Everything From Virginia Tech's Megan Duffy, Carleigh Wenzel, Carys Baker After UNC Loss

Virginia Tech women's basketball head coach Megan Duffy, plus forward Carys Baker and guard Carleigh Wenzel, spoke to the media after the Hokies' 66-63 overtime loss to North Carolina; here's the entirety of what Duffy, Baker and Wenzel had to say:

Opening statement from Coach Duffy:

MD: "I'm really proud of my team this evening. I thought we had a toughness about ourselves and had great effort. Cassell (Coliseum) was rocking, just a great college basketball atmosphere. Just got to give North Carolina a lot of credit. I thought late in that game, fourth quarter and over time, they made huge plays. We had a couple different breakdowns, and I felt like they took advantage of everyone late. I really believe we had our opportunities. Just didn't have enough execution down the stretch."

On if Duffy felt like the team got "decent looks" down the stretch (2-for-12 in overtime):

MD: "Yeah, I think for the most part. A couple of them were a little bit of a broken play. Even starting that fourth quarter, got some good looks, missed some layups. We executed a couple really nice things. As you can see, it was extremely physical on both sides. I thought we needed to finish a little bit better, whether they were fouls or not. I just thought we had a couple, maybe four or five layups that needed to go in. Unfortunately, they didn't for anybody."

Q: Obviously, coming off those back-to-back wins out in California, was there anything you guys felt you did pretty well out there you just weren't able to recapture tonight?

CW: "I think we competed really well. I think that's something we've been toning in on. And I think we did that really well in Cali. I think our effort was kind of better than it has been all season, and just fighting and playing through mistakes and things like that. Asgain, we did that tonight. It just didn't end up going our way. But I think our effort and our fight was where we wanted to be coming into the season."

On Kilah Freelon (six points, 10 rebounds):

MD: "Kilah had her hands full defensively. Nyla Harris, I say this respectfully, she's a monster. She's physical, she's talented, she's just relentless. I thought Kilah, overall, did a really good job to limit some touches and just battle with her. I thought for Kilah to play for 40 minutes, I mean, it's a lot of minutes. So, she continues to just be a warrior for us. And whatever task we give her, she's ready to step up. And I know she wants a couple of those finishes around the rim back. Overall, I thought, you know, her effort was, was, was good."

On the foul with 87 seconds left in overtime on Baker and whether Duffy was surprised that it wasn't reviewed:

MD: "Yeah, I think that was the hard part to kind of figure out, if they have the opportunity to come together and kind of talk about, if they want to review it. There's certain things I can review, certain things I can't. At least one of them came over to me and said they just felt like it was a more of a collision vs. the new F1 that it might not be intentional, but if you really whack somebody, they'll go to it. So, unfortunately, Carys got the brunt of it, but I think it was bodies coming together vs. something cheap. And I know it probably didn't feel good for her, but I guess that's what they told me, that it wasn't necessarily something they thought they needed to review."

On what Baker liked about the defense and what more the team needed down the stretch:

CB: "Yeah, I think, like Carleigh talked about, in California, that was where we wanted our effort to be all season. And I think we showed that in California. And we came into this game, we had a lot of confidence defensively. And in the first half, I thought our defense was really good in the first half, and I think we just had in the second half some slip-ups in crunch time, so I think that wasn't very helpful to us. And then, just discipline. Coach Duffy always talks about that with our defense. I think we just had a couple down the stretch undisciplined defensive stops, and it kind of hurt us a little bit. So, we have, like, mistakes, but we're gonna go back into the gym. Obviously, we're gonna watch film and just correct it, because we have a game on Sunday. So, we don't have much time to just dwell in this and think about it too much."

Q: Coach, Carleigh picked up her second foul pretty early there in the game. How'd you have to adjust with her on the bench? And just what went into that?

MD: "I was really proud of our bench the way they came in. I didn't feel like we missed a beat. Mel (Daley) was good. Samyha (Suffren) was good. Sophie gave us a couple really good minutes. Our lead extended, which is an awesome thing; that's not always the case when you lose somebody like Carleigh for a few minutes. And I always think as a coach about if it gets a little bit ugly or the score starts going the wrong way that you put Carleigh back in. But fortunately, our other players really stepped up and played tough defensively and did enough offensively. I mean, it was a really exciting 10-7 quarter in the second but overall, we had some great contributions from our bench.

On three Hokies logging 40-plus minutes:

CB: "Yeah, that's definitely props to Coach (Lee) Taylor. I think that starts in the summer. He definitely got us prepared to play those high minutes. So, we don't really think about it much. We just want to go out there and do everything that we can. And if that means that me and Carleigh, or whoever it is, has to stay on the floor longer, that's what we're going to do. It's definitely props to Coach Taylor. It's preparation, it starts with that always. So, just having that preparation, I knew that I could have that stamina to stay in the game."

On what the team did on defense to limit North Carolina to a season-worst shooting effort from the field in the first half:

MD: "I think we came out with a tenacity about ourselves on the defensive end. We wanted to make it as difficult as possible for their post to get easy baskets. They can make some really, really tough baskets. So, eliminate some of the easy ones. I thought we were pretty connected on our personnel. Knowing not to give No. 0, Lanie Grant, a three. Really try and keep you (Indya) Nivar in front of us. So, some phenomenal possessions. And then, like we mentioned before, in the second half, I thought we still had some great possessions, and then a couple mishaps, we didn't rotate once when we needed to. We were off too far on one of their shooters, and we missed a box out, those little things added up at the wrong times. I think that was the biggest thing. You can maybe get away with that a little bit earlier in the game, and you can adjust. But that's when you really got to lock it in. Both teams are fatigued, to some extent, because you've got a lot of kids playing some big minutes. But those are the small things. We dropped the ball a couple times on our end offensively, and if we scoop that up and get the opportunity to try and make a basket, maybe that helps us. So there's a lot of small things that we're going to nitpick at obviously. But I thought overall, a really good college basketball game. Two tournament teams with a lot of talent on the floor, and that was ACC basketball, right there."

On Samyha Suffren's 15 points and what's enabled her to play as good as she has:

MD: "Samyha's playing well, I think she's just helping us any way she can. I thought she did a really nice job in the Cal game with her defense. And then, she carried that over today. And then, we're always looking for not only her, but other players who can step up and hit a pull up, or hit a three or get to the free throw line. She'll filling into her role really, really nicely and gaining confidence as we go. Only bright spots ahead of her, for sure."