LOCKER ROOM REPORT: Wolfpack Secures Road Victory Over Duke
NC State head coach Wes Moore, sophomore center Elissa Cunane, and redshirt senior guard Grace Hunter met with the media following the No. 7 Wolfpack's 63-60 road win over Duke Sunday afternoon.
NOTE: Click the video in the player above to watch NC State’s press conference.
Wes Moore
“First of all, I’ve got to give Duke a lot of credit. Their press obviously gave us a whole lot of trouble, especially in the first half and then to fall down 10 halfway through the third quarter. I’m proud of the way our team responded. I think we had three assists and 15 turnovers at halftime, and in the second half, I think it was 10 assists and four turnovers, so we were able to flip that. We got the ball in to Elissa Cunane which is usually a pretty good thing. Eight-for-nine from the field is pretty good odds there. I’m really, really happy for Grace Hunter. It’s been tough. She’s a great player but got injured against this same team a year ago. It was a really devastating knee injury, and she’s had to fight and battle all year long to try to get back to this point. It’s really great to see her have such an awesome day today.”
“The thing that makes it tough is that she did about everything to her knee that you can do to a knee. She’s still working her way back as far as the explosive moves, being able to go by somebody, and being able to guard somebody. It’s getting better and better and better, but that’s kind of held her back. Today, we were struggling. You’ve got to try everything you’ve got, so I put her in. Grace may not believe this, but I’ve told the coaches all along: Grace has the potential to help this team down the stretch. She’s been a great player before. I know she’s not 100 percent. Unfortunately, we’ve got about three kids over there that are not 100 percent, coming off knee injuries. She’s a basketball player. She loves the game. She has a passion for it. She looks at me with those dang puppy-dog eyes the whole game every time I’m walking down the bench. I finally told her, ‘Quit looking at me.’ Like I said, I couldn’t be happier for her, and hopefully, it’s something we can build on.”
“I don’t know. We hit a couple of shots and got to feeling a little better about ourselves. We got Elissa Cunane touches. We tried to adjust against the press some. We actually put Elissa up there setting a pick a couple of times. We also tried to throw over the front line of the press a couple of times to Elissa. We just tried some different things. When nothing’s working, just throw something on the wall and hope it sticks. I feel very fortunate. These kids did it. When a team is pressing and they’re playing zone, your kids have to make great decisions and knock down shots. That’s what they did. They competed a little better. We were getting beat off the drive, and I think we actually probably got beat on the boards in the second half, but we still tried to compete a little bit better there down the stretch.”
“What an example [Kobe Bryant] set. That’s what happens when you’ve got a great player that’s a great competitor. That’s when you get something special. I hadn’t talked with the whole team a whole lot about it, but he’s a great example for every player, and that’s what’s so disappointing. He did so many awesome things as a player, and I think he was going to do the same thing for the rest of his life in his career, and he was obviously a big advocate for women’s basketball with his daughter. It would have been special to see what he did in that respect.”
“That’s what I told them during the timeout in the third quarter. ‘Heck, we’re trying to win an ACC Championship. We’ve got 15 great teams in this league. It isn’t easy, and you’re going to have adversity. That’s what we were having today. You’ve got to compete.’ We had a great crowd behind us that helped. I was so upset because we weren’t guarding, and we weren’t handling the ball. I told them during the timeout, ‘I can’t help you with those things. I can’t help you get your butt down and guard somebody.’ We got blown by about three times in a row before I called that timeout. Also, we were fumbling the ball and bumbling around. 'At some point, you’ve got to mentally tough, you’ve got to have that confidence in your gut and your heart that you can do this, and I can’t do that for you.' I didn’t do much for them today; they did it. I’m proud of them. They stepped up, and we’re moving onto the next one."
Elissa Cunane
“It was huge. Grace impacts this team so much whether it’s on the court or off the court. She always has great energy in practice and any time. For her to believe in this process in the long time it’s been and for her to come out here and go off, it’s amazing for her.”
“It was huge, obviously. It helped us get the lead in the fourth. You pass it inside, and that opens up the outside shot. Whatever they chose not to guard, we’d burn them on it.”
“It was amazing. We’d run out on the court, doing our little handshakes, and we just hear everyone chanting, ‘Wolfpack,’ and it really gives us a boost. Like, 'This is our home court, we feel comfortable, and we’re going to do what we know how to do.’”
“In the first half, we had a lot of turnovers which limited us from scoring the ball. In the second half, we just calmed down and said, ‘Hey, when we attack, the middle’s wide open in the defense they’re running.’ We all calmed down and made better passes which opened up the middle for me and my teammates to give it in to me."
Grace Hunter
“It was amazing. It was the greatest feeling ever. I just thank the coaches and my teammates for still believing in me no matter what, and I thank Coach Moore for the opportunity today.”
“Of course you think twice about it. ‘Should I take the shot? We have a lot of time on the shot clock.’ I hit the last two, and I was like, ‘Let’s go for it.’”
“It was great. Of course, what happened was a tragedy, and I still think about it all the time because I looked up to him all the time. Hopefully, [Bryant’s] power has passed down to me.”
“Of course, the end result was a lot more positive than last year, finishing the game with a torn ACL. It feels good. I was thinking about this game. Of course I was going to be nervous because of what happened last year, but I thank God for calming my nerves."