NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - NC STATE VS MICHIGAN

March 22, 2026

Wes Moore

Zamareya Jones

Devyn Quigley

Crisler Center

NC State Wolfpack

Media Conference

Michigan - 92, NC State - 63

WES MOORE: Just tip your hat to Michigan. They played great, well coached. Totally bought in, locked in, and they played extremely well.

Bottom line, we got outscored 35-5 points off turnovers. Got beat by 29, got outscored by 30 off turnovers. So that pretty much sums it up.

Q. For both of you, Swords and Olson got off to slow starts with your defense, and obviously they turned it up. What did you do well early against them, and what changed?

ZAMAREYA JONES: I would say early in the game we kept them from shooting 3s. That's how they got most of their points in the second half.

I feel like we let up a little bit, and we should have kept going. They only had 28 points at halftime. Olson had 0 at halftime. We could have really kept buying in, but we just let them shoot 3s all game.

Q. For either of you, to be without your starting point guard in the way you guys were tonight, how much more difficult did it make for Michigan's pressing and trapping?

DEVYN QUIGLEY: Zoe is definitely a big part of our team. She's our team leader, starting point guard. That was a big adjustment we had to make and try to work around. As you guys saw, there was times it wasn't too pretty, and that just shows her leadership, her great ball handling, and all of that on her end.

We're also young, and it's fixable things. It showed us a lot of stuff that we can work on in the off-season and stuff.

Q. This game was defined by a game of runs for a lot of it. Did you guys feel there was a lot of momentum shifting back and forth as the game went on?

ZAMAREYA JONES: First half definitely was. Third quarter, of course, we kind of let up, like I said, in the second half and didn't really play our game. First half we did a great job of defending and running. The second half, we just let it go.

Q. Zam, you were fighting till the very, very end, and I want to know how do you dig deep in those moments, especially when you're trailing behind? I saw you talking, I mean sprinting, everything you could do.

ZAMAREYA JONES: I just say I didn't want to let my teammates down. I came into the game -- I was nervous, of course, with Zoe being out. She's a big part of our team. I put a lot of pressure on myself. I wanted to uplift my teammates and let them know like I'm not quitting, so you're not quitting on me.

Also, my dad always say out of sight out of mind, out of mind out of sight. So I'm not really thinking about me being tired, I'm thinking about trying to help my teammates get the win.

Q. For both of you, what do you feel like you learned from this season? Because you do have a young team, as Devyn pointed out. You both have a chance to return next season. And every player on this roster has a chance to return next season. What do you feel like you learned about yourselves and this team as a whole that you can take into next year?

DEVYN QUIGLEY: I want to say the biggest thing for me was to stay focused and stay ready. If you noticed it, there was definitely like sometimes I played a lot more than others, sometimes I didn't play. Mentally, I just always had to tell myself stay ready, be ready. Got to keep your focus.

You never know. You don't plan for stuff like the injury to Zoe that happened in the Tennessee game. We weren't expecting that to happen. We don't want that stuff to happen. I just had to tell myself stay focused, stay ready, play hard, play for your team, and defense.

Zoe gives a lot of offense, a lot of offense. Maybe we can't make up for that on offense because of how great of a scorer she is, but on defense we can maybe limit their offensive scoring and just try and fill that gap there.

Q. This one is for Zam. What's the biggest thing you've learned about yourself today playing point guard for 40 minutes and most of it with Ky'She going out? What's the biggest thing you've going to learn from this?

ZAMAREYA JONES: I've got to learn to stop turning the ball over. I had too many turnovers. But it comes with the game. That's life. That's the game. I just have to learn how to control myself when I'm one person and not let them speed me up. I was gassed, though. That's no excuse. I just have to keep fighting through it and mentally prepare next time.

Q. You've been around the game a long time. I'm just curious your perspective of what Michigan's level is at right now and particularly their sophomores?

WES MOORE: They're obviously, like I said, they're playing at a really high level right now. I'm impressed with how connected they are, how bought in they are. They can hurt you a lot of different ways.

I thought the first half we did a pretty good job of executing our plan and trying to slow down Swords and Olson, but again, they're hard to contain for 40 minutes. Their press is very effective. I probably should have done a better job maybe of adjusting to it.

Again, they're hitting on all cylinders, well coached, and got a chance to keep going.

Q. You guys kept it close for a lot of the game, even after that second quarter. When they went up big, you came right back. But what do you think was that moment where they basically run away with it?

WES MOORE: Again, obviously, we held them to 28 points in the first half, and that's right where our goal is. We want to try to hold people to 30 points a half. It's getting tougher nowadays, but that's what you'd like to do.

Again, they'd only hit three 3s, I believe, going into the fourth quarter. Then we let them hit seven in the fourth quarter. So we kind of got lost on some things and didn't get to people. Obviously Olson had an unbelievable second half and just kind of snowballed on us.

Like I said, the turnovers and all that, it happened pretty quick. Like I said, frustrating day.

Q. When did you know that Brooks was going to be out, and how much did you hate this for her and the team?

WES MOORE: That's a good point. I'll be honest, I didn't know until this morning. We were holding out hope that she might -- could go, but it's a tough injury. Again, she's very important to us. Let's face it, Michigan played great today. So it's definitely not an excuse by any means. We've got to be able to handle that better.

But hated it for her. You only have four years and four opportunities like this, so I hated for her season to end like that. Obviously I hated it for our team because they do, they depend on her a lot. She's a leader for us. So that was tough, but again, it's a team sport, and you've got to figure out a way to overcome.

Q. You talked about Olson and Swords for Michigan, but just what was it with Michigan's guard depth in general, specifically in the second half, that created some challenges defensively?

WES MOORE: Until I see the film, it's hard to say. I just felt like in the second half, we had really stressed against those two in particular, and Holloway for that matter, but especially Swords and Olson. You've got to get over screens. You've got to fight over it. They're going to set a lot of fade screens, down picks, things like that.

I won't know why until I see the film, but we seemed to get away from that and left them open. Part of that too is transition. Let's face it, when you're turning the ball over like we did, you get outscored 35-5, a lot of those are going to be off the turnover into transition, and you don't get matched up or you don't get back. So until I look at it.

But like I said, I thought we did a great job in the first half hanging in there. Ky'She, again, it's tough when you've got Zoe out, and I was concerned going into the game with Destiny getting in foul trouble. She's an aggressive defender, and I've seen her pick up fouls. Definitely going into the game, I was concerned about it. Against their press, you needed two really good ball handlers because they can trap one and make somebody handle it that doesn't really want to handle it maybe.

With Destiny sitting out a majority of the game, it ended up essentially we had to have a forward back there helping bring the ball up, and that was tough.

Q. I know we don't want to dwell on it, but I am curious. Yesterday you said Zoe is taking all the precautions that she needs with the crutches, the boot. Do we have a specific diagnosis, and do we know how long she'll be out?

WES MOORE: I really don't. I know it's her -- I'm horrible at pronouncing it -- Plantar Fac -- whatever, I know that's the injury. She actually hurt her other one in high school, so she's been through it.

I really don't even know what the treatment is, if it's something that's just treatment and recovery or if it requires surgery. I don't know. I'm not that smart. I went to school eight years, but they don't call me doctor.

Q. I wanted to ask you specifically does it make it a little easier to take this type of a loss when you know that you have as many players as you have coming back next year -- you don't have any seniors on this team -- to know that you can work from this and move forward with it?

WES MOORE: No, no, it's no fun. As a coach, I feel like I've let my university down and let our fans down and let our players down. No, it's been a rough year. A lot of people, you win 21 games and finish top four in the ACC, that's a good year. 6 out of the last 7 years, we finished in the top ten in the country. So this is hard to swallow.

Again, we've got to take a real hard look at -- again, I'll take all the blame. I put the team together, and I coached the team. I've got to look in the mirror, we've got to look in the mirror as a program, and we've got to try to get back to what we do.

Q. Michigan found a lot of success on the offensive glass today. How did you see that impact the game?

WES MOORE: I always say rebounding. I was fortunate to be around Pat Summitt early in my coaching career, and she always said offense sells tickets and defense wins games and rebounding wins championships. I've always been a big believer. You couldn't tell it this weekend.

Tennessee had about 20 offensive rebounds. So I knew Michigan would be trying to take advantage of that. They did a great job on the offensive boards. So that's something we have to try to fix. We're not a very good offensive rebounding team, so we don't get much off of that.

Then when you're giving them up on the other end -- you know, we got beat, all the hustle plays. Points off turnovers, I already mentioned, points in the paint, second chance points, fast break points, you name it. Like I said, we got handed it to us today.

They did a great job, and we've got to fix it.