ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 5, 2021

Gina Conti

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Postgame Press Conference

Louisville 65, Wake Forest 53

Q. Gina, they made their big run there with Evans on the bench. Were you surprised at that, that they were able to take the lead and hold you guys off there I guess with about six minutes to go?

GINA CONTI: No, I mean, Louisville, they're a great team. They're going to make their runs, and we just had to be ready to defend. We stuck with them through the whole entire game and I thought we could have had more push in the fourth quarter. But as a team I thought we fought and we played our hearts out.

Q. What led to Van Lith getting so open so many times and killing you all with the three ball?

GINA CONTI: Yeah, I think when we got back in transition we got back and we didn't really find her, so she had some transition threes, and that was just communication that we needed to work on and tighten up. We got back in trans, but we didn't find Hailey Van Lith and she got hot.

Q. Is the plan to just wait for the NCAAs? Will you practice before then or how does that go?

GINA CONTI: Yeah, we're preparing as if we're in. We're going to come back, get back right to it once get back to Winston-Salem, practice, and we're all super excited, so...

Q. Do you think staying close in this ball game for most of this ball game further proves that you guys deserve to be in the tournament?

GINA CONTI: Yeah, for sure. I think there's no doubt that we should be in the tournament. I think we proved it throughout our season and also in the ACC Tournament, having the win over UNC and also playing Louisville to the wire. I definitely think -- they're both great teams, so I think it says a lot for us, too.

Q. What's it like going head to head against Dana Evans? Her shot wasn't going early, but she found ways to get her teammates involved and obviously played aggressive defense on you at times.

GINA CONTI: Yeah, Dana Evans, she's a great player. I think she didn't have her shot falling but she got her teammates involved, and yeah, she's a great defender, as well. I think we were able to get offense, move the ball more and then also push in transition some.

Q. Did they find Jewel Spear a little bit more tonight than what UNC found her yesterday?

GINA CONTI: Yeah, I think they definitely like recognized Jewel even more because of the UNC game. I just think it opened up more for the other players on our team and Jewel was able to get the ball, still find her shot and also look inside or kick the ball around.

Q. How much did you guys discuss in advance the goal of maybe limiting their free throws and limiting the fouls you committed, because you guys were excellent on that side of the stat sheet?

GINA CONTI: Right, Coach always said they're going to try to get in the paint but we've got to play straight up. Don't bail them out with any fouls. They're going to attack, but we can't bail them out, so if we play straight up and get the rebound and that way we can push down in trans. I think we locked into that, I think we ended up having 23 free throws on the other end, so our emphasis also was getting downhill and going up strong to finish and if not, dump passes and play inside out.