ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 7, 2021

Elissa Cunane

NC State Wolfpack

Postgame Press Conference

NC State 58, Louisville 56

Q. Elissa, they were being very physical with you, especially in the third quarter, and it looked like you got a little bit frustrated. What changed for you in the fourth quarter? Was it just a matter of saying this is it, I've got to be a little stronger and let's go win this thing?

ELISSA CUNANE: Yeah, definitely a little energy kicked in. They were trying to be physical with me so I had to be physical back, and when teams are fouling a lot just got to be smarter on my end to not get any silly fours and just power it up.

Q. What does it mean to have Raina on this team who didn't know what it was like to win one of these things?

ELISSA CUNANE: It's huge. Everybody knows that. She came to NC State to win an ACC championship, so all throughout this year she's given us everything she's got and more. She's just stepped into this role and she's done amazing, and you can see that today. She wanted to come here to win an ACC championships, so that's what she did.

Q. Can you just discuss the feeling of winning back to back ACC championships?

ELISSA CUNANE: It's amazing to win back to back. It's tough in this league. Winning once was hard. Winning twice was harder. Especially through this season with COVID and everything, like it's just amazing to be able to be on top again.

Last March it's like when everything went crazy, so to have basketball consistent, have ACC championship consistent is huge. It's a huge thing for us.

Q. I know that Ais Konig is somebody who meant a lot to all of you guys and to this program. What does it mean to you to follow in her footsteps as ACC Tournament MVP?

ELISSA CUNANE: Yeah, Ais is one of my best friends, so it's huge. She's winning championships in Switzerland. To follow in her footsteps and just like the legacy she created, the way she left this team, it's huge. I can only thank my teammates and coaches. I wouldn't be here would you say them.

Q. Obviously you probably admit your team maybe didn't play its best offense three games but you were able to grind it out. What does that say about this team going into the tournament?

ELISSA CUNANE: Yeah, we definitely didn't shoot it well all tournament long, so being able to win the tournament, and especially against a top-5 team not playing at our peak, it talks a lot about our defense and how well we did getting stops on defense.

But the best is yet to come. I don't feel like we've played our best game yet, so hopefully comes out in the NCAA Tournament.

Q. You mentioned earlier about how opponents have been trying to get physical with you. I was looking at the numbers and you got to the line 24 times in this tournament. You made 20 of them, which is pretty good. Have you at some point just sort of embraced the contact and sort of when you go into the hole looking for the contact sometimes and if you don't make it, Hey, I'm going to go to the free-throw line anyway?

ELISSA CUNANE: Yeah, a hundred percent. I know teams just can't guard me so they've got to foul me. That's the end of it. I have some height against some people that I'm playing against, and a lot of times other teams have a couple subs in the post so they're going to just use all their fouls they can to stop us, but it hurts them when we have our outside and inside game.

Q. How important was it to get those nine rebounds and weather the storm against Louisville?

ELISSA CUNANE: It was huge, especially being there to grab the rebounds. Defense is what we focused in on all tournament, so to be able to get stops and push it in transition, that's been our go-to this season. So to be able to get rebounds and get out and push it has been our key to our game.

Q. Back to back champions for you guys. Obviously when people look at it it's like, Oh, NC State won back to back championships, but it's a lot harder than that. What did it take for you guys this season to get back to this point and how much of an emphasis was it because you were on that high last year and never got to finish your business in the NCAA Tournament?

ELISSA CUNANE: Yeah, you know, coming off last year's win, we knew it took literally everything in us, so after last season ended we knew we still had more fight in us. Coming back to Greensboro, stepping on this court, I told the team before the game, This is our court now. We have to defend this court.

So coming back and being able to win it, it's huge. Throughout this season we've had so much adversity, just like everyone else in the league, everyone else in the country playing basketball and living right now. It's just been so tough with COVID.

For our team to stick together to pull it out, and honestly shout out to the ACC for our season being here and for there being a tournament. We had fans in the stadium. I'm just really grateful for this moment, and winning makes it even better.