It's a good win for us. Uh It's a really good team and, you know, for us to uh finish off a tough week, probably our toughest week of the season, you know, in terms of opponent, when you look at last Monday, we're playing home against Notre Dame and then on the road against Syracuse and now home against NC State. And um, so just really pleased to go two and one in that stretch and, um get another quality win. Um Our team just keeps growing, they keep improving, they keep getting better and, um wasn't perfect tonight, but, um, you know, I'm, I'm proud of how they executed and um handled the run there in the second half and were able to finish it off with a win are open up for questions. Talk about the, well, um I thought we were much more locked in defensively, uh, than we were in the first meeting over there. And we had talked a lot about the start in the sense that, uh they had kind of jumped on us over there and, and we had wanted just to play better. I, I couldn't script it like we would jump on them, but I hope that we would be sharper, be a little more disciplined. I thought we were to start and then, um, just executed. You know, our actions early on that, that gave us a lead. Obviously, your team, we all know your teams like to run, but it seems like they maybe even more of an emphasis on that. You think it was get the ball and go possession thing like, well, we feel like we have multiple ball handlers out there at any given time and um they have the freedom when they get the rebound to go. We don't have to wait for the point guard. Um So, you know, I thought our pace. Yes. Uh in the beginning was really, really good and uh obviously, uh t Ashly Reagan, um even Jaden uh is able to, to push the pace and um we're just better when we run. I mean, we're a better offense, more efficient offense when we can get out in transition and they only had one assist in the first half, uh six for the game. You talk a little about that, but we said his team played with blinders on, but you guys had something to do with that. Can you just talk about that? I mean, listen, they're a really good team. I was worried, you know, for the last couple of nights how we were going to guard them and they have so many players that uh are, can be explosive at any given moment. Um, that can go for 20 or 25. Um, so I, I think for us it was just try to limit the quality looks that they got, uh, try to be in their face as much as we could. Um, not let them get too many open shots and then try to limit them to one shot, which we didn't do great at, they got 13 offensive boards. I thought, you know, Baldwin really bothered us with her rebounding and her size and her strength in there and she did a great job. Um, but, um, you know, the, we just wanna make people make tough plays and, and, um, if they're capable of making them, then, you know, you just congratulate them and say good job. I mean, that's the game. Um, they, they certainly have a talented group you mentioned, uh, back in the game, back in Reynolds that this, this is how young a team y'all have. But this today, Mayer had a freshman leading scorer, Donovan had 6.6 excuse me, six rebounds and three steals. Just how you describe the, the evolution of those young players as the season's gone along. Yeah, they've just grown right before our eyes and they've been able to, um, through the course of a really challenging schedule. It's not easy to grow in the midst of the AC C because, um, you're, you're getting your, your head beat in some, you know, almost every night and it's hard to navigate when you're a senior. I mean, it's hard to win in this league when, when you're experienced, let alone young. And so, um, you know, listen, like we were playing a lot of freshmen, we're playing a lot of underclassmen. I have 88 of my 11 are underclassmen. So, um, what they've been able to navigate, I'm just really proud of them and how they've continued to chase growth through the year. Even when we, we would lose a game, they would come in practice the next day, just fired up and ready to go and ready to learn. They're very coachable. And, um, so they're, they're reaping some of those rewards of just staying coachable and playing hard. Um, you, you get better and I felt like if we could, you know, stay positive, keep improving that we'd be, uh, a team, you know, in the postseason, um, that would be hard to play against. Uh, I don't know that we're there yet, but I think every week they, they keep showing signs of growth. Coach Kennedy told us that the first thing you guys work on in practice is defense. You tell us a lot that you want your team to be defensively minded. Uh, what's it like with eight of 11 underclassmen finally maybe buying into that and understanding and realizing what happens when they do the things that you ask them to and the way they can come out and win games like these. Yeah, I mean, the great thing about this group is that they bought in from the beginning, um, to, to whatever we've asked them to do and that's just the type of character they have and, um, the type of coaches they've had the type of parents they have, um, to be able to come in and, and just want to do what they need to do to help the team win. And yeah, I mean, we, we place an emphasis on it, um, in terms of, um, it's the one side of the floor, you can control more than other, more than the other side. And so, you know, you can't control whether you make shots, you know, but you can, you can control how you play and how you defend and, and, and our players have, have bought into that and bought into each other more than that. That's the thing that makes, um, you know, me really happy as a coach and smile when I observe them, I smile a lot when I'm observing them because they, at the, like they've really bought into each other and that more than anything is more important than buying into a system or buying into even the coaching staff. Like, do they have incredible buy in with one another because they want to win with each other? And that's, that's awesome. I mean, that to me is like the pinnacle of, of team and why you coach team sports is to, to get a group that really, um, just wants to do it for one another. Uh, state got a lot of their points off of free throws early. Um, that's been something that has kind of hurt you guys a little this year. But how pleased were you with the team's ability to respond to that and just not let that get to them. Yeah, I mean, listen, you knew they were gonna make a run and, and they made a couple at us and, um, you know, I, I thought we handled that pretty well by being able to, to get stops when we needed them and then make enough plays. You know, I thought Mayor late, you know, made, made just big time plays to be able to keep that distance, that double figure distance. Um, you know, we didn't do everything perfect in terms of, um, you know, their pressure and turning it over and things like that. But, um, she, with the ball in her hand, she was steady late and, and made a couple of big time shots. Would you mind talking a bit more about what this win means to you and the team, especially after, um, your earlier loss to, um, MC earlier in the season. Yeah, I mean, listen, we, we, we played them twice every year, you know, I think that goes away next year. But, um, they're one of the best programs in our league and one of the best programs in, in the country, um, every year. It, it's, it's, you know, it's hard to play them. They're very well prepared. Um, they're very talented. Um, they play well together. Um, so whenever you, you know, lose to a team, certainly there's, um, you know, a desire to try and win if you get a second chance to try and win. Um, and, and so our group was excited for another opportunity to play against them. Um, and it, it feels good to be able to, to even, you know, even the season series, uh, coach, when you look at the way Reagan started, you know, with her, how she was shooting early on in the first quarter, especially, uh, t how she finished the game, the passing and the paint, it, it felt like this group really had one of their, like had some really highs offensively. Did you feel kind of that offensive growth in this game? Especially against a team like NC State? Yeah, I mean, I think I see and, and feel offensive growth growth near daily with them. Um, they're figuring out how to navigate situations and how to create opportunities for one another. Um, and try to become a better passing team is something we've emphasized with them, like, you know, attack and be aggressive and if it's not there, you know, get off the ball and, and make a good accurate pass to your teammates so they can do something good with it, whether it shoot it or finish it in the lane. And, um, so all of our guards have grown in that, uh, throughout the course of the year and, um, you know, yeah, Reagan has the ability to get going, you know, I feel like at any moment as long as, um, you know, she's playing at the right pace. Um, she's somebody that can score and she's very athletic and strong. Um And so her starting off the game, well, I think just gave our whole group confidence. Congratulations again, Coach Lawson. Um, you're known for famously telling your team to handle hard better. How do you think the girls have followed up on this as they've embarked on one of the toughest schedules in the AC C this season? I mean, for our group, we just embraced what, what our schedule was. I mean, we had um a really tough nonconference schedule. I think we have the highest strength of schedule of, of any team in the AC C. And, um, if we don't, we're second, I mean, we played the hard, one of the harder schedules, non conferencing conference. And what I, what I said about it to our players is like, this is how you measure yourself, like you want to play the top teams, you, you wanna play the hard games. Um because that's where it's really revealing about where you are and you know, it tells you where you are when you play a really hard team and it reveals where your strengths are and where your weaknesses are and where you need to grow. If you're playing bad teams, it's not revealing what, what you need to, to improve on. So we just, we wanted to challenge ourselves and I think they've handled these challenges really well. Uh Yeah. Uh uh Ka K went out of the way a couple of times to talk about how good the scout was going in the game. How Duke had a really good feel for where state was gonna be or what they were trying to run where they were gonna do it all that sort of thing. Can you address that a little bit? Yeah, I mean, I think just before every game, um, you know, our assistant coaches do a great job of preparing our team and, um, just try to alert them of what, what we think they'll run and how we're gonna defend it. Obviously, there's a scheme part associated with that as well. And, um, it's good. They listen and when they listen and they execute it and a lot of times it does work pretty well. Um, but I, I think they, um, their ability to, they being the players, their ability to consume a scout and then apply. It is like way improved if that makes sense, like they would get the scout early in the year. And they're not consuming it as well. They were studying it. But II, I just, I don't know if I'm explaining this. Right. But like, you know, you're, you're consuming it and like, you're able to apply it. So now, like, it's just more, they know what they're doing as a team, the group, especially the young players where in the beginning it just probably looked like a foreign language to them of what it was and they were like, maybe memorizing what was going on, but they didn't understand like, how to apply that to their game in the game. And now they're able to do that. And that's part of the growth of like a young team is now they get the scout and it's like, oh, and then they're out there and they're like, oh, you know, like you can see them understanding it and anticipating and their communication is different. Most of my freshmen didn't talk hardly at all in the beginning. Now they're calling plays, plays out, now they're calling scheme now they're doing that and that's just the maturation, you know, of a group. And so I think their ability, I think, I think the scouts have been good all year. You know, I think the ability to apply it, um for, for our young players has, has improved. A ton