NC State head coach Wes Moore met with Wolfpack Sports Network to discuss his 95-77 win over Wake Forest.
Coach, congratulations on the win: 95-77, the final score. It's a question that's been used in broadcasting a lot; I have to ask you: you were down by as many as 15 in the first half, down 6 at halftime. To win the second half like you did—it was 52-28 in the second half—what did you tell them at halftime?
Well, I don't—again, I'm not Jim Valvano. I wish I was, okay? I've heard his players say that every pre-game speech and halftime speech was like the one he gave at the ESPYs, okay? So again, I'm not that person. So it was really just a matter of fact; it's what we got to do.
But again, let's face it: part of it was, I mean, Wake Forest came out first quarter 7-7 from three. Yeah, we had a chance to guard them, though, so we got to do a better job of that; but you got to give them credit for knocking down shots and executing. And I was proud of the way we were able to peck away at it, get it back down—like I said—from 15 to 6 at halftime. Felt pretty good.
And then we come out and start the second half, and Zam hits a couple of threes, and we get some offensive rebounds, and here we go! But we had so many people do great things: Tilda and Khamil getting 14 boards, 7 offense; Tilda getting 13 boards, 6 offense. How about Zoe? 9 assists, 0 turnovers. Great there! And then, like I said, Z hitting some big threes—6 threes—that was amazing.
We were great offensively. You got to say that: 24 assists and only 8 turnovers. So we were very well... we did a good job offensively. But defensively, again, we just... I thought second half, we changed how we were playing pick on the ball some; maybe that helped a little bit. But I think, more than anything, we guarded a little better, and they didn't hit quite as many shots.
Yeah, Coach, I said on the broadcast, I wanted to be a fly on the wall in the locker room in the halftime, but the energy, yeah, Coach V was that guy, and all that, but you had to have, brought it to your team in a way where the way they came out in the second half was just unbelievable.
Well, I got a lot of confidence in our players, felt like, we dug a little bit of a hole, but I was still confident we could make a run, the fans were awesome to have them here, again, it was like a home game almost, I think we might have had more than they did, and that's, I can't thank the fans enough for coming out here and giving us that kind of lift when we needed it.
You asked them to travel, and they traveled.
Yeah, they did.
Yeah, and we, yeah, I think confidently said on the broadcast that they were more red in the stands. You mentioned, Khamil Pierre, 26 points, 14 rebounds, Tilda Trygger, 18 points, 13 rebounds, both of them have had three consecutive double-doubles.
I couldn't help but hear, you talked to the sideline reporter for TV at halftime, and you mentioned stops as your number one thing, but you also said, it's tough to rebound out of a zone, and can we hit the offensive glass to have 16 offensive rebounds, just what can you say about your front court tonight and just how they've been playing in the last couple of weeks?
Yeah, again, that's the thing about a zone, isw, it's hard to match up on the box outs, and so those two were effective, and Qadence got a total of six rebounds, which were big, and she had five assists and zero turnovers, so she played well, but yes, Khamil and Tilda, we've leaned heavily on them, and when you have that inside presence.
It's kind of like football, when you have a running game, now it opens up the passing game and takes pressure off the quarterback, and same thing, when you can score inside like that with those two, it really opens things up for the guards, so it's a good, offensively, very pleased with where we were tonight, and free throws too, y'all, 16 out of, 14 out of 17, we've been knocking those down lately, and so, again, proud of the way they've worked and have come around.
You called that timeout with about 5.30 to go in the first half, and that's when the game really started to swing, you mentioned free throws, it felt like coming out of that timeout, your team was able to get to the free throw line quite a bit, was there an emphasis put on getting to the rim, getting inside, drawing--
We didn’t want to just stand around and shoot threes, if you do that, then, now you're kind of playing into their hands, we felt like we could be, athletic and quick and get to the rim, and then get to the offensive boards as well that way, and so, yeah, gotta be aggressive against it, you can't just stand around passing around and jack up threes, so definitely wanted to, like I said, get downhill and get to the boards.
But when you needed a three, I have to ask you, the last time we saw your team on the road, I know you didn't want to use it as an excuse, but you didn't have Zam Jones available at Clemson, the three she hit to end the half and then the two to start the half, she had six in total, just what kind of a spark does she give this team sometimes when it needs a little jolt offensively?
No doubt, no doubt, that was a big lift, to hit the three to send us off the court at halftime and cut it to six, and then to hit two threes to tie it, start the second half, definitely big momentum shift for us, and like I said, she's playing really well right now, and the whole team playing pretty well offensively, we're going to have a big challenge obviously Sunday against a great team.
But I like where we are, we still need to defensively buy in, lock in, and maybe be a little tougher, again, it's going to be physical out there, we gotta learn to battle a little bit for position, and cut cutters off and lead people across the lane and things like that, but hopefully we can continue to get better on that end.
Well, as you alluded to, big game on Sunday, Louisville did win in South Bend tonight, so they are 7-0 in the ACC, coming to Reynolds Coliseum, I know it's going to be sold out special atmosphere, big game for your team.
Yeah, it will be, and of course, similar situation last year, of course last year was later in the year, but Notre Dame came in undefeated, and it was a great game, but it's a challenge.
Jeff Walz, great coach, he's put together a really good roster, and it'll be a challenge to guard them, and then to attack them, they do a lot of different things, and I've watched them some a little bit this year, and pick on the ball, they're liable to trap you, they'll throw a press at you here and there, and so again, we're going to have to really be locked in and focused in that game.
Well coach, congratulations on the win tonight, and we'll see you Sunday, safe travels back home.
Alright, thanks guys, go Pack!
