Feb. 24, 2012
Recap |
Box Score |
Notes |
Photo Gallery 
|
Photo Gallery
Postgame Quotes
No. 6 Maryland vs. North Carolina
Feb. 24, 2012
College Park, Md. (Comcast Center)
FINAL: #6 Maryland 84, North Carolina 64
Maryland Head Coach Brenda Frese
Opening Statement:
"A special win for our seniors, just really proud for all three of them. I thought the tone that they set from the tip, the way we came out and were really able to dominate right away. I really thought our defense and our rebounding, limiting them to one shot was really, really good and I thought offensively we moved the ball, we shared the ball and made it easy. We were in a really good rhythm in the first half and I thought we came with the knockout punch early that they were never able to recover from."
On what this win means going into the ACC Tournament:
"This is how you want to finish, you finish strong, and just to be able to see the confidence that we're playing with, really just having a tremendous feel. Everyone's game is getting better. Even in the second half when we faced some adversity, I thought Whitney Bays came in and did some nice things for us. You want to be peaking come March, and this is where this team is at."
On rebounding:
"Everybody rebounded, when you go down the stats and look how our guards are crashing the glass. Especially when you can limit them to one shot, it makes it more difficult for them."
On pulling the seniors with 1:30 to play:
"It was fitting. Obviously, we couldn't have scripted it any better. I think from start to finish, how they came out. From the tip to the knock-out punch and how they led and then how they were able to give them a round of applause it was fitting for three players who have given four and five years to this program. Kim [Rogers] and Anjale [Barrett] and the injuries they have had, you couldn't have scripted a bigger night and you couldn't have scripted a better week-beating Duke and Carolina in the same week. It's just a lot of fun."
On the 3-pointers percentage:
"Are you kidding me, 80 percent? We shot better from the 3-point line than the free throw line. I thought we gave our guards a lot of good looks, having Kim [Rogers] and Laurin [Mincy] hitting on all cylinders it is really, really dangerous. I love seeing the confidence Kim [Rogers] is playing with and we were easy to get her the shot."
On starting Alicia DeVaughn:
"I haven't really thought that far, I think that from Alicia's [DeVaughn] end this was coming. She has been working hard and she moved without the ball and played basketball. She can do so many special things.
Sophomore Forward Alyssa Thomas
On playing for the seniors:
"Coach stressed we needed to come out and play hard for our seniors so it could be a memory they would always remember. So, we went out and played as hard as we could for them."
On playing with a large lead:
"That's what we expected to come out and do. We wanted to punch them early and be aggressive in the first half."
Sophomore Center Alicia DeVaughn
On her contribution to the game plan:
"I felt that I was able to take their one-on-one. My teammates were cutting and looking for me on the block, I knew it was something I could do and I did it."
Maryland Senior Guard Kim Rodgers
On her emotions being introduced for the last time at home:
"It felt good. It's been a long five years here, and the journey's been really nice so just to hear my name that one last time in front of the home crowd was cool."
On coming out strong in the first half:
"We just wanted to come out strong, we struggled a little bit with letting teams punch us first and we really wanted to give them the first knockout punch and I think we did that."
North Carolina Head Coach Sylvia Hatchell
Opening Statement:
"Well, we started out really poorly, slowly, and we missed a lot of shots. We didn't play like we have been playing, and we dug ourselves in a hole. Thank goodness Chay kept battling and fighting out there, and she did a good job for us. We were missing a lot of shots early on, and we weren't being aggressive when going to the basket. Basically, we had no defense out there in the first half. We have to regroup because we have another game in 40 hours against Duke. Our ACC schedule has been pretty brutal this year because our doubles have been Duke and Maryland, and Miami and Virginia. Again, Chay had a great game and this is her home territory, and she has had a great year. I am just happy she ended up with how she played tonight."
On the second half:
"Well, basically I put a lot of the young kids in there, and if you look at the minutes in the second half Shannon Smith, Brittany Rountree and Danielle Butts played a lot. Also, Chay was in there pretty much most of that time. I played a lot of those young kids, especially the last 12 to 13 minutes or so, and they fought hard and did a nice job. I made a commitment to our upperclassmen, our juniors and seniors, and I was disappointed with the way we started that game. I am going to keep that commitment, and on Sunday I am going to start the upperclassman again, and hopefully they will have a little bit more pride as far as who they are playing."
North Carolina Senior Center Chay Shegog
On the difference from playing Maryland the first time, and playing them again tonight:
"I just think the biggest difference was heart. When we first played Maryland we played with a lot of pride, passion, and heart. I really think we just came out flat tonight, and we dug ourselves a hole that we couldn't get out of."
