ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 3, 2022

Nell Fortner

Lotta-Maj Lahtinen

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Postgame Press Conference

Georgia Tech 45, Wake Forest 40

NELL FORTNER: It's always good to get that first tournament win, so we're really excited about that. It was a hard-fought battle. Probably wasn't the prettiest basketball people have watched before, but a win is a win, so we'll take that and move on.

I don't know the status of Lorela Cubaj. I'm sure that's the hot question, so I'll just go ahead and address it right now. We do not know.

She's fine, so it's just a matter of her going through some protocols to make sure that she can play tomorrow, so we'll know more about that tomorrow. But we'll take the win.

Q. Coach, what was it about the Wake Forest zone that kind of gave your team a little bit of fits tonight with all the turnovers? That's kind of what kept them within contact.

NELL FORTNER: Yeah, I think the first thing that happened was we lost Cubaj, and that's a lot to overcome. We're used to playing with her. It doesn't matter what defense we go against, she attracts a lot of attention. That opens other things up.

Not only does she attract attention, she's a really smart player, so she's able to just do some things within our offense to draw attention.

You know, there was an adjustment period for all of our kids to have to adjust without her on the floor. We don't play without her very often, so there was a period of time we had to adjust.

I'm really proud of how we fought through some tough times. Like I said, it wasn't always pretty, but these kids fought hard. I thought Aixa Wone Aranaz played really well, came in and held her own in there. And Maj has done a phenomenal job all year leading this team, and she has a lot on her plate. She had a lot on her plate tonight, and I'm looking forward to seeing her play tomorrow and seeing what she's got on that plate tomorrow.

Q. Another person who attracts a lot of attention is Jewel Spear. What did you do to slow her down and make her have a rough time?

NELL FORTNER: What did she end up with? I didn't even look. She ended up with 11. Let me tell you, that's one of the best players in our conference. She's kind of beat up right now. I feel for her. End of the season, boy, she's beat up and she's playing as hard as she can, but she's still really hard to guard. She's crafty. She's really good with the ball in her hand or not in her hand. That kid just works so hard to get her shots.

Holding her to 11 points, that's a victory right there. She's always the one scoring big points for them, so I thought we did a good enough job on her.

Q. Question for each of you. You spoke about defensive intensity the other day. That was on display today. What can you say about your team's defense? And for Lotta-Maj, when you had Cubaj come out, how were you able to handle that at the end and kind of lead your team and have that moment you had at the end of the game?

LOTTA-MAJ LAHTINEN: Echoing what Coach said, Cubaj is a really big part of both our defensive and offensive end. I think at that point our bench had to step up, and I think they stepped up, so I'm really proud of the whole team, how we handled that. Of course we were worried if she's okay, but in the middle of the game you just have to focus on the next situation and focus on the next stop or the next offense. That's what we had to do.

So yeah, it changed our game a little bit, but we had to fight through it and be gritty, and I'm really proud of everybody who stepped on the court at that point and even before.

NELL FORTNER: I thought our defense, it was pretty on point for most of the night. Holding them to 21 percent, I can't argue with that. We gave up way too many offensive rebounds, and that's a problem. There has to be more of a focus on keeping them off their O-boards, but again, without Cubaj in the game, she usually cleans the boards up for us. And you can see how we're used to her cleaning the boards up. Our boxing out technique was not there because normally she just grabs them all.

So that's something that we've got to get really back on point with tomorrow to make sure that we keep Notre Dame off the boards.

Q. Maybe an unfair question not knowing exactly what you'll have tomorrow to play with, but what are your thoughts on what you have to do against Notre Dame now?

NELL FORTNER: Well, we played them really good in Atlanta, took them to overtime and really had a chance to win the game, so I felt like we did some really good things against them. We got down and fought our way back and took it to overtime, and so we'll go back and look at that and see once again how we can best defend them because, man, they've got shooters all over the place. And the point guard Olivia Miles is one of the best guards in -- not just our conference but in the country at such a young age. She's excellent.

So we've got our work cut out for us, but I thought we did a really good job against them in Atlanta, and we'll use that and take that with us into this next game.