NC State head coach Wes Moore, joined by forwards Khamil Pierre and Khady Leye, met with the media after the Wolfpack’s 72–53 exhibition win over High Point on Thursday night at Reynolds Coliseum. Moore was pleased with the energy and defensive plays that fueled a dominant first quarter, but he spent most of the session on what still needs work: High Point’s Woodard going for 17 points and 18 rebounds, breakdowns against the zone and in transition, and too many turnovers and rushed decisions this early in the preseason. Pierre talked through a 19-point, 12-rebound, five-steal night while saying she still wants to shoot it better, and Leye described the excitement of her first game in Reynolds and how the team got comfortable after a hot start. Moore also addressed lineup rotation, Trivette’s’s effort as a freshman, the need for his best players to dominate both ends, and hope that Kamora will be ready for the Oct. 24 exhibition against UNC Wilmington.

Cleaned transcript of the postgame availability with NC State head coach Wes Moore and forwards Khamil Pierre and Khady Leye after the exhibition win over High Point:

Wes Moore: Really pleased with the start. In the first quarter we came out with a lot of energy, forced some turnovers, and made defensive plays that led to easy buckets. It was a good start out of the chute. From there, it felt like we have a lot to work on. High Point was able to knock down some shots, and we allowed Woodard to have an unbelievable game—17 points and 18 rebounds. We’re going to have to find a way to defend better than that. There’s a lot to clean up on both ends: offense, defense, transition, everything. This is by far the earliest we’ve ever played a game. Maybe it was too early, but hopefully this will be good film to learn from and we can fix some of the breakdowns.

Reporter: I know it doesn’t count, but 19 points, 12 rebounds, five steals—what do you feel contributed to that effort?

Khamil Pierre: Just trying to be a better version of myself than I was last season. I still didn’t shoot the ball well at all, but that’s kind of how the game was today.

Reporter: You’re over 50%.

Khamil Pierre: In practice I shoot like 80. But yeah.

Wes Moore: That’s a great stat line, obviously—19 points, 12 boards, and five steals. Very good offensive output.

Reporter: What was it like for you in your first game in here? Not a real game, but your first experience playing here.

Khady Leye: It was really exciting. We worked pretty hard to get to this. It was definitely exciting. Like she said, I didn’t shoot the ball well and didn’t help my team rebound. We have to work on that. Looking forward.

Reporter: For either player: with the strong start in the first quarter, it seemed like you let off the accelerator a bit in the second. What changed from your vantage point, energy-wise, in that period?

Khady Leye: I would say we probably just got comfortable. We came out really hot. We weren’t letting them score. We were playing really well as a team. I felt like the ball was moving and we were anticipating a lot. I think we kind of started to rush ourselves. But I think it also shows how good we can be and how good we will be.

Reporter: Is this an example of “it’s an ugly baby, but it’s our baby”?

Wes Moore: It was ugly, but I don’t know if it was ours. Hopefully we were just babysitting and we’ll have a better version of our own.

Reporter: Cadence was held scoreless in the first half. Were there any conversations that you and she had, or that she had with others on the team, that lit a spark under her, or was that basically self-ignited?

Wes Moore: Under who?

Reporter: Cadence. Q.

Wes Moore: Q? Who are you saying?

Reporter: Samuel. Q.

Wes Moore: Okay, Cadence. Yeah. She hit some shots in the second half—she hit some threes, which was good to see. We need that from her. It was good to see her get some confidence and knock down some shots. We didn’t have a whole lot of that going on, so it was good to have her step up.

Reporter: What do you think led to some of those defensive breakdowns? Was it more chemistry, or just new players knowing the scheme?

Wes Moore: I hate to say too much until I see the film. We’re going to watch that here in a minute. What I saw sometimes was that High Point did a really good job of adjusting to how we were playing pick-and-roll differently. We were trying to keep them off balance a little bit, and I thought they did a nice job of recognizing it and doing things that put us at a disadvantage. At the same time, you’ve just got to play harder. If you switch and someone takes your person, then you’ve got to rotate and help. We just didn’t do that hard enough or quick enough. Until I watch the film, I do think we had a lot of breakdowns, but some of it is not finishing the play. We get hit by a pick, our teammate helps us, but we don’t keep playing and rotate to take that person’s man. It’s the first one. We’ve only been practicing a couple of weeks, but we’ve got to clean it up in a hurry.

Reporter: Khady is the only newcomer to earn a starting spot today. Obviously her performance speaks for itself, but what were some of the things you saw from her leading up to today that earned her that trust to start?

Wes Moore: We’re going to mix the lineup up. I’ve already told them that. We’ve got a closed scrimmage and another exhibition game, and we’ll mix up who starts and who doesn’t. We’re still trying to figure all that out. To be honest, they’re all going to play, so I’m not real concerned about who starts and who doesn’t. I know they like to go out there, be introduced, do the dance, all that stuff. But we’re going to rotate people, and it’s going to be more about who’s in there at the end in a close game and who can earn that. Khady is super athletic. We saw her knock down two out of three threes. She’s worked hard on that this summer and early in the preseason, so it was good to see her have some success. Khamil knocked a three down too. We’re trying to help them extend their range, but our percentages were not very good. You’ve got to earn that green light. We’ve got to make sure we’re hitting a well enough percentage that you get to take those shots.

Reporter: It felt like you were moving the ball more around the perimeter as opposed to trying to make multiple paint touches before taking those threes. Do you feel like that maybe contributed?

Wes Moore: They went zone. That was another thing. Probably in the second quarter they went zone and we struggled against that a little bit. We haven’t spent a ton of time on zone, to be honest. That’s the thing about this early in the year—there may be things you haven’t really addressed as much as you should. We’ve tried to put a lot of stuff in, but none of it’s going to be perfected yet. Especially against the zone, we’ll have to spend a little more time on that. You’re right—we still want to put pressure on the defense, get in the gaps, get downhill, and attack. It seemed like when we attacked, we didn’t make good decisions. We either took a bad shot or got too deep and they were able to double us or tie us up. We’ve got to make better decisions and kick it a little sooner if they help and collapse. This film is going to be great. Hopefully we can learn from it and correct some things.

Reporter: What did you like seeing from Annsley out there in her first game?

Wes Moore: Annsley is going to play hard. Annsley is blue-collar. She’s going to get in there. She’s a freshman, so she’s going to make mistakes. You’re looking for effort, and I think she’s somebody who’s shown she may provide some depth and come in and help us.

Reporter: You’ve talked about how much better Khamil could be than she already is, including in the offseason. What does it mean to you that she had a great game and still had more to give?

Wes Moore: Khamil is so talented that she can put up numbers and still leave a little meat on the bone. She’s not the only one. We had a lot of players out there who maybe didn’t do the little things. It doesn’t show up in the box score much—boxing out, putting a body on somebody. We let Woodard go get 18 rebounds. That’s scary to think we let that happen against a mid-major program, and we’re going to see a whole lot tougher down the road. We’ve got to get them to buy into those things—playing hard on the defensive end. You can put up great numbers on the offensive end, but you can be giving up just as much on the other end, and it’s a wash. We don’t need it to be a wash. We need our great players to be head and shoulders better than their opponent. Film tomorrow morning is not going to be as much fun. I told them to check the ego at the door and come in ready to learn from not only your mistakes but your teammates’. We can all learn, and we’re going to have to do better. It’s going to keep getting tougher. Maybe we were nervous offensively. I hope we can get some of that cleaned up. Too many turnovers, too many tough bad decisions. Hopefully those are things we can fix.

Reporter: Do you expect to have Kamora in action against Wilmington?

Wes Moore: What’s that?

Reporter: Do you?

Wes Moore: Yeah, I hope so. She is progressing. She’s doing some things on the side and non-contact work. Hopefully we’ll get her back pretty quickly. She’s somebody who’s capable of shooting the three. She’s a freshman also, but she gives us some length and is able to shoot the three and knock it down. We’re anxious to get her back for sure.