ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 2, 2023

Megan Gebbia

Demeara Hinds

Elise Williams

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Postgame Press Conference

Wake Forest 65, Florida State 54.

MEGAN GEBBIA: Rough first half for us offensively. We talked to them early on about just kind of focusing on the defensive end. If we can't score, just try to get the stops we needed to get. And then we changed some things in the second half coming out defensively, and we talked about getting the ball inside. I think that really started off our offense is getting some lay-ups. Demeara hit a couple, and then things started to kind of roll from there. It was the first time I think all year that we were down by that many points and were able to come back and pull ahead.

Heck of a second half offensively for us and defensively. I think we held them, I think, 12 minutes without scoring. Credit these young ladies. I didn't sub a whole lot, either, so I know they're tired, but they're willing to fight through.

We just kept talking about them believing in themselves. I kept telling them that I believed in them and they were made for March, and just really excited about this win.

Q. What did you say at the half, and did you bottle that speech up for eternity?

MEGAN GEBBIA: We talked about how we were in the same situation at their place. We went into the locker room down 18, and we just didn't -- we came out in the third quarter at their place flat and wasn't able to score, and they just extended the lead.

I kept telling them that those things come back. It's like karma. If you didn't fix it then, it's going to come back to you at some point, and we needed to change our behavior and how we -- we rely so much on our shooting and our offense that it kind of brings you down defensively. But we said, this is your next test. We just saw this weeks ago, so how do we answer. And they did.

Q. I'm not sure you guys have checked social media yet, but the school, Wake Forest, just down the road is buzzing. Everyone is talking about this win right now. How does it feel not only to put Wake on notice about the team and the future of this program but also the ACC, kind of put the conference on notice?

DEMEARA HINDS: I feel like being in this conference, we don't kind of get the respect that we deserve in a lot of instances. And us just going out and fighting, even though we were down, never really giving up until the end of the game, kind of shows our perseverance and the type of team that we are. We're never going to stop playing or stop fighting until that buzzer sounds.

ELISE WILLIAMS: I'd say the same thing. It feels good. Makes people respect us. We don't got respect away, we don't get really much respect at home, either. This just pretty much feels great, makes people respect us more, which is something that we deserve, honestly.

Q. You mentioned the word "respect" and that you don't get much of it. Was that a chip on your shoulder coming here this week?

DEMEARA HINDS: I feel like it's always best to play with a chip on your shoulder, no matter what's happening. Even if you're up, you should always play with a chip on your shoulder because the underdog can always come and get you. They always consider us the underdog coming into a game, so I feel like playing with a chip on our shoulder has given us a better perspective going into games and that we have to fight no matter what.

MEGAN GEBBIA: I think with respect, it's earning and we've talked about that year and you earn it with Ws. You have to knock people off. And we were fighting in February, but it didn't really happen for us. I kept telling them, you're so close, you're so close. I'm tired of saying you're so close. And here we are.

Q. Speaking along the lines of being so close, we've seen so many times in college basketball in general, teams that get themselves into a big deficit, climb back, climb back, and can't get over the hump. Did that happen tonight? On the 26-0 run, was there a point when you realized we can do this, we can take this game?

MEGAN GEBBIA: I think Jewel banked a three. I think that was the one that got the lead. I think she hit three for the tie and I think she banked a three. And then I'm like, okay, here we go, she's ready, and that just gives everybody else opportunity.

DEMEARA HINDS: Yeah.

ELISE WILLIAMS: I just want to say, like Coach said, when Jewel gets going, she's like, come on, let's go! So we had no choice but to come on, let's go. We honestly just needed one thing in the third quarter, and I think a couple threes came out, and the ball got rolling.

Q. Coach, I watched your American teams in the Pat League tournament last year. This team kind of felt like it was having the same energy. How have you kind of instilled the culture in your first year to get to this point?

MEGAN GEBBIA: I mean, it's a work in progress all year. It started in the summertime just getting to know them as people and what their goals are. And their goals are the same as our goals, so we're obviously trying to head in the same direction and working towards that.

I think never once have they doubted what we've asked of them, and that's buy-in. You need buy-in early and they bought in early to what we were trying to do. And we've adjusted and we've moved forward and we've built this foundation defensively. And they know if they play good defense, they're going to have a chance.

And I think that's what you saw in the second half. They held them to 20 points in the second half. We needed to do that to win this game, and they did what we asked.

Q. To the point of what you guys were mentioning about Jewel earlier, in the fourth quarter when some of those fouls on the defensive side started coming in, you could tell she was bringing you in as a team to say calm down. How important is a leader like that keeping the team together?

DEMEARA HINDS: I would say it's very important to always have that head person that kind of keeps you steady and level-headed during those frazzled types of moments. Because at any point in time we could have all just given up and let Florida State come back because they weren't giving up, either.

I feel like Jewel really kind of settles us in and lets us kind of realize what's happening and look at the clock. We just need to run out the time and just take our time and play our style of basketball. We don't want to play anybody else's style but ours.

Q. In the first half when shots weren't falling, it seemed to me, and you may disagree, that you all were getting good looks but just shots weren't falling. What's the message to the team during moments like that? What does this win mean overall for this team and this program? Because clearly now you're going to finish with a .500 record or better and you should be able to get a WNIT bid?

MEGAN GEBBIA: What I said to the team in the huddle is just keep shooting, they're going to fall. Eventually they're going to fall, and don't let that dictate your defense. That's what I said to them. And then at the half, we talked again about that and then we came out and we got some lay-ups. Again, that just takes the pressure off the perimeter shot.

With this win, obviously it's huge for our program, but Wake has been here before. They've been to the quarterfinal round. For us, it's a huge win because it's a comeback win, but I think this is not the pinnacle for us. We want to keep going and take on Louisville tomorrow and do our best to try to compete with them.

I think it's big in the sense of how we did it. I think it's big because we've been behind a lot all year and we found a way to win. I think that's what makes this win huge at the right time. In the moment, we talked about getting to the WNIT and that we wanted our season to continue because of the growth that we've shown over the last few months. But again, the goal is not the WNIT.

Q. Elise, everybody chipped in, it seemed, in the run. Is that Jewel's energy that you're feeding off of, or were you and Demeara thinking, she did it, I can do this, too? What was the catalyst for this comeback?

ELISE WILLIAMS: I would say it's just a little bit of everything. We're making shots, and then people that are making shots are like, come on, pretty much telling other people they can do it, as well. So that gives other people confidence, and then when they start making shots, then pretty much everybody starts making shots, so it's just like a domino effect. When we start making shots, it's not the best thing in the world -- I mean, it's good -- but it also helps with our momentum and stuff and with people's confidence, as well, which is key, I think, especially during the tournament and stuff like that. Especially when we had the half like we did in the beginning, yeah, I think a little bit of everything kind of plays into that.

Q. Coach, you mentioned you want to go further, but you sort of hedged your comments in regard to Louisville. Does your attitude toward Louisville change dramatically or change even at all given what you did today and what your team showed it could do under the circumstances?

MEGAN GEBBIA: Well, I think we played Louisville at home earlier this year and won, so I know that they're going to be ready for revenge in that game. I know that.

But again, to me it's like -- it's about the game, it's about execution, it's about energy. I keep talking to these guys. They need to sleep and eat and stretch the best they can in order to compete. We're obviously at a deficit from that perspective just from an energy level. But the fact that we were able to play with them the first time should help them going into the game knowing that we can compete. It's whether or not we have enough for tomorrow.