North Carolina 78, Boston College 71
JOANNA BERNABEI-McNAMEE: I know we just left the locker room. It's a very sad locker room.
I think when you have seniors that wanted more and we didn't achieve what we set out to do this year, it kind of hits them. But I think what's hitting us harder right now is knowing that this group is done being together. That's a big pill to swallow, especially with a team that really cares about each other off the court.
That's been a pleasure to watch them grow as women, watching Andrea Daley come in and just mature throughout her four years; watching Kaylah Ivey. She came in as an old soul, so I'm not going to say I got to see her mature a lot because she was grown up when she came in. But seeing the leader that she grew in to becoming; watching Dontavia Waggoner coming in and being unsure of what she thought of BC down to in her last game laying everything she has in the last two games and leaving everything out on the floor. Then Kennedi Jackson coming in and believing in us for her last year, and I was really glad to see her in this last game show what she's made of.
This team, like I said, they've been great to coach. I'm glad that the country got to see our fight yesterday. I thought today, yeah, we were bummed out about that last four minutes of the game.
But yeah, I was proud of the fight that they put up, and it's been my pleasure to coach this team this year.
Q. It didn't look like you were panicked. It didn't look like you were necessarily taking bad shots. They just weren't falling in the stretch drive when you were up nine. From your perspective and from Kaylah's perspective, what happened that sort of led to the drought that took you guys out of the lead?
JOANNA BERNABEI-McNAMEE: Yeah, I think probably Courtney did a really nice job of switching to the zone, and I think then our shots looked a little bit rushed. I think KI did a great job getting us into our zone offenses, but it was just a different look than we had seen all game.
That's been one of our Achilles heels this year is adjusting to zone offense, and even that press that I know wasn't really putting much heat on us, it just slowed us down a little bit and got us out of our flow.
I agree, I don't know that we took bad shots. We had some turnovers, though, that we really didn't want to have, and those were the plays I wish we could get back.
Q. I can say this as a former player and former coach, and I'm not trying to get you in trouble, but the refereeing, just want to know your thoughts in terms of the physicality of the game. Is that good for women's basketball?
JOANNA BERNABEI-McNAMEE: I'm probably the wrong person to ask because I like when the referees don't try to take over the game and they really let the players dictate and determine the outcome of the game.
So I don't mind when the game gets a little extra physical. All I ever want is that it be equally physical and the same thing is allowed on both ends. That's always what we want.
Today definitely I wouldn't say it was anything to do with the officials. It was just we needed to execute a little bit better at the end.
Q. Kaylah, so much happened in the game today. We almost forgot you came back from an 11-0 deficit at the outset. Can you talk about how the team pulled it back together? Was it the belief you had after yesterday or what was going on there?
KAYLAH IVEY: I mean, for some reason we always get off to slow starts. I don't know, that's kind of been a thing that we've been trying to fix this year. But it happened again today. But we knew we were never out of it. It was the first four minutes of the game, so that first media we let it go. It was a fresh start, and we actually started playing together. We started protecting the ball more, talking more defense, and just playing our style of basketball.
It kind of flowed throughout the rest of the game until like the last four minutes. The first four minutes and the last four minutes just killed us in the game.
Q. Obviously it's tough to have this end to the season, but what did you see from Tatum Greene today with a career high for the freshman?
JOANNA BERNABEI-McNAMEE: Yeah, really proud of her. I thought she played very confident, and that's something that Tatum has been working on all year, finding that confidence. And really when you have her size and her skill level, you would just think she's automatically confident, but she is just a freshman.
I think that took the entire year for her to really truly believe in herself, and I think what a great start for her future. I was really proud of her.
I'm glad that her mom is a big part of her life. Her mom played for UNC and I know she was in the stands in her Boston College jersey. I think it was a very proud moment, I'm sure, for her mother, too.
Q. What's ahead after today? Obviously recruiting, rebuilding, understanding what happened here and how to get better for '25-'26. What are the goals?
JOANNA BERNABEI-McNAMEE: I think the goals right now, I don't think the time of year where players can really develop as individuals is the postseason and the summer. I know that we have some basketball regrets throughout the season, and I hope that the players that are going to stay with Boston College and play for us are going to, like, look at this game and try and keep that -- I guess that disappointing -- like let this fire them up in the weight room and what we do with conditioning and what they do in their individual workouts.
That's always the goal every year is to be not only better individual players the next year but also come together as a team, and I think that that's all I can ask for them is just consistent improvement.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports