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UNC coach Courtney Banghart and guards Lexi Donarski and Indya Nivar after win over BC
Mar 6, 2025
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so much thank
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you thanks everyone joining us from
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North Carolina is head coach Courtney
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banghart along with student athletes
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Lexi dinari and India Nar if you have a
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question please raise your hand and we
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will get a mic over to you please
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introduce yourself and provide the name
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of the media Outlet you are representing
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and we will take questions from Zoom at
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the end if you're on zoom and have a
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question please use the raise hand
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feature we'll begin with an opening
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statement from coach before taking
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question from the room so go ahead when
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you're ready coach yeah well a couple
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things first off really grateful to all
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the there were a lot of Tar Hill fans
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there some I know and some I don't um
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but there were a lot of Tar Hill fans
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who brought our team a lot of energy
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throughout the uh game um it matters to
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us so thanks um also really great to
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have Alyssa back um obviously the heart
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of a of a winner um and you know we've
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been patient with her recovery and it
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paid off because she's she's ready now
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and she's um helping us out um you know
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hats off to to Boston College I mean
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they they shoot 31% on the year from
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three um and they gave us their best
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shot right they shot almost 50% from
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three um these guys are tired of hear me
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say it but I always say let the math be
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math right and um and so they really did
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stick to the game plan really well and
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they forced us to play a different way
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um got into our pressure got into an off
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off-centered Zone um you know because we
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had to and that also loosened up us up
1:25
on offense I thought on offense we were
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a bit slow um you know played a little
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bit less aggressively than we were give
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a lot of credit to these two especially
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India who was just like um kind of
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triggered a lot of an aggressive attack
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um hard to win in March certainly glad
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we did um glad we're getting healthier
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and healthier and um excited to see what
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this team can keep doing thanks we'll
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start um here in the front row if we can
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just make our way down the front that
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would be great and if you um need a
1:52
certain player or coach to address it
1:54
please just make sure you mention
1:57
that wchl Chapel bro
2:00
there was an extended stoppage um when
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they were reviewing a potential uh
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flagrant on Alysa you guys are down nine
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um 6354 can you talk about what the mood
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was and that huddle and what you said to
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really spark the
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run you know it's an experienced group I
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think their backs were against the wall
2:18
this is a team that hasn't hasn't been
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great against teams that on paper
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they're better than right and we've uh
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over the over the last couple weeks and
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so um you know we just sort of we knew
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what we needed to do def offensively um
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and then offensively just really
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implored them to find their way um to
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get into hips uh get outside hips finish
2:37
outside their body you know really not
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settle um and so again I give India I
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think when you watch that game back
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you'll see India had some really key
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offensive possessions for us even if she
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wasn't the finisher she was the attacker
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um and so you know I think I'm not sure
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it was the extended timeout I think it
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was an opportunity for our guys to just
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uh make one more play if we can go to RL
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right next to
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India RL Biden with Tar Hill tribute you
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had arguably your best game of the Seas
3:07
against Virginia and then today had so
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many I mean you led the team an assist
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and you did so many things what's
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working for you the last two games um
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just finally seeing my work showing the
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game I think um I've been putting in so
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much extra time on my finishes on my
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drives on my reads and stuff and it's
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just it's finally showing and I think
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that's what we needed to help the team
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win tonight and then I needed a little
3:31
bit extra in Virginia but yeah I know
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we're going to need that moving
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forward we'll continue our way down the
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front
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please uh Brendan pots uh World exposure
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report uh this is a two-parter for Coach
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um you talked about the uh you talked
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about the home crowd uh here in North
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Carolina and this game feel like a game
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of momentum swings how do you feel like
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the crowd played a role in the uh in the
3:57
fourth quarter of that game to help you
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gain the edge
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and um you're you're potentially going
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to play in at home for the next uh for
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about the next month how do you how do
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you feel that helps your your team as we
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get into the heart of March Madness yeah
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um well first off I mean I I'm not sure
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this is quite a homecourt Advantage
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right I mean we've we played here
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earlier to Yukon lost my record at the
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ACC tournament is I don't even know but
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not something I I you know brag about um
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but what and I think a lot of these fans
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honestly they were in Louisville and
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they were in Clemson and they were in
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it's really remarkable I mean I think
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you could put this tournament on the
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moon and you'd have a lot of Tar Hill
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fans there um because of how who these
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people are I keep hearing that from some
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of our most loyal supporters just um
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they love Carolina women's basketball
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but they love these humans and I always
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tell them well they're second in line to
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me right this is my group um and then I
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think yeah I think you know the hosting
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opportunity that we've continued to earn
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is is great I mean for us to be able to
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play you know and
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in such a storyed Arena you know in a in
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a basketball state um in a you know and
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it it it's awesome and there it will be
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well received and it'll be well earned
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um you know but we'll focused on the
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next thing which is a really good
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Florida State team a team that beat us
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at the buzzer a last time we played him
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um and so uh we know we've got a good
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challenge ahead of us and we're looking
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forward to that one as well stay in the
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front on our
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right coach skip Foreman with the news
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and record you had
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a ninepoint deficit but you managed to
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fight it back first part of the question
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is was there anything strategically that
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you did MH second question Alyssa gave
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you 24 minutes to end her first game
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back yeah uh any after effects or or did
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she handle it to your satisfaction I
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mean she was texting me late last night
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about I don't care what the minute
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restriction is coach I can go right so I
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am not strong enough to hold Alyssa back
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that's not going to be a thing right and
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so um she'll be fine she's always fine
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she always the only way I can hold her
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back is to not play her right and we'll
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play her um so not going to worry about
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Alyssa um and then the first part of the
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question I think yeah we were down nine
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um you know and so we went a little bit
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more to our off front Zone um and
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decided to extend the extend the
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pressure I thought against Virginia we
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didn't play well tired right and and I
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think the courage of this group that
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they played well tired right that takes
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courage um and it was really fitting
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that the last time out that was our
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shortcoming we looked tired and we
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played tired and we got quiet tired um
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and then fast forward less than a week
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and um they did the opposite so um you
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know they get all the credit I I think I
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I yelled at them a little bit but they
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get the credit because they made those
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words turn into action go in the back
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left and then if we can also get a mic
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in the third row here please Debbie
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strowman wchl chapelboro Lexi there is
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no doubt your name gets circle on Scout
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reports for great shooting but time and
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time again you continue to get open
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towards the end of games so what is your
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secret SCE are you running around like
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Steph are you just waiting for certain
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spots and just wait for the ball I mean
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I think it's some of both a lot of them
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are not off of a dribble I would say the
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majority are probably catching shoot
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which stems from usually a dribble
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penetration or some type of pressure on
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the rim whether it's a post entry or
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some guard winning the paint or
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something um so I would say that the
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majority of it comes from one of my
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teammates getting the ball into the
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paint and the defense all collapsing and
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kicking it
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out go here in the third row and then
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we'll be prepared to bring it back to
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the front K maker with the daily Tar
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Hill um Lexi and India 20 of the 24
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points in the fourth quarter scored by
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you and then Maria and Alyssa I mean
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what is this veteran group of you guys
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playing together for so long how does
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that provide stability and then when you
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know you got to dig in deep how does
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that kind of work um
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effectively um this is our second year
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playing together and I think we just
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have that trust in one another
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especially in those crunch times we just
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know that we're all of us are going to
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give all that we have and that we have
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enough to be whoever is in front of us
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so that trust in each other I feel like
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that really showed tonight um at the
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end yeah thanks we'll go in the front
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left I agree uh coach Michael Co wchl
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Chapel bro
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what was the defensive plan on Wagner
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she dropped 32 against Syracuse
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yesterday and today she has only five
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and only makes one shot from the floor
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yeah we really it was chest up on the
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ball man just got to keep your chest in
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front of the ball um and then what's I
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always say what's everybody else doing
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right so you can let your teammates play
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on Islands One V one or you can
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recognize it at a team game right and so
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we wanted to have primary Defenders
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chest the ball as best they could we
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forced her to make 18f Footers um we
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didn't bite on on on pull-ups I mean on
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pump fakes um and then what is everybody
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else doing so regardless of of helping
9:03
off the strong side or digging off of
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you know it's it's who are you guarding
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and how can you be worried about the
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major threats um and then keeping off
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the glass I mean that's that's not easy
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especially with how much rotational
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rebounding she requires um and you know
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certainly glad to have Alyssa back to
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help in that that category we'll go to
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RL in the front middle yeah Lexi what
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were the emotions when you were down by
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nine what take me through those last few
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minutes obviously you made a huge three
9:28
to kind of put the game away uh I mean
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you're looking at possibly losing the
9:34
the being able to host an inability
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tournament if you Dro this game yeah I
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think it was just igniting the fire
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within each other and being like this is
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feeling similar to what happened against
9:45
Virginia and refusing to accept that
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that was going to happen again and so I
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really feel like it came from within all
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of us and just knowing that like we're
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better than this and we're not going to
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accept anything but the best from each
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other and from ourselves so just
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continuing to get better and improve
10:01
throughout the course of conference
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we'll stay in the third row then next
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will be Lindsay on the left in the in
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the third
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row um Megan Smith from the daily Tar
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Hill coach any update on Ria
10:16
soon soon she warmed up yeah soon I mean
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this team has done so much this
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tournament means a lot to us but so does
10:23
the NCA tournament um and you know doing
10:26
the best we can to make sure that we're
10:27
healthiest when we can be um obviously
10:29
the fact that she's warming up I think
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she's waiting for her name to be called
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um but you know we're we're soon we're
10:35
going to we're going to take it kind of
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day by day truly I know that's not great
10:38
for
10:39
media uh lindsy Gibs with power plays
10:42
building on what ARL asked about being
10:44
down and you know facing possibly a
10:46
third loss in the row to kind of end the
10:48
spell they were shooting at one point
10:50
eight of eight from three I mean come on
10:53
second how can you keep from panicking
10:56
at that moment like it just feel like
10:58
everything they were doing was going in
11:00
yeah and that's what you know I I hate
11:02
to be so honest but that's what you earn
11:05
when you're a top 15 team in the country
11:06
right you earn that that the basket
11:09
looks a little bit bigger because you're
11:10
kind of playing with like you know not a
11:12
lot of you're not really expected to win
11:13
so you kind of can kind of it can be
11:16
looser um and it's on us to play with
11:18
that ranking with our with the puffing
11:20
our chest out a little bit um but I
11:22
liked our I liked our coverages I have
11:24
to eat some of those because I you know
11:26
I I told us we're helping off certain
11:28
people um and so I'm okay with eating
11:30
the ones that I have to eat um because
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again the math is supposed to math over
11:35
time right um but yeah I I I just know
11:40
that I've I've gotten the double bu
11:41
before and coming in for the first game
11:43
of the tournament there's a little bit
11:44
of like okay I got to get used to this
11:46
um and so I'm glad that we got this one
11:48
out of the way right we we needed to get
11:50
this game and now we need to you know
11:52
build on that in a lot of ways go to
11:54
Brendan in the front middle again please
11:56
and then RL in the front middle
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uh hey coach uh you were asked about uh
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how you guys held Wagner and Czech today
12:06
I know they're two different players but
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how do you use that that defensive
12:10
strategy against Wagner against a player
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like T abson tomorrow you know we've
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played them before so you know that that
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gives us some familiarity because we've
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played her before um I think you ask any
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team on the schedule that they've played
12:23
how you handle lson and they say they do
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their best right I mean she's leading
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the nation in scoring um but in terms of
12:28
our actual
12:29
kind of the Nuance of our game plan um
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that's what I'll be doing from now until
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tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. right so I'm not
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I'm not exactly sure um how we're going
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to choose to handle that yet um but
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we'll be crystal clear by the time we
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need to be we'll stay in the front with
12:44
RL
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please uh you said you were getting
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texts from Alissa are you getting any
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texts from rah yeah I mean yeah these
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kids want to play I mean they they want
12:55
to play no doubt um you know there's an
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enormous amount of trust our sport
12:59
performance team um they also want to do
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something special in March so we're
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asking these guys to do a little bit
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more um so that um so that you know she
13:08
can get back and um give her as much
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rest as possible but yeah there you'll
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see her again Rah wouldn't be warming up
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if she wasn't going to play again we're
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going to stay in the center the third
13:19
row Marissa and the
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green for the players obviously you had
13:22
to get through this when you got a
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little bit of a scare and came back but
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do you guys um you guys obviously
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remember that loss to Florida State any
13:28
extra motivation coming in tomorrow or
13:30
just kind of get through the next one I
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think there is I mean we've continued to
13:36
get better throughout the course of this
13:37
season and so I feel like we're not the
13:39
same team that we were back then and we
13:41
know what changes we need to make
13:43
looking back at that game um so I feel
13:46
like we we're going to come ready and
13:48
we're going to make the changes that we
13:49
need to
13:50
make India anything you want to add oh
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no I agree with with Lexi sounds good
13:56
just wanted I remember I was asked I
13:57
think is it International day today or
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something is today the actual
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day Saturday okay cuz they asked me who
14:07
my most inspirational woman was and I
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said that my my little uh nine-year-old
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daughter who's here today she just was
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she's a big Indian of our fan so she had
14:15
her indiaan nvir Jersey on today you're
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supposed to be at school
14:19
babe but she's our best fan so we had to
14:21
have her here do we have any other
14:24
questions for
14:26
UNC great thank you all oh you good good
14:31
you can just ask yeah we can
14:34
go up in the the Huddle during that
14:37
fourth quarter it was just the players
14:39
on the floor and then Rah comes off the
14:40
bench how like in tune is this group in
14:43
and locked in yeah I mean look Ria has
14:46
been your floor general for two years I
14:48
know she missed a lot of time last year
14:49
with an injury but you know she's there
14:51
she she's the floor general you know she
14:53
understands the pace and Tempo with her
14:54
team she knows India and and Lexi's game
14:56
to a te um and so playing without that
14:59
position is really a challenge right
15:01
because it's and Grace has done a great
15:03
job it's just she plays it differently
15:04
so that means it's a little bit
15:05
different for Lexi and a little bit
15:07
different for India and a little bit
15:07
different for everybody else there's a
15:09
major adjustment losing Alyssa is like
15:11
hurt your heart in other ways right the
15:13
toughness the relentlessness right but
15:16
but the ball isn't always she's not the
15:18
facilitator of action right and so the
15:21
fact that these guys have been able to
15:22
battle with out um and how hard they've
15:24
had to play Just adjusting to a totally
15:26
new style um has been remarkable and
15:30
should make us better because now we can
15:31
they can play at depending on who's in
15:34
at certain times they can play both ways
15:36
um but it is different I give these guys
15:38
a lot of credit they've just had to sort
15:39
of adjust quickly um but yeah Ras she
15:42
she knew is you know down nine she had
15:44
something to say because it's still a
15:46
team that she's sort of running from her
15:48
position um I know she's thrilled to the
15:50
longer we keep playing the more she's
15:51
more games she gets to play
15:53
too anything else thanks guys go heels
15:56
thanks y'all a little less than 10
15:59
minutes left in uncc's open locker room
16:01
if anyone is planning to take advantage
16:03
of that