March 3, 2007

ACC Women's Basketball Tournament
Greensboro, NC
#2 North Carolina 90; #7 Virginia Tech 60
March 2, 2007

NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS

THE MODERATOR: We are joined on the podium up here with head coach Sylvia Hatchell, Ivory Latta, Camille Little. Coach, opening statement and we will take some questions.

SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, we thought we got off to a good start. These two seniors did a great job leading the team. I thought defensively started strong, and we were shooting the ball well, so we got rolling from the beginning, and I'm just glad we were able to play a lot of people, rest people up for tomorrow, and we are just glad to get the first game behind us. THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Coach, it seems like Erlana Larkins struggled tonight, how important was it for McFarland and Breland to give you some good minutes and some good points off the bench?

SYLVIA HATCHELL: I don't know if Erlana struggled, she didn't shoot but four times. A lot of times if we are rolling along, Erlana will sort of watch everybody else. Really. If the game had got close, trust me she would have taken over and done what needed to be done. I would not say that she struggled. I would say that she probably let everybody else sort of have their share of tonight because I'm sure that if we needed her to do some things that she would have done those. But, again, the balance of our team, the depth of our team, you know, and Jessica Breland is continuing to play well for us. And, of course, I thought that Alex Miller went in and played well for us tonight too.

Q. When you get to the tournament, given what's happened here the last two years, is it a new feeling that takes over? Is it like putting it in another gear so to speak.

CAMILLE LITTLE: Coach Hatchell told us before the game it's a new season, three games, right now we are just looking to do our best the next three games, and hopefully the outcome will be to our favor.

Q. For any and all of you, there was some talk after the Duke game last week that you hadn't played your best game. Is this a little closer and do you feel like you are coming together at the right time in terms of playing your best game?

SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, we are all looking at each other. Well, I think we are moving in the right direction, don't you?

Q. And the other two players?

IVORY LATTA: I definitely agree with Coach Hatchell. I definitely do. I think we are just getting better as it goes a long. Like the Coach says, it's a new season. We got to be focused and we got to be ready to play every single night. Don't nobody want to lose and go home. So we just got to be eager and determined to go out there and fight hard.

Q. Ivory, I will ask you, you can't get away from this one, you talked about, you came out and things were rolling right from the start, what is important for you guys to get off to a good start? What are some things that you always focus on that you need to start out doing well?

IVORY LATTA: You just said the one word focus. I know coach emphasizes a lot of, just be in focus at the beginning of the game. And we came out with a lot of intensity. We were very focussed what we had to do. We came out with a great start. Our bench did a great job of coming in and scoring for us, whenever Erlana got in foul trouble. But the main thing is to stay focused and come out with a lot of intensity.

Q. Coach Hatchell, Christina Dewitt was able to gave you 9 minutes tonight, can you talk about her coming back and just how you thought she handled it?

SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, Christina is a great player, she just needs a lot of experience and gets physically strong more than anything else. She shoots the ball. She is long. She can play defense, intimidate, block slots. I think as she gets more experience she is going to help us with our depth.

VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES

THE MODERATOR: Quick introductions. We are joined up on the podium by Beth Dunkenberger, Kirby Copeland and Nare Diawara.

Coach when you are ready, an opening statement and we will take questions.

COACH DUNKENBERGER: I thought that was one of the best performances by a team I've seen all year in Carolina's game today. They shot the ball extremely well, they moved it around, they scored from every position from everywhere on the court.

After playing such a tremendous defensive game last night I thought we really struggled on the defensive end. We struggled to break their press on the offensive end. It was simply a day where if it could go wrong for Virginia Tech, it did. If it could go right for Carolina, it did. Not a good combination for the Hokies.

The one thing you can't control is how hard your play, and I thought our kids played extremely hard, and for that I'm proud of their effort. The good news for us is that we will still get to play some basketball here after this tournament, so we will get a chance to grow and learn from this team and that's something that this team has done all year long.

Q. After you called timeout with a minute and a half in the game what were you trying to do, were you trying to just kind of keep everybody together

COACH DUNKENBERGER: I really thought our defensive focus wasn't there. We weren't getting back, we weren't matched up. We were letting them get some uncontested looks. Then that was only made worse by the fact we weren't doing a nice job of breaking their press, and we know how to break their press, and normally when we break their press, then we get good looks at the basket. So really I just wanted our focus to be a little bit better on that defensive end.

Q. This is for Kirby, it seemed like they guarded you really well for the first maybe 35 minutes of the ball game, what specifically did they do to take you out of your game?

KIRBY COPELAND: I wouldn't necessarily say they took me out of my game. They played good defense. They trapped on the on ball screens. We just couldn't get any movement.