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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2016Muffet McGrawMarina MabreyHannah HuffmanGreensboro, North Carolina Notre Dame - 83, Duke - 54 MUFFET MCGRAW: I was really pleased with our bench today, and I thought they came in ready. We got great production, and I thought in particular Hannah Huffman and Kristina Nelson really, really came in ready, played well, rebounded, 13 rebounds between them, and I also thought Marina Mabrey came in off the bench and gave us a great lift. So really happy with the way we were able to score. I thought we moved the ball well. No turnovers in the first half is probably some kind of record for us, but it was really a great half, and I thought we executed well today. Q. 83 points, but your defense had them tied up. MUFFET MCGRAW: Yeah, I thought we were really smart today. There were certain people that we weren't guarding from the perimeter and Suggs made a few shots that we weren't counting on. Lambert hit a couple threes late, but overall I thought we did a really good job of identifying who the shooters were that we wanted to guard. Stevens is such a tough match up, great player. She can score in so many different ways, and she was able to really get some shots around the basket, got some perimeter looks, but overall I thought we did a pretty good job. Q. Without Rebecca Greenwell this was a lot easier. Explain how you changed. MUFFET MCGRAW: Well, we played a lot more 2-3 zone than we would have if Greenwell was in the lineup. Certainly she's a great perimeter shooter, and we not have probably been able to play as much zone, probably would have had to play a little more junk, maybe some triangle and two, or some box and one or something to -- definitely some more man-to-man, so I think that definitely allowed us to play zone more of the game. Q. Coach, you touched on the balance of your bench. Five in double figures, nine scored by halftime. How much of a boost is it for your team when you guys get everybody rolling the way you did today? MUFFET MCGRAW: Yeah, it's really great because the starters love watching the subs come in and play well. I think we have a great chemistry on our team. Everybody is cheering for everybody to do well when they come in the game. We got to rest of the starters for a big game tomorrow, so that was a positive, and just having that confidence coming out of the game feeling really good about what we did. Q. For those of us who have seen this team now for the first time live, just kind of expand on what you were just talking about, this team chemistry. It doesn't matter what parts you put in, they all seem to work collectively together? MUFFET MCGRAW: Yeah, they really do. I think everybody knows everybody's strengths, everybody knows what their role is, and they play it very well, they don't try to do too much, they do exactly what they're supposed to do. So when they get the ball, everybody knows what's going to happen next, and I think that's important. I think it helps us at both ends of the floor, but I think the communication is getting better. The seniors are just doing such a great job of leading. Hannah and Mychala, two of our best leaders on the floor, they're communicating all the time with the freshmen and just helping make things easier for them. Q. Did you intentionally speed up the tempo in the second quarter after what was really a very deliberate pace early? MUFFET MCGRAW: Yeah, we don't like the deliberate pace. I thought we were playing their pace. They controlled the tempo in the first half, they were going to move the ball, and wait for good shots, and work the zone a little bit, and we want to score quickly and have an up-tempo game. We thought we had an advantage running the floor, and we needed to rebound to do that. We didn't rebound as well in the first half, and I think that was probably a bit of the problem, but I thought in the second half we got the transition going, we got some steals, got some rebounds. Q. It looked like you were looking to your shot more today. Is that accurate? MARINA MABREY: I feel like I look for my shot every game, but I feel like we got out in transition more today. I think we're best when we're in transition, so I know Huff always makes a great pass to me in transition, and I was just looking for it a little bit more, especially when we're in transition. Q. Obviously the goal is the national championship. How important is the ACC Tournament to you, just doing well and winning it? MARINA MABREY: It's just as important. It's just as important as the NCAA Tournament to me and our team. Obviously we want to win this. We're one step closer with this win today. Miami is a very tough team. They're playing out of their mind right now. They've got great guards, so it's going to be a tough match-up for us. HANNAH HUFFMAN: The ACC Tournament is really important. It's a really important stepping-stone going into the NCAA Tournament. If you have a good tournament here, it helps really build us up and gives up some really solid momentum going into the tournament, so it's very important and it's really important to take one game at a time. So I'm really pleased with our team's effort of taking Duke first and now we have Miami, so we'll enjoy this one for a few more minutes and we're going to go to shoot-around probably tonight and figure out what we're going to do for Miami tomorrow. Q. For Hannah, I noticed there on several occasions you were really muscling Azura Stevens. Was this the game plan to try to put as much body on her as you could? HANNAH HUFFMAN: Yeah, I'm unfortunately not 6'6", I'm a solid 5'9" over here. I have to use some things to my advantage and I know that trying to get a little physical with her is going to help me out, so the goal is for, like, boxing out, just trying to push her under the basket and have one of my teammates go and grab the rebound. Definitely had to be a little more physical with her. She's such a tough match-up, so definitely was the game plan to be physical with her. Q. We saw you guys scouting Duke yesterday in their win against Virginia. What did you learn from sitting back and watching them, especially without Greenwell? MARINA MABREY: They're a very different team without Rebecca Greenwell. Like Coach said before, I thought if Rebecca wasn't going to play, we were going to play a lot more zone, and I think just watching them play, I mean, they're huge, so they use their size to their advantage, and no rebounding was one of our keys today. We got to keep them off the boards and I though we did a pretty good job with that. HANNAH HUFFMAN: Yeah, I have to second that. I think we saw a lot of how important rebounding was going to be and out-rebounding them by 12 was really crucial. I think we also realized we had to play really smart. We had to recognize personnel, and I think that we did a fantastic job with that in the 2-3 zone today. Knowing who we could play off, who we had to get a hand up on, and I think playing smart is one of our advantages, and we did that really well today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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