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March 3, 2017

Recap | Final Stats | Notes

CONWAY, S.C. –

Joanne Boyle: I was proud of my team for competing. We’ve got to learn some lessons, obviously, in play like this and what’s — what really can kind of have you misstep within the tournament. I thought we did some really good things, but they’re an unbelievable transition offensive team, and I thought they gained a lot of momentum in that category.

Q. This was a four-point game at halftime. What did you say in the second half, and what happened?
Joanne Boyle: Yeah, this whole year we’ve had at times some missteps in that third quarter where we get a little bit of a lull, and there was a time it was tied 30-30 and they went on a six-point run and that’s what they do. When we played them at their place they went on an eight-point run, we cut it, 11-point run we cut it, and we were battling there, but once we get some separation, they’re at their best.

Q. You guys obviously have had a wonderful season. Talk about playing in the NCAA Tournament when it’s announced a week and a half from now?
Joanne Boyle: I think the ACC is one of the top conferences in the country, and I feel like we have played everybody really tough. The only team we really did not compete well against was Duke. Other than that, I feel like we’ve been in every game, overtime with Louisville, Syracuse, beat Florida State late. We start three freshmen. We’re a young team. They’re just getting their wheels underneath them. I feel like we’re playing some of our best basketball. We’ve been in every game, including Notre Dame today for three quarters at their place. I feel we’re playing some really good basketball, and our freshmen are just starting to find the lay of the land a little bit. I feel like we are a contender, and I hope the committee will look at that.

Q. As a follow-up to what you were just talking about, the youth of this team, how did they throughout the season develop as well as you had hoped they would?
Joanne Boyle: I mean, I don’t think — all four of them came in with a mindset of contributing, to whatever degree that they could. I don’t think there were any expectations. But I think the unique thing about this class is that they love the game. They all are very different from each other, so they all had an ability to contribute in different ways, and they all have contributed in different ways. I think they had a group of upperclassmen that have allowed them to grow within the season, and there is no animosity, there is no class system here. You wouldn’t know who the seniors and who the freshmen are, and that’s a credit to the upperclassmen to embrace them and say, it’s not about waiting your turn, it’s about we want to win, put our team first, whoever can contribute can, and I think the freshmen were very relaxed in being accepted and not having to wait to bide their time, and they felt very needed in that way.

I think they’ve been going through their growing pains with me, and I think Fee is playing some of her better basketball now. Lisa is just an all-out rebound — she brings something different to the table and you have two scorers and two defenders, then you throw in all the other pieces we have in the upperclassmen, I think it makes for — we’re a good team. We’re a solid, good team that I think has good basketball in front of us.

Q. Breyana, you were able to get 13 points on them. Just talk about some of the difficulties about playing guards that good.
Breyana Mason: I mean, they’re kind of like a three-headed snake. Lindsay runs the show. She has great court vision, great IQ, she really just runs their team. With Arike and Mabrey, they can shoot the ball, they can drive it, as well. It’s kind of at times difficult to defend them because you want to guard them for their shot, but they can also drive by you. Just we had some troubles today kind of staying in front of them, sinking in on them a little bit too much.

Q. What’s your regimen going to be over the next couple of weeks while you wait?
Joanne Boyle: It’s spring break for Virginia next week, so we’ll give some time off, they’ll be doing some things at home, bring them back, really work on us for a couple of days, and just clean up some things and just get some energy back in the gym, and then we’ll sit down on Monday and watch the show, and hopefully we’re there. If anyone wants to make a call, go right ahead.

Q. Talk a little bit about the third quarter missteps; what did you guys see on the court?
J’Kyra Brown: I think for us, it was just staying in the game and the intensity and the effort. We always stress like effort and getting defensive stops and transition defense, where we kind of lacked tonight. But what kept us in the game was just the mentality of not giving up. I mean, we played this team already in the season. We’ve played seven of the top teams in the country. So just moving forward, we just know that we’ve already played those, so we have to continue with our effort and our defensive capabilities.

Breyana Mason: I mean, yeah, we kind of either made a turnover or they were able to get a rebound, get out in transition, and the thing about that is because they were scoring so quickly, that was kind of what hurt us, and it was a combination of 2s and 3s, and obviously when you have a lot of those over a span of time, the lead can really spread out. But we’ll clean that up in these next couple of days that we have to practice, get focused. That’s something that we’ve struggled with all year, so we really have to make this a priority going into this next phase of our season.

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