. How freakishly athletic is that? It's wild to me. So I want to know what you thought about that play.

DAWN STALEY: I mean, she had one the first time that we played that was pretty special. Kamilla is a competitor. I know she smiles a lot out there on the court, but she's a competitor. I mean, she's super athletic. She's quick. She knows how important uncontested baskets are.

Like, you cannot give teams -- because you never know what it'll turn into because people get momentum off of plays like that, on both sides of the basketball. We get momentum when we see her make a play like that, and obviously it's contagious. Nobody wants to get scored on, and everybody takes it a little bit more personally, and thankfully we have Kamilla on our team doing things like that.