WBB Post Game Press Conference - ECU
Head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, McKenna Dale and Kaydan lawson
VIRGINIA HEAD COACH AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON
Opening Statement:
“I’m definitely proud of our team. In the second half we got considerably better. It’s been a long month as far as how many games we’ve been playing and we’ve had quick turnarounds, including having only one day to prep, so we haven’t really had a chance to work on ourselves. I say that a lot here because it’s important. Until today, nobody has played a zone against us, and we knew they’d probably play us 40 minutes in zone. We haven’t gone against zone or practiced it since probably preseason. In the first half we really needed to settle in and find our rhythm and then we did that in the second half.”
On rebounding performance:
“I mean 56 to 25 is really good. That’s a staple for what we do: defend and rebound. We did that at an elite level today, but also the beauty of our team is that we’re deep and have played a lot of games. This is our eighth game this month, nine counting the exhibition game, but we are able to sub and keep people fresh because of our depth. I always try and keep our team physically and mentally fresh, and we’ve done a lot to create that with walkthroughs and mental prep.”
On convincing win despite 30 turnovers:
“I was hoping nobody was going to bring that up. No, I’m just kidding. We talked about that at halftime when we had 18 turnovers. That’s just uncharacteristic of us. But again, we just got a little rattled with how they’re playing their zone. A lot of people play, two-three, which is a little bit easier to go against if you haven’t been doing a lot of practice. Once we settled in, we got a lot better. But 30 turnovers is just not good. There were so many other things we did well. McKenna [Dale] has been doing great things for us. She’s had back-to-back games with eight rebounds, deflections and running the ball in transition to get easy layups. I told the team that we were going to shoot well today and McKenna came out shooting 50% from three. She got that monkey off her back. Kaydan Lawson just loves me. She’s our X-Factor. She’s so versatile on both sides, and when she’s playing aggressive and locking in she can do it all. I liked how she came out second half and really helped the team out.”
VIRGINIA PLAYER QUOTES
McKenna Dale, Graduate Student, Guard
On improving her shooting
“That felt really good. I’ve been struggling a little with my shooting this year, but this team makes it really easy for me to gain my confidence back. In practice, if I miss a shot, everyone in the gym just tells me to keep my head up. You’re gonna make the next shot. I have the coaches behind me, I have my teammates behind me, all of the staff members in this program behind me. Even though it’s been a little off, they all believe in me and that makes it really easy for me to believe in myself.”
On appreciating this season more after last season’s struggles
“100%. I think we’ve really moved forward as a program. We keep in our minds what happened last season, but as a team, we’re just focused on this year and what we can do. Our coaches did a great job prepping us for this season. From game one, we were ready to go. That’s translated and gotten better every single game, and you can definitely see that. We have our ups and downs, but I think we have improvements every single game again and again. That’s just a great feeling to be a part of.”
Kaydan Lawson, Junior, Guard
On appreciating this season more after last season’s struggles
“Like Mack [McKenna] said, especially with last year’s record and everything, this year it is easier for us to come together. Knowing that we can win, and knowing how to win, with the help Coach Mox of course. It’s easier to come together and know what to do and what it takes to get a win.”