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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 2, 2016Suzie McConnell-SerioBrenna WiseAysia BuggGreensboro, North Carolina Pitt - 82, North Carolina - 72 SUZIE MCCONNELL-SERIO: You know, I'm so proud of our team, the way they battled all day long against a North Carolina team who is so dangerous in so many ways from three-point line, off of dribble penetration. Their inside game, they have so many weapons that we had to be aware of each and every player for the entire game. Basketball is a game of runs. We both made our fair share, and I thought Aysia Bugg got us started in the first half, was hitting shots, opening things up, Diop creating things. Brenna Wise, I think she has matured so much over the course of this season and has stepped up, and for her to earn the respect of these coaches and be on the all-freshman team, so proud of the way she responded today with her performance. Fred Potvin struggled shooting the ball early, but hit two huge threes in the second half for us. Down the stretch I know everybody is questioning, including myself, when we talked about it in the time-out, of fouling. We had three fouls to give, of fouling and not allowing them to get a three and send the game into overtime. A long rebound, a scramble, two players go after the ball, they find Jamie Cherry and she hits a huge shot. And going into the overtime, your team had two ways to respond. North Carolina could have had the momentum, but our team regrouped, we came out, and we went on a 7-0 run to start the overtime and gave us confidence right from the beginning. So proud of the way we hung tough, the way they battled. This is our postseason. We know we're not going anywhere after the ACC Tournament, so we're just competing for 40 minutes, giving ourselves a chance hopefully, and I'm so proud of this team. I don't want it to end because this is a great group of players, and I love being around them. I love how they work every day, being a young team, and we talk about how important this experience is, and we're just making the most of it. (I missed the beginning so I'll go back and get it later). Q. Maybe you weren't thinking about it a lot at the time, but did you figure you were going to have an advantage over North Carolina going into overtime because they had been so un-deep and so many players had played so many minutes and also the experience of playing tomorrow morning at 11:00 in the morning. It is sold out in the lower bowl. SUZIE MCCONNELL-SERIO: We're excited to be playing tomorrow regardless if it's a sell-out. We will enjoy the atmosphere. We started the game with the school day game at 11:00 a.m. at home, so we're not unfamiliar with it, but North Carolina, they only played six players, and we didn't go much deeper. We had three come off the bench and give us some good minutes, but our starters played the majority of the minutes, and it was going to be a game of who continued to fight down the stretch and didn't run out of gas. Q. You've got your first ACC Tournament win, and you're going into that situation. What are you thinking about tomorrow right now? BRENNA WISE: We're just preparing to go out and get another win. We're going to watch some film, and we're going to enjoy the moment and enjoy the ACC Tournament. AYSIA BUGG: Get some rest. Q. What you did you talk about in that huddle before overtime and how did you respond after that three-point shot? AYSIA BUGG: Just letting them get the momentum and continuing with the same game plan we did throughout all four quarters and by Stasha Carey hitting the first two baskets, just got us on a roll. BRENNA WISE: We realized this could have been the last five minutes of our season, so we were going to go out with a bang and play with everything we have. Q. Can you talk a little bit about what this team showed in overtime but not -- it would have been very easy to hang their heads and not play well. SUZIE MCCONNELL-SERIO: You know, that's a concern. You go into the huddle, and to be honest with you I laid into them. I was mic'd during the game. It was probably the only time they couldn't use what I was saying to our team. But it was just a matter of a concern of how we would come out, how we would respond. But this team continues to surprise me and continues to amaze me over the course of this season by making plays on the offensive end, by making plays on the defensive end. We had three players with double-doubles today, Aysia Bugg with 20.7 rebounds, six assists, managing the game when you're getting contributions like that. I think we've shown over the course of the season that we have been in games. We've played, competed with the top teams in this conference, the middle of the conference, the bottom of the conference. And so anything can happen. We talk about when you lace them up, anything can happen. That's what they talked about, these were the last five minutes of our season, and this is it. There was no tomorrow. So leaving it all out on the floor. You know, they play their hearts out. You've got your emotional leader down there in Brenna Wise and Aysia Bugg has grown into a great point guard for us. It's a position she wasn't used to playing. She played alongside of Brianna Kiesel last year, and we moved her to the point, and she has continued to grow in that role. She's been playing against some great guards that have been pressuring her for 90 feet, and she's handled it beautifully. Q. Brenna, how did you manage to stay so composed during the overtime? You played like a senior at the free-throw line. BRENNA WISE: Thank you, I appreciate that. It's just kind of looking at the sidelines and knowing that they believe in you. Aysia Bugg came up to me at the free-throw line, and I hit the first, and she goes, "that's clutch." It just put a smile on my face. Free throws in practice. This is a game we love. I enjoy playing out there, and I enjoyed it. SUZIE MCCONNELL-SERIO: Honestly, Brenna`s lost more this year than she has in her four years in high school. So. She`s a competitor and she wants to do anything to win. Q. What does it mean to all of you to get your first ACC Tournament win? It's been two trips before with no wins. You get the win this year. AYSIA BUGG: Well, for me, we lost in a game last year that we shouldn't have, and we ended up making it to the postseason. But to know we're not going to postseason, it's encouraging to keep going and essentially having our own postseason in this tournament. SUZIE MCCONNELL-SERIO: I think it's key for us just getting the game experience of being here. I said to the team, I know one group of people that are very happy that we're staying, and that's the band and the cheerleaders from Pitt, who have traveled down to be a part of us because the last two years, we were one-and-done, so I think they'll enjoy being here another day. Q. Coach, on the last play in regulation, who did you not want to take the three-pointers with all the shooters that North Carolina has? I'm not trying to say that it was Cherry, but who did you not want to take it? SUZIE MCCONNELL-SERIO: We didn't want any of them. They`re post players who we probably would have preferred to take the shot, but in that situation we were switching all screens, and we had to step up so we didn't give them a three coming off of the on-ball screens and just challenging with a hand high. And it ended up being a long rebound and it was a scramble on the floor, two players of ours goes after it, I thought Walker made a nice play of being able to split the double-team and kick it out, but that's where we talked about fouling. We had three fouls to give, make them foul. But she hit a tough shot, and I give her credit. But it just wasn't a great stretch in the last few seconds. We didn't manage the game well there. Q. Aysia, you had a very good game today, 20.7 rebounds, six assists. How do you look to continue the solid guard play against Miami? AYSIA BUGG: Just continue to take what the defense gives me, and they're so worried about Stasha and Brenna's inside presence, it's opened things up for me, and then I get to open things back up for them. So just continue to take what they give me. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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