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NC State Women's Basketball

LOCKER ROOM REPORT: Eighth-Ranked Wolfpack Wins on a Rainy Night in Georgia

December 5, 2022
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No. 8 NC State head coach Wes Moore met with the media following the Wolfpack's 65-54 win over Georgia Monday evening.

The victory marked State’s first ever win over the Bulldogs as Georgia had won each of previous nine encounters. Mimi Collins led all scorers with 19 points while Camille Hobby joined her in double figures with 10 points.

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Moore’s press conference.


On the team navigating the recent five-game stretch away from home… 

I’m just really proud of them. They showed a lot of toughness. Obviously, we started out with a rough one at Connecticut. We played five Power Fives in a row away from home, and we got some big wins out of it. Tonight was not one of our better games offensively, especially from the perimeter. When you can find a way to defend and rebound well enough to win a game like that, it’s really big. Hopefully, this is something we can learn from and realize that, when we do those things, we’re going to be hard to beat when we get the offense going as well.

On the team’s experience growing from the start of the season to now...

I think the win at Iowa was big for us. We needed that. We had four kids last year that had started; [Kai Crutchfield and Kayla Jones] had been here five years, [Elissa Cunane] four years, and [Raina Perez] had played five years of college ball. That’s a lot of experience that walked out that door. Not only are our returning players all in new roles now, having to take on new responsibilities, but our transfers are still trying to learn the system and find their way to mesh and fit in. Again, to put them on the road like we have the last couple of weeks was probably asking a lot, and yet they found a way to overcome it.

On Jada Boyd’s absence…

Badly turned ankle. We’ll see. It happened yesterday in practice, so we knew she’d be out today. Mimi really stepped up in a big way. That’ll help her when Jada does come back and give her the confidence, hopefully, to get some things done. I don’t know. I hope we get her back for South Florida. They’re really good. They’re coming off a big win over Texas and a win over Stanford last year. They’re a great program. We’re going to need all hands on deck for sure.

On Collins’ performance and leadership…

Mimi’s been around. She’s a high-level player. She’s a highly recruited player. It’s been frustrating for her at times. Jada Boyd’s been playing really well, and it’s been harder for her to get as many minutes as she would like. She stepped up in a big way, especially on the boards. Inside, she did a great job matching up with them. Georgia’s post players are so athletic and so long. I thought she did a nice job.

On what challenges the Bulldogs presented in tonight’s game…

Offensive rebounding, they’re one of the best. We started out giving up 22 points in the first quarter. You can’t win doing that. In the second quarter with about five minutes left, we had a media timeout, and from that point on the rest of the half, they had zero offensive rebounds and only two points. They ended up with 22 points in the first quarter and 32 points the rest of the game. This team’s got to realize, “You’re going to have nights where the ball doesn’t go in the hole. You’ve got to defend, you’ve got to box out, and you still can win, even on the road at an SEC opponent.” Hopefully, this is a good learning point for them.

On Jakia Brown-Turner’s recent struggles…

Jakia’s a great player. She had some big games in the last couple of games. I thought she really played well. Tonight was a little bit tougher, maybe. Shots weren’t going, but Diamond [Johnson] had a rough night. That’s the thing: we had two or three players that had rough nights, and we still found a way to win. That’s encouraging. That’s exciting. As a coach, you like seeing that.

On the positive side of Brown-Turner not forcing shots…

We’ve had that problem. I thought, in the first quarter of the Iowa game, we were taking bad shots and coming down with quick shots without moving the ball. We need to learn from the get-go to share the ball, swing the ball, and get everybody involved instead of taking some tough shots. I think Jakia’s doing a better job of that.

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LOCKER ROOM REPORT: Eighth-Ranked Wolfpack Wins on a Rainy Night in Georgia

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