NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 27, 1998

Tynesha Lewis

Chasity Melvin

Kay Yow

COACH KAY YOW: Well, it's a disappointing loss for us. We've had a great run this year, and we certainly have achieved above and beyond what was expected for us at the beginning of the year with all the starters we had to replace, and what we had to do. And then we had a great run in the NCAA tournament. Our defense and rebounding has been our -- has been a key for us all year. We just were outexecuted tonight. And their transition game, in particular, and their half court offense just beat our transition D and our half court defense. And we just lost the battle. And that was our strength. That was our knockout punch. And we didn't have it tonight. And then I thought once they hit some big 3s, and they had a flurry there. And when that happened, it really picked their defense up even more. Their intensity increased. And all of a sudden we got out of even our offensive system and tried to score too quickly there for a while. And it was a tremendous individual effort by Chasity Melvin tonight. She played hard on both ends of the court, and she played as a true All-American. And she just -- she gave everything that she had. And we just simply couldn't find ways to help her enough out there tonight. So it wasn't our night, that's for sure. We got beat by a better team tonight.

TYNESHA LEWIS: I must say they are the quickest tandem I've played. Tynesha Jackson is pretty quick, and Stallworth, real quick guards. So they got out on the transition real quick. And that's where they had 18 transition points, and that's where they beat us.

CHASITY MELVIN: I think the players thought about it. We tried to -- we tried to keep our composure and stay in it, but I don't think we did it. Physically we didn't put it into action. I think in our minds, we believed that we could do it, but I don't think everyone stepped up and actually put their thoughts into action. And that's what happened tonight.

CHASITY MELVIN: Well, God has blessed me with talent, and I just used it to the best of my abilities. And I'm just excited and I'm happy that I could play this well for my coaches and my teammates. And my teammates helped me get here to the Final Four and I've helped them. And it's been a team effort the whole time. I'm playing for a lot of people. A lot of people tell me that -- a lot of people sent faxes for me from back home and everywhere, and I'm just playing for a lot of people. But most importantly, I am playing for myself and for the God-given talent that I have. I just tried to do the best that I could.

CHASITY MELVIN: That's just been how we've been playing the whole season. We just -- we're a team that just never gives up. And I was not going to give up. This is a great opportunity to be in this game. And to possibly have a game for playing for the national title, that was constantly on my mind. Even though they were putting out some really great shoots, and we weren't playing as well, there was still some time left in the game. The game wasn't over. And that's how I was looking at it. And I was maybe expecting a miracle, I don't know. I was not going to give up. And I didn't want my teammates to give up either. I wanted to play until that buzzer went off. And that's when I would know if I had won or lost.

TYNESHA LEWIS: Well, you can't take anything away from LA Tech's defense. But some of it was nerves. But they did a great job defensively. They did a great job offensively. We get down there on the offense, and they're aggressive, because they're doing a great job on their end. It was some of both.

TYNESHA LEWIS: I must say, I've had better nights. But it's just like life, you have your ups and your downs. So this was a down night. And I wish I hadn't had it, because there's no other player in the world that I would want to go out and give 110 percent for than Chasity Melvin. LA Tech played a great defensive game, but I don't think that's what took me out of my game. You have your ups and downs, and this was one of my downs.

COACH KAY YOW: I just kind of took her out, and I wanted an opportunity to take her out of the game as a tribute to her for our fans. And then as soon as I did it, they told me she had a chance, she just needed two more points to break a record. And I'm never going for record over a team or an individual over a team. But having the situation the way that it was and the effort that she had given, I thought she deserved that chance and something, actually, our team wanted for her. At least we weren't going to win the game, but she had played so tremendously, so let's let her have the opportunity. She's been doing it all night, and so I was really happy that that could happen for her. Besides, she's a person who had been scoring most of the points for us, so we questioned whether -- what -- we didn't want to turn the ball over five times in the last 30 seconds.

COACH KAY YOW: Really, we have played athletic teams. The guards, the perimeter and the University of Maryland is a very athletic -- Virginia, when they were healthy earlier looked athletic. North Carolina certainly has athletic guards and perimeter. I think speed, overall, when you -- you combine speed with quickness, that those two qualities combined, I believe, that they might be at the top because they have it at all positions. And we saw that. We hadn't had a problem in transition all year like we had tonight.

COACH KAY YOW: Well, at the moment it probably does, right now. But I'm sure when I have time to reflect and come back, I mean, nothing can take away -- as I told the team in the locker room, they're a special team, they did something at NC State that no other team has done, and they brought NC State to the Final Four. And I told them we can't forget that. We can't forget what a great year they had. Tonight we got outplayed. We -- it was not our night. And a lot due to Louisiana Tech, and some of the things I thought maybe due to us. But we had a great year, and I don't want them to forget that. And it's very, very special to me to be at the Final Four. And no, it doesn't take -- I've got great memories about that.

COACH KAY YOW: I think transition. They got on the boards -- I think we were outrebounded, maybe by six. But the rebounds they got, they made some quick outlet passes and got it up the floor very quickly and pushed it hard, and we just could never adjust defensively and get our defense set as strongly as we have in almost every game we've played this year. As I said, I think it was the defense -- I mean the transition. And our lack of transition defense hurt us. And that's an area we've been strong in all year. But tonight we weren't. And to be honest with you, once they started scoring the 3s, you know how it goes, we're in the game, they start a flurry of 3s, they have some quick transition, it pumps them up even more; they get more aggressive on defense. We miss a shot we should make, we turn the ball over when we shouldn't, and then we get a little more down, and we're not as up on defense. And all that just plays a part. And before long a lead can occur when you're playing a team like that.

COACH KAY YOW: Yes. And, in all fairness, with Summer, consistency as we said has been a problem all year, and she just did such a great job in Dayton. Tonight I think it was harder for her because the inside people ran the floor really well. And they were very aggressive. And they made strong moves when they caught the ball. And I think she -- I believe in Summer's mind -- I haven't talked to her yet -- but I believe she was concerned maybe a little too much about their transition game from the inside. And that's a focus to try to get down the floor and maybe a little worry about that affects how you're doing half court defense and offense.

COACH KAY YOW: With my '83 team? I think there are people who compared us with the men's '83 team. But it seems to me that I always compared this team with the'87 and the '91 team because '87 team for us had four seniors. We won ACC Championship, we achieved above and beyond what anybody thought, went to the Sweet 16 but stopped right there. Our '91 team, as a team we had beaten Tennessee by 15 during regular season, and they ended up being the national champions, and we went to the Sweet 16, and were upset by Connecticut that year, and Connecticut went on and beat Clemson by three, a team that we had beaten by 20 points in the ACC Championship game. And we had that bad game in '91 with a team that has three players now on the Charlotte Sting playing in the WNBA. So this team I thought worked harder, had better chemistry and achieved even more than '91 or '87. And that's a real tribute and credit to them.