ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 5, 2021

Emily Engstler

Syracuse Orange

Postgame Press Conference

Syracuse 68, Florida State 67

Q. Emily, in your last home game against NC State, before pregame you tried a three-point shot from half court, missed it, then tried another and sunk it. Do you practice that shot more than anybody else on the team?

EMILY ENGSTLER: No, not at all. I'm just really surprised you remember. That's funny because I brought it up to my manager after I made the shot. I was like, remember when I made that -- that was probably the one time I've ever made a half-court shot, not going to lie. I feel like with those kind of shots as a basketball player, you know those are predominantly luck, but you shoot it as best you can, like it's a regular shot, and sometimes they fall.

Q. Kind of following up on that, coach said after you hit that shot and he went over to you right afterwards and said, That's game. Just wondering how you reacted to that and can you just describe what that energy was like when you're going back to the bench after that shot?

EMILY ENGSTLER: Yeah, our bench really made that -- that play helped us a lot more than it even should have. It brought everybody energy. Coach Q was live, he was like, That's it, that's game. We were like, all right, I guess we won, we're going to win. I guess he just put the positivity in our heads, we all did, and he was like that was enough momentum to win us this game. Even when it kind of fell a little short, we were kind of like, we did way too much for us to lose this game now, so it just kept following us along as we played.

Q. It's kind of funny that shot falls in a game where almost none of your shots were falling for a while and then you make that one and then you tie it up. Can you talk about your own personal toughness and kind of the whole team's toughness after everything you guys faced today to win that game?

EMILY ENGSTLER: Yeah, that's my luck, right. I get the half-court shot but not the open lay-ups. No, but yeah, we really pushed through hard. Well, first of all, we don't have Tiana, so right there we're already without a bunch of subs, we're missing a bunch of people. Tiana is one of our best players, that hurts. Then we have another player, who we love, fall down and get really hurt and it was really sad to see her have to get taken off the court today. Coaches came up to us and they were like, Hey, if you're not here to win game for you, win it for Priscilla, if you're not here to win the game for you, win it Tiana, all that kind of stuff and I was just like, Yeah, we've got to win this game.

It was tough because I definitely think there were times where I looked down and I was like, Man, we're down by a bunch. But we all really kept our head in the game. I'm proud of my Maya, I'm proud of my Ava, everybody stepped up who needs to step up and that just proves that all of us are really great basketball players and this is why we can win games like this.

Q. You told me last game you're ready for some revenge on Florida State. Just a little bit on that. How do you feel now?

EMILY ENGSTLER: Well, first of all, yes, I wanted revenge because we lost the last game, and then we find out about the media situation, about the coaches and how she kind of called us out a little bit and we took that very personal. I mean, she didn't just disrespect us, she disrespected Coach Q, saying that he doesn't know how to control us or whatever the situation was, saying that we were laughing before a game, and it was just disrespectful. And even when we were down that's all I thought about. He came to the locker room, he brought it up and it felt so personal. And not a lot of things always feel personal that he might take personal, but that one did. And the whole game, every game, every shot that was taken, every missed rebound, I was like, Nah, we can't lose this game to this coach. I felt personally attacked, I know my team did, and I think that was something else that kept us clawing our way throughout the game, and hopefully they never forget that.

Q. When you look at a player like Kamilla Cardoso and everything she's endured this season with her highs and more recently with her lows, what do you think about that shot that she made?

EMILY ENGSTLER: I think Kamilla is a wonderful basketball player and she's very young, and she has a lot to learn, and that sometimes when her low days come in, it's harder for a freshman to just figure out how to turn that around. If we can just sit there and -- you also have a girl who's not from here. She misses her family and stuff like that. There's a lot of things that tie in to a player like Kamilla. I know she's been struggling a little bit, but even her struggle days aren't really struggle days, when you think about it, they're good games, they just -- we put here at a higher standard, because she's a really good basketball player. She took those days and she put them behind her. Not a lot of 18-year-old basketball players who are freshmen in the ACC can do that. I'm really proud of her. She told us the whole game, Rebound, rebound, and I'm not going to lie, I didn't get many rebounds today, I had trouble crashing and in my head I was like, she really deserved that, because she was really one of the players who just kept crashing, and when you do hard work, I think good things happen.

Q. You talked yesterday about getting revenge on Florida State, now tomorrow you get a chance at Louisville. What's the mindset after such an emotional game?

EMILY ENGSTLER: Yeah, this is definitely a good pump start for tomorrow's game against Louisville. Yeah, we didn't get to play them twice, which we really hoped we could, now we're at a neutral setting. Louisville is a very good basketball team. They have a good coach. They have good basketball players. No disrespect to them, I wish them luck in the game, but I really do hope we can go out and we can win that basketball game. Because I think we're a really good basketball team. I think we can beat a Louisville. And I don't think it's by luck, I think it's by hard work and just coming out and making shots, and, hey, we're not even -- we don't need to use the excuse that there's six of us because look at how we're playing. We're playing like we have a 20-person roster. We're doing so well. We're not getting tired. We have girls playing 40 minutes and still pushing through.

I'm just really proud of my team and I think we can go out tomorrow and beat Louisville.

Q. Down the stretch I know Maeva hit a three, I think she hit two free throws as well and then Q drew up a play for her with 15 seconds left. A little bit unexpected to have Maeva taking a three with 15 seconds, but what was her role down the stretch and how did that develop?

EMILY ENGSTLER: To us it wasn't really unexpected because she's actually a very good three-point shooter. I know she doesn't average as many minutes, so maybe to media it's a little different. But she proved herself with that big three and I think he drew up a good play with a good basketball player.

Maybe we didn't necessarily need a three, but anyway it worked out in our favor. She's just a good attacker. I think Maeva locked in today. Even when I was down she looked at me she was like, Bring your head up. She wasn't messing around. Maeva was locked in and ready to go, and -- exactly, for another player like Maeva, someone who might not play 30 minutes a game, who plays maybe seven or eight, to come in and take a role, like 30 minutes, and throw away all those seven-minute games and just ball out, it's really good. I always talk up Maeva, she's a really good, crafty basketball player who's extremely versatile. I'm really proud of the way she played today. She stepped up.