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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2014Kaela JosephMaChelle JosephTyaunna MarshallGREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA Georgia Tech – 77 COACH MaCHELLE JOSEPH: I want to give Virginia a lot of credit. I thought their seniors battled down there when they got down 14. I thought they did a tremendous job making plays. And they went to the zone in the end. We struggled to score against that 3‑2. They were able to get some run‑outs and scores, and that got us on our heels a little bit. I want to give my players a lot of credit. Because when we had to come up with big defensive stops we were able to do that. I thought we had some big plays down the stretch. Aaliyah Whiteside had struggled throughout the day, but came up with a big 3‑point play at the end. I think that's one of the things we've built this program on is defense and rebounding. We pride ourselves on our resiliency. We bent but we didn't break, and we were able to come away with a win. Q. Coach, obviously you guys used the full 40 minutes to beat them last time right from the beginning. This time you used that spurt in the second half to get some separation. Did you see another, I don't know, blowout coming? Did you kind of expect you guys to settle in or were you surprised that Virginia did come back? COACH MaCHELLE JOSEPH: No, I was not surprised by Virginia's resiliency and ability to make plays. When we played them in Atlanta we made our first 11 shots and kind of knocked the wind out of them early. But they continued to fight. I told my staff afterwards I thought Virginia was a very good team because we played a very good game that day and Virginia, we weren't able to run away with it. And I thought today we were in for a battle. I got exactly what I expected. It's tournament and anything can happen. When you get a team full of seniors and upperclassmen like Virginia does, you have the ability to make plays and win games. I thought our team, again, just showed some toughness down the stretch. Q. Coach, your team always typify athleticism and endurance. It looked like you guys were pressing right from the beginning. Was that meant to really wear down UVA throughout the game from back to front? COACH MaCHELLE JOSEPH: Well, you know, we press. We're a team that presses for 40 minutes. We press you on every dead ball, every made basket. We even press on missed baskets. We're a team that presses. But we were feeling like since Virginia played yesterday our ability to press and run in transition would help us wear them down a little bit. I thought that they showed some toughness and endurance in the second half, as well. Q. Did you think the technical at the end of the game was a good call? COACH MaCHELLE JOSEPH: That's a loaded question, isn't it? You know, obviously I thought it was a great defensive play by Nariah Taylor, obviously she got pretty excited about it. And I do think the officials were put in a situation where they had to make that call. We talked about it in the locker room afterwards and Nariah knows her excitement overcame her obviously and it wasn't a very good play for us, but it was the right call. Q. For the girls, obviously you two have the majority of your points tonight but the biggest bucket comes from neither of you. Can you talk about how much you appreciate Aaliyah with that three‑point play and what the feeling was like to take the lead there? KAELA JOSEPH: Definitely our role is to score on our team, but when we have other players step up, like Aaliyah from the bench, that play right there, a lot of excitement on the court when she made the bucket. I ended up on the ground too with her. We were definitely excited. TYAUNNA MARSHALL: Same thing, it's always our role. We know our roles. But at the end of the day, same thing when you have other players step up and make big plays, it just kind of fuels everybody and gets everybody excited. And just puts ‑‑ we have the trust in her to make that play. I think that's the great thing about it, you put the trust in her and she made the play. It was a big‑time play. Q. Tyaunna, heading into the next game against Duke, you played them before, what's the message that you send your teammates? You guys don't have that luxury of getting too much rest to be ready to go. How do you guys prepare for that game? TYAUNNA MARSHALL: No matter who we play, it's an ACC team and every team in this league is good. We're going to approach it like a regular game. It's win or go home. We're not going to come in here scared or timid. We're going to come and lay it all on the line because we're not promised tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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