NC State's Wes Moore, Jakia Brown-Turner, and Raina Perez met with the media after the loss to South Carolina.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.

Opening Statement...
Give South Carolina all the credit, that’s why they’re number one in the country. They just really defensively took us out of everything. We looked lost out there most of the night. When you were able to maybe come off a pick on the ball or get a step on somebody, they had 6’5, 6’6 waiting in there who did a great job of, if not blocking it, at least altering shots. I thought they were the aggressors and we ended up, maybe because of that defense, we ended up settling too much for jump shots and step backs. You look at the stats, we shot six free throws, they shot 19. I think that was just because they were attacking the rim and we ended up settling a lot. I thought Jakia [Brown-Turner] and Raina [Perez] both had great nights, hit some tough shots, kept us in the ballgame. We’ve just got to get some other people [going]. We’re still a work in progress. We added some talent, we have [Kayla Jones] still coming off a surgery, that sort of thing. Probably not a great night to play the number one team in the country, but we’re excited we got the opportunity. It was a great atmosphere, we appreciated our fans. We’ve just got to get better and I’ve got to do a better job helping them prepare for these situations.

On playing in front of a full Reynolds Coliseum crowd...
It was awesome. That adds to the disappointment that we didn’t come through and get it done in that kind of atmosphere in front of those people. So it’s disappointing. I think we sold out three of our last four games before Covid, so we really had a lot of momentum and then it all got shut down. Great to start out this way and hopefully we can maintain that kind of excitement and energy. Hopefully we can do something to maybe lift it up a little more.

On what changes without Jada Boyd...
I think when you say Jada Boyd, and really Kayla Jones, we had a 20-minute limit on her, which we got right at that. But even at that, you can tell she’s not 100%, so it makes it tough. Especially because of their length. There’s some teams, a lot of teams, they’re four player is gonna be almost like a guard. With this team, they’re longer, they’re athletic. And then when they go Cardoso and Boston together, obviously that’s a whole nother thing. We missed Jada Boyd because she can match up a little bit better size and athleticism with those guys, but still. For the most part we held our own [defensively]. Just offensively we couldn’t get anything going.

On opening the season with a test against the No. 1 team in the country...
We’re trying to break through. We’re trying to get into that elite level, and to do that you’ve got to play the top teams. Quite honestly, you’ve got to get on to ESPN and hopefully recruits see you enough that maybe you can get some of the top players. Obviously we went down there and won a year ago, so we felt like we could get it done, especially on the home court. Like I said, tip your hat to them, they came in here and took it to us. We cut it to one a couple of times, I remember one time we took kind of a wild shot, we may have done that more than once. I understand their defense makes you do that, but we’ve got to be a little more under control, a little more patient. At the same time, we’ve got to keep testing and attacking them and put them on their heels. It was a combination of things. I’m disappointed we didn’t handle their defensive pressure a little better.

Where is Kayla Jones in her recovery?
I don’t know. It’s a good question. Kind of day to day. I think tonight, if she was playing well and the game was close, I think we could have pushed that a little bit but 20 minutes was the goal coming in. I guess we’ll see where it goes from there but with her and Jada Boyd both out, we have to go real small. Basically four guards, Jakia, Madison Hayes, somebody like that out there [at the four]. Against a team like that, that’s a big challenge. But no excuses. Offensively, we just didn’t handle it. We didn’t get it done.

On Diamond Johnson’s struggles...
It’s tough coming in to this situation. We’ve got all five starters back from a pretty good team a year ago and now all of a sudden you’re throwing them in there and trying to get it all to mesh. Like I said, probably not the greatest situation to play the number one team in the country. Diamond’s gonna be fine, she’s a great player. We need to get her on track. She makes a big difference for us. But we’re still trying to figure it out. With [Kayla Jones] not starting because she had limited minutes, that meant we threw Diamond in there. We’ll take it day to day, whatever the doctors say.

On if Kayla Jones might come off the bench when she’s healthy...
I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m looking forward to get upstairs here in a minute. We’ll break down the film. Kayla’s a great player. I’ve said all along, last year she was our glue. She does everything for us. But she’s not 100%. Part of it is protecting her, part of it is making sure we’re at our best. We’ll cross that bridge. It’s a tough problem. Everybody says it’s a good problem to have, but it’s still tough to keep everybody happy. Everybody wants to start, everybody wants to go out there and do the little dance, all that stuff. Me, I just want the best players out there at the end. I told them today when I told them I was gonna start with [Kayla Jones] out, they know how I feel about her and how important she is to us, but I told them I’ve never seen a game won in the first four minutes, but I’ve seen a whole lot of games won in the last four minutes. As a player, that should be your goal. You want to be out there when the game is on the line.

Jakia Brown-Turner and Raina Perez

How nice was it to be able to play in front of a full Reynolds Coliseum crowd?
BROWN-TURNER: It was great playing in front of our fans. We have great fans here, so just being able to play for them. I know the outcome wasn’t what was expected, but just being here, being back in the gym is great.

PEREZ: Kind of just the same thing. I’d never played inside Reynolds with this many fans, so it was fun just to see how many people show up to support us. I enjoyed it.

How tough was it getting to the rim and having every shot contested?
PEREZ: It was tough. You don’t really see a 6’7, 6’5 post in there all the time, so playing against them was different. I think we kind of picked it up a little bit, but there were spurts where we were down. Getting to the rim was tough, as players we see that and just kind of work in and out with them. But yeah, it was tough.

How tough was it to get the ball to Elissa Cunane?
PEREZ: You know Elissa and what she can do, but I think other teams know that too, so when there’s a couple players around her and they’re all the same size as her, it’s tough. I think we’ve just got to work on that as wings and learn how to get her the ball because she needs to score. I think we can work on that.

Is there any added pressure when you’re one of the only ones hitting shots?
BROWN-TURNER: I think it’s business as usual. All of us can score, it’s just when we’re more open we’ve got to knock them down and take good shots. As long as we’re taking good shots and getting good looks, everything flows.

On cutting the lead down to one a few times but not being able to come back
PEREZ: I think we kind of just beat ourselves. It’s not that we ran out of gas, we just weren’t executing offensively. And we need to do that in order to get over that hump. That was just us.