No. 25 NC State defeated Campbell 80-45 on Wednesday night at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, securing the program’s 1,100th win and improving to 2-0 on the season. In his postgame press conference, head coach Wes Moore addressed the team’s slow start and areas that still need improvement, particularly post defense and early pick-and-roll coverage, while highlighting strong ball movement from the starting guards and productive performances from key players. He also looked ahead to Sunday’s matchup with Kentucky in Charlotte, discussed the value of the program’s growing senior leadership, reflected on the 1,100-win milestone, and outlined the defensive identity the Wolfpack are working to establish early in the season.

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Coach Wes Moore: Yeah, we had a little slow start at first. Probably midway through the first quarter into the second, we gave up 16 points in the first quarter, so that wasn’t great. But we were able to come back—open by seven in the second and six in the third. From that standpoint, I thought it was pretty good.

Our post defense needs some work, and we’re going to have a real test Sunday. We’ve got to figure some things out in a hurry. I did like the fact that our three starting guards—Dez, Kashi, and Zoe—all had five assists. That’s what you want out of those players. I love Zoe scoring, or whoever it is, but you also have to get everybody else involved. I thought they did a great job of that.

We also had trouble defending the pick-and-roll on the ball to start the game, so we had to switch that up. We’ve got a lot of stuff to figure out, but this is kind of what we wanted. We played a couple of exhibitions and a scrimmage, then these two games, and now we’re going to get a real big test. Kentucky’s a great team. Kenny Brooks does an awesome job—I’m very familiar with him. It’s a big challenge and a big opportunity. We’re excited about it.

Reporter: What do you like about [the player] in the first quarter? What did you like about bringing her in?

Coach Wes Moore: She gave us an offensive spark. I think that was a three—yeah, she knocked down a three. Four of what, six from the field? She did a lot of good things offensively. It was a bit uncharacteristic in other ways. She had four turnovers. Normally, she’s really good at making decisions and getting the ball where it needs to be. But I’m also looking at the defensive end. I thought she played like a freshman out there on defense—giving up too many easy buckets. When you’re undersized like she is, you have to make really good decisions on when to deny and keep the ball out of there, and when to just get behind and at least make them score over you. Hopefully we can get that fixed. We’re excited about her potential and what she’s been able to do.

Reporter: [Question regarding preparation for the next game.]

Coach Wes Moore: Yeah, real important. We’ll get tomorrow off because we played two games in three days—that was part of the plan. We get a day off here and then we’ll have two days to prepare for Kentucky. We’ve even sprinkled in some stuff the last week or two of practice, but we’ll have a couple of really good days to focus on them and go to Charlotte.

I can’t say enough about Ally and the sponsorship they provide for that event. It’s first class—the closest thing to a Final Four experience that you can get, I think. I appreciate the Charlotte Sports Committee, our foundation, and Ally for putting that event on and allowing us to be in it, because it’s special. Everyone in Charlotte, come out to the game. I’m hearing that David Thompson will be there, so we’re trying to see if we can figure out a way to get him on the court.

Reporter: Big game coming up. Last year was a big game. That’s kind of where I wouldn’t say we stubbed our toe. How enlightening is this game going to be?

Coach Wes Moore: I think it’s a big game. Even though we have a lot of new people, we do have some veterans, and I hope we can handle that. Last year we lost so many of these games in overtime or at the last second. Part of that’s on me—I have to make sure we’re prepared for those situations. But I do think last year we had zero seniors. This year we have seven seniors, so hopefully that makes a difference in those situations as well.

Reporter: [Player] didn’t shoot well in the first game. This game she was getting out on the break. Is that more what you want to see from her? And does the same apply to both of them?

Coach Wes Moore: I want all of them. Yeah, they use that speed really well. I want all of them to do it. We want to run. We want to be able to get out, score in transition, and really get some offense off our defense. But yeah, I agree. Like I said, Q had a really good game coming in. It’s tough—we’ve got really four guards essentially that could start, and I’m only going to start three of them. It’s tough, but I kind of just base it on who comes out and plays well, and it’ll probably rotate some. I was really proud of her being able to come in in that situation and play well.

Reporter: [Question regarding free-throw shooting.]

Coach Wes Moore: I think she’s worked on it extremely hard over the summer, and I think she’s capable. We didn’t shoot the ball great. Free throws drive me crazy. In practice, we try to hit 80% in every drill—every free-throw drill we do—and we do it. Then we get out here in the game and shoot 50%. I don’t know. Part of it is putting them under pressure, running if we don’t make it, which we do in the team setting. But maybe individually we have to do that a little bit more. Even Zoe, who’s a great free-throw shooter, has gotten off to a slow start from the line. We’ve got to figure that out because I know they’re better than that.

Reporter: You said you wanted to see more like this season. Are two 20-point double-doubles what you were looking for?

Coach Wes Moore: Yeah, I thought she had a really good, well-rounded game—obviously a double-double. Early in the game she just had a tough time finishing some of those shots, or she’d have even bigger numbers. We’re leaning heavily on Camille and on Zoe. Those are the two we lean on. But we’ve got to have some others step up. I’m a firm believer you have to have five people on the court that are a threat. Otherwise you’re going to be playing four against five. We have to understand Camille’s going to see some defense at times, like she did the other night in our opener. She had to give it up some because they tried to double her, and she did a great job of making some passes and we hit threes.

I use the analogy of a defensive lineman in football. You go out and get a whole bunch of sacks—what are people going to do? They’re going to start putting two people on you, chipping you, whatever, and somebody else is going to go get those sacks. Camille’s going to be a big factor for us no matter what the numbers are. But obviously we love seeing those kind of numbers from her.

Reporter: Seeing you against others. Is there anything surprising that stood out to you that maybe you weren’t expecting early on?

Coach Wes Moore: From Campbell or us?

Reporter: No, your team just.

Coach Wes Moore: We didn’t handle the pick-and-roll on the ball well early. We were trying some different things, so we’ve got to clean that up. Like I said, our post defense was bad. You’ve got to understand: either I get the ball or I at least wall up and make the player score over me. We didn’t do that—we gave up way too many layups. We’ve got to fix that in a hurry, maybe get more help from the weak side as well. Those are big things, but again, we’ll find out a whole lot come Sunday.

Reporter: Just nothing pleasant, nothing above expectations. You’re really pressing your luck, aren’t you?

Coach Wes Moore: Yeah, like I just said, we had three guards get five assists. That was beautiful. Camille got 21 points, made all her free throws, 11 rebounds. Yeah, like that. Q came in and did a great job off the bench. What else do you want? It’s like I’m at home and my wife is asking for more compliments. Give her some, right? All right, you happy? [Laughter.] That’s a good point. Yeah, I am happy. I just don’t always show it outwardly because I have so many other things I’m thinking about that aren’t happy. It’s a struggle up there and I ain’t got much room. I mean, it ain’t a whole lot up there.

Reporter: I have a question. The program’s 1,100 wins.

Coach Wes Moore: Yeah, great point. I think it says a lot of things. First of all, it says we have great support from our administration in women’s basketball at NC State. That’s why when I had the opportunity to come back here, it was a no-brainer, because I knew women’s basketball was important at NC State. And Stephanie Mo have both done a great job of providing us the resources we need to keep this as one of the top women’s programs in the country. But you have to give a whole lot of the credit to Kay Yow. She probably has over 700 of those wins out of 1,100, so she’s the one that kind of built this program and got it rolling.

I bet you guys know a whole lot about the players. We had Zia James here tonight. Great to see her back, fresh off her USA experience in three-on-three basketball. Couldn’t be prouder of her. Her first year or so she didn’t play a ton, but she didn’t go in the portal. She didn’t cry. She just busted her butt, worked hard every day, and boom—first-round draft pick. Love what she represents. So it’s great to have her here. And then all the coaches, assistant coaches—I’ve been very, very blessed. There’s a whole lot that went into it, but 1,100 puts us in the top 25 or so in the country all-time. That’s a pretty good place to be. Good company to be in.

Reporter: Speaking of defense, in your opener you guys had 14 turnovers and now tonight, 24 turnovers. Is this what you want your team to be known for, just stifling defense?

Coach Wes Moore: We’re going to have to be able to do that. I think we’ve got to create some offense off our defense. Like I said earlier, we’ve got to try to make people uncomfortable. To be honest, we’re not doing it for 40 minutes like I would like to see. We have sometimes three players, maybe even four players, up to nine passes and really being aggressive, and then if you’ve got one or two out there that aren’t, it’s not near as effective. We’re going to get a test Sunday because Kentucky’s going to look for some back doors. They’re going to look to take you off the bounce some. We’ve still got a whole lot of things to clean up.

But when you’re playing that kind of defense, you’ve got to really rely on your teammate to have your back. We’ve played now officially two games, and we’ve got 30-something—probably more—ahead of us. So it’s a work in progress, but yeah, that’s who we want to be. It’s really different from what we’ve done in the past, where we’ve played more what we call pack defense and we’re just trying to contain. Now we’re really extending ourselves. We’ll probably give up some easy buckets, but hopefully we can also create some. That’s why our guards each had five assists—we were able to get out and run and, for the most part, make good decisions.