PC: Terquavion Smith and Dereon Seabron Discuss Purdue Loss
NC State guards Terquavion Smith and Dereon Seabron met with the media to discuss the overtime loss to No.1 Purdue.
On what changed when things started going wrong...
SEABRON: I feel like we had a couple defensive breakdowns, as far as giving up threes or not switching help side when they would try to give it to the big on the block.
On if the experience gap showed late in the game...
SEABRON: It was probably one of the things but I don’t think that really played a huge part in what happened at the end of the game.
On what the team can learn from the experience of such a big game...
SMITH: That you just have to play hard, honestly. We preach about playing hard, just play harder than them.
On what was working when they held the lead for most of the game...
SMITH: I would have to say our defense. We were playing hard on the defensive end and that was leading to easy offense.
On the difficulty of slowing down Trevion Williams...
SEABRON: One of our keys was to push him off the block and have him catch [the ball] far from the basket. And then with 74, just the same thing with him because we knew he had the size, so if he caught it around the rim, there was nothing we could do.
On how to follow up playing a good game against a top team...
SEABRON: I always thought that we could play with anybody, no matter if they’re ranked or we’re not ranked. I trust and believe in my team and I know we put the work in. So we’re just gonna take this game, move forward, get better and get ready for the next game.
On what happened in overtime...
SMITH: I feel like we weren’t playing at the same intensity level we had in the first 40 minutes.
SEABRON: Like I said earlier, I think it was just a couple of breakdowns on the defensive end late in the game and they stepped up and made some big shots, and that was the turning point in overtime.
On what the postgame message in the locker room was...
SEABRON: We’re just glad we came out there and fought hard and played hard the whole time, we didn’t back down, we didn’t give up. That was the message.