LOCKER ROOM REPORT: Wolfpack Terrorizes Terrapins

No. 12 NC State head coach Wes Moore, junior guard Kai Crutchfield, junior forward Kayla Jones, and sophomore center Elissa Cunane met with the media following the Wolfpack's 66-59 win over No. 9 Maryland.

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

Wes Moore

“First of all, let me just say: Maryland has an unbelievable team. They have great talent. Brenda Frese does a great job. We’re excited about the win, and even though we were able to win, hopefully we can learn from some of the things that we could do better. I’m really proud especially of these three. You start with Kai down there. She just has a knack for hitting big shots. She did a great job on [Ashley] Owusu. That freshman came in with a five-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio. She does a great job of setting teammates up but also scoring on her own. I thought Kai did an awesome job on her. With K.J., we’re excited about Jada Boyd, and I need to get her out there more, but it’s just tough because K.J. is hard to take off the court. To get a double-double like she did, both of these young ladies with the way they rebounded, I think we had a [plus-]24 rebound margin which is unbelievable. Elissa and K.J. did most of the heavy lifting in that regard. We talked about, at halftime, getting [Cunane] touches. We were trying to get a switch. They switched a lot, especially pick on the ball and things like that. We wanted to get a matchup that was more favorable and get Elissa touches. In the first half, I thought our guards were trying to attack a little bit too much against the post instead of getting the ball to the post on the guard. In the second half, they did a much better job, and Elissa really stepped up and took on a big load for us. Again, it was a great win. It was tough with the Hawaii trip, getting back at 11 o’clock Monday morning. These kids had to go to class immediately. A lot of people questioned: ‘Are you crazy scheduling a trip like that and then coming back to play a team like Maryland?’ Thank goodness they bailed me out. It’s a good win for our program.”

“We did mix up the way we were defending the pick on the ball to try to get out there a little better. Our guards did a better job of being urgent, closing out, and trying to make them put the ball on the floor. [Blair] Watson had an unbelievable first half, and what a shooter she is and also [Taylor] Mikesell. Those two in particular are the ones you’ve got to focus on. In the first half, we kind of lost track of that. In the second half, I thought our transition defense was not good at times. We either gave up layups or gave up open threes. We’ve got to get better at those things. Those are things we can control. We’ve got to focus on those and taking care of the basketball a little bit better. We’ve got plenty of things to clean up. It’s nice when you can learn from a win though instead of from a loss.”

“Our RPI right now is not as high as we’d like for it to be. Some of the teams that we’ve played early, just to be quite honest, they had better years a year ago. They were really highly ranked in the RPIs. This year, they’ve not gotten off to as good a start. Hopefully, they can pick that up. We needed a win like this against a top-10 program. I think hopefully this does teach us a lot about ourselves and prepares us for the kind of size, athleticism, and pure talent that we’re going to see later on down the road."

Kai Crutchfield

“I think every game’s a challenge. Coach says to be prepared for each game and to take every game as a big game. Making every game a big game is just really good for us.”

“I was just trying to take what the defense gave me. Of course, I have to give it to my teammates for setting me up for those things. I was going off of their screens and looking for those opportunities, but I was mostly going off of what they gave me. Maryland is a very challenging team, and it wasn’t just a game you could put away with one possession.”

“Their defensive mindset was very aggressive. They played a great defensive game all around.”

“I try not to get to big-headed. Coach says not to celebrate after a possession because sometimes that kind of gives us a disadvantage because we focus too much on celebrating, and then they’re running past us in transition. We might need to work on that."

Kayla Jones

“Coach really harps on crashing the boards and boxing out. We knew what type of rebounder Kaila Charles [and Shakira Austin] were, and we knew to box them out to keep them off the glass."

Elissa Cunane

“It was a good challenge for us playing a better team than we have been. I think it was good for us to test ourselves and see what we’re made of, and it turned out pretty good for us."

“It was a little harder to get touches in the paint, so crashing the boards was where I was able to score a lot of times.”

“[If] you get up and body somebody on the three-point line, I think anybody should be able to go around them. They can respect that."