Quotes: North Carolina vs. Oregon
Kelly Graves
On shot selection…
“I thought for the most part we executed okay tonight. We took a couple quick threes. And in that one stretch at the end of the first half I thought we shot too quickly. We had a nice lead and I thought we got impatient a few times.”
On defense…
“That’s why we preach defense because there are nights like tonight where you go 9-29 from the three point line. You have to always rely on that defense. It travels well. It is a constant.”
On game takeaways…
“I thought we played really hard tonight. Secondly, when we had a chance to roll over in the second half and our kids dug a little bit deeper and fought back.”
On Lexi Bando…
“She has played well so far. She gives us some grit, some toughness and enthusiasm out there. She continues to get better. She is one of the few players we have that can attack the basket.”
Lexi Petersen – Junior Guard
On game performance…
“It was definitely a good learning experience for us. It’s the first time with Kelly that we’ve played this good of a team that’s so talented and we have a lot to learn and a lot to improve on, but I think at the end of the day it was a positive experience for us.”
On what brought the offense down…
“I think that we lost the flow of our offense for a little bit and we kind of revert back to our old ways and take quick shots instead of the right shots. Once we were able to get back into the flow of it and take good open shots, I think that’s what helped get us out of that drought.”
Jillian Alleyne – Junior Forward
On 2nd half performance…
“We have to come out with the same intensity. As a team we kind of relaxed because we were doing things so well in the first half. Then in the second half we weren’t in that same mindset. We have to keep pounding it. They came in and they did what we wanted to do, pound us inside and get back up. We have to learn from that. We can’t go up like that in the first half and then lose the game. We have to learn from that.”
On going up against bigger bodies…
“I got a whole new level of basketball today. Usually in the PAC-12 you don’t find girls that big let alone that strong, so just being able to go up against players like that is an experience that I need to use. There’s not really much more weight I can put on, but I have to be a lot stronger on the inside…I have to learn from what they are bringing.”
