University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Wake Forest 80, North Carolina 77
January 20, 2017 | Women's Basketball
NORTH CAROLINA POSTGAME QUOTES
Wake Forest 80, North Carolina 77 Ÿ January 19, 2017
North Carolina Head Coach Sylvia Hatchell
Opening Statement
“First of all, I'm really proud of these two young ladies [Paris Kea and Stephanie Watts]. They played their hearts out, and I felt the team did. We did so many good things, but the rebounding was really what broke us. 44 seconds on the clock, all we had to do was get a rebound, and they had to foul us, and they got five in a row. We fouled the right person, 32 [Milan Quinn], and I really felt that she wouldn't make the foul shots, and she didn't, but then I believe she actually went and got one of the rebounds. They got like five rebounds there at the end, and if we could just secure the rebound, then they would have had to foul us, but it just didn't go our way, but these kids – I mean you can see how good they are going to be.
[Hillary] Fuller's going to be out. She's finished, so the three freshman post players, we have need to keep working. They've just got to get better. We've been working with them, but one of them is going to have to be in there pretty much all the time, and they need some time, so we will keep working them to see which one is going to get it done. We played two of them tonight quite a bit. So that's the biggest thing right there, is just experience inside.
But we did a lot of good things. I think you can see how good this team is going to be because we still are very young. In fact. today, one of the other media people that was here at shooting practice told me that we were the youngest team in America. We have eight freshmen and three sophomores and then Jamie [Cherry] because Fuller is gone.
These two here [Stephanie Watts and Paris Kea] put on All-American performances tonight, and we just need some size and experience, and we have some of that coming. We got a McDonalds' All-American center that's coming next year, and we got a couple other big kids too. That's going to help us out, and these other kids will be a year older.
They play so hard and just give it all they got, and it means so much to them. That's why both of these are, in my eyes, they're both future All-Americans. It's just an honor to coach them. They're great kids. They're just so competitive, and they want to win.
Congratulations to Wake [Forest]. They've got a really good team, and made some shots and got the big rebounds down the stretch there, so we congratulate Wake Forest.
On moving forward
“We played Florida State. They're pretty tough, and we played them in a pretty good game here. We had the lead up at Virginia Tech. There are times when we play really well. At Duke, we played well. If we had knocked down some threes like we did tonight, we would've won over there. The rebounding is just the biggest thing. If we can rebound, then we could take six or eight of their points away, and maybe we could add six or eight. That makes a big difference right there.
Our perimeter game is as good as anybody in the country. You put a couple of stud post players in there, and we're back. That's my goal. I want to get these kids back to the top ten. We're going to be a force to be reckoned with eventually.”
On rebounding
“Honestly, it really started when I came here. They do such a good job of charting, so whenever I don't rebound—they have a chart of every single time I didn't go in and rebound, and we have to either do sprints or bike sprints for it. So it's kind of engraved in my mind. I think it helps probably because I'm a bigger guard also so I'm able to get rebounds.”
Paris Kea, G
On shooting
“Practice, in the gym. It happened overtime, I guess. I know my shot was on for a couple game, so I've been in the gym shooting, and it came through for me tonight. It would have been nice to win.”
