NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - FLORIDA GULF COAST VS WASHINGTON STATE

March 18, 2023

Karl Smesko

Tishara Morehouse

Kierra Adams

Sha Carter

Finneran Pavilion

Florida Gulf Coast Eagles

Media Conference

Florida Gulf Coast - 74, Washington State - 63

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from Coach, and then we'll go to questions for the student-athletes.

KARL SMESKO: Just a great win. We beat a great team. I think the difference in the game was our third quarter. We knocked down a bunch of threes. We had a number of players step up when they had their opportunities.

Kiki came up huge for us today. I thought we had a really good defensive effort, tried to limit touches for their best player. Overall, it was a really good game, and I'm proud of our team.

Q. For any of the players, like you said, it was noted the third quarter was the difference. What did you start to do differently or do more effectively in that quarter to put the game away. And more to the point -- well, answer that one first.

KIERRA ADAMS: I think that we were talking a lot on defense, that's something that we really emphasized, and started making plays, we started hitting our shots, and that fired up the team. So we were ready to keep pushing.

Q. What did you think when Maddie hit that three, that floor bounce?

KIERRA ADAMS: Crazy. It was electric for sure.

Q. What did you think of that?

SHA CARTER: I thought that pretty much summed it up for us in the third quarter. Our defense was on fire. We were being rewarded on the offensive end. And Maddie Antenucci came to life. She definitely lived up to her name of landing threes, and that ball was bouncing, it was one of those -- then when it hit, you could just feel the electricity in there.

Q. This is now your second NCAA Tournament victory. You and your teams have now contributed 2 of the 4 in program history. How great does that feel for you?

TISHARA MOREHOUSE: Man, it feels good to just be part of history. Just I can always look back and go, yeah, we did that. It's just so amazing that we all came out ready, ready to win.

Last press conference, we were just saying the same thing, like we play with pace and we played as a team, and we came out with the W.

Q. Kierra, that 12 points is a season high. I'm pretty sure a career high.

KIERRA ADAMS: Yes.

Q. I haven't double-checked that. But what was working today, and how great does that feel to be able to do it on the biggest stage?

KIERRA ADAMS: Yeah, Coach always says be ready. You never know when it's going to be your moment. So I was ready, and my teammates created space for me, and I was able to do what I do. So it's everything with my teammates.

Q. Sha, we talked about it, going from D-II to D-I, and now you get a big victory in the first round and now you're moving forward. What do you think this team can accomplish at the end of the day?

SHA CARTER: The sky's the limit. We are just who we are. We try not to be anybody else but FGCU. We stay connected. Coach is always pushing us and challenging us to be the best version of ourselves, and it trickles down to each other, building each other up.

Like I said in those moments, basketball is a game of runs. Not only did we not let affect us in a negative way, we came together and came out much stronger, and the third quarter was the proof of that.

Q. I saw you dancing pregame. All of you guys were just vibing in the warmups. How was team morale? Can you explain a little bit of this entire day? What has this experience been like for you?

SHA CARTER: It's been outstanding. These definitely are those kind of pressure situations. We didn't want to let it affect us, get too much in our head, too many nerves. We were dancing, music was great, having a great time in warmups.

As you could see, it was all smiles, all happiness. It translated to the court. So we're making plays, we're hitting shots, we're making steals, and the energy was just contagious left to right.

Q. Congrats, guys. Whenever you walk out on the court, you see the size from Washington State. I mean, they are enormous. You've got a bunch of 6'5" girls. You guys didn't seem fazed, though. Obviously with the way it panned out, you guys dominated them. You guys were the bigger team. How did you do that, and how did you not, I don't know, let them make you nervous?

TISHARA MOREHOUSE: I would say we just followed the game plan. Coach made that known in the beginning, but it was really our tenacity. We came out hard and ready to play. So I would say that's really what it took.

KIERRA ADAMS: I agree.

Q. When you look at Kierra coming through, it's part and parcel of how this program works where everyone whose number is called steps up. What is that? What is it about this program that allows that to happen so consistently during your time here?

TISHARA MOREHOUSE: We're just giving each other confidence. Kiki was able to see her space today, and it really helped us a lot, a lot, a lot. I just love that for her and for Maddie that they were able to step up.

Like she said before, when Coach says when it's your time, it's your time. She had a lot of opportunities, and she took advantage of it, and I love that.

Q. Question for any player. Coach often brags about his dancing over the course of the year. What song was playing in the post-game, and how effective was his dancing?

SHA CARTER: I'm going to say he did better.

KIERRA ADAMS: He did better today.

SHA CARTER: He was busting out a couple moves, back was a little less stiff. But he definitely matches our energy. He can work on it, though, but it was better today.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, we can excuse you.

Q. I'll just piggy-back off of that, and then I have a non-dancing question. What was the song post-game, and do you feel they accurately characterized it?

KARL SMESKO: Yeah, they did. It was Iron Maiden, the Trooper. I'm a big Iron Maiden fan, heavy metal fan from the '80s, and I walked in there, and they had my jams going. So I appreciated that.

Q. And a basketball question, if that's okay.

KARL SMESKO: Of course.

Q. The fact that you guys are just consistently, seemingly under seeded, and Kamie talked about this, and everybody seems to talk about it every year, and then you come in and you prove it year after year. Do you think there needs to be an understanding from the committee that what you guys are doing is beyond what is being recognized on a year in and year out basis?

KARL SMESKO: Well, it will be interesting to see how many programs have as many wins as a 12 seed as we do. But it's kind of a function of the structure, and it's working just the way they want it to. Like if you can't get a lot of quad 1 teams to play you, then the committee can go together and say, well, you don't have quad 1 wins, and now we can seed you wherever we want you.

So some things are out of our control. We can't control who will play us. We can ask everybody, but they're entitled to say no. And who we do play, we have to play well and win and give ourselves an opportunity. A lot of times we have to win our conference tournament just to get an opportunity to be in this tournament.

We just have to make the most of it. Whoever they put us against, we feel like we have a good opportunity to win. Washington State, they're a great team. They just won the Pac-12 tournament championship. If we are indeed under seeded, it's not fair to them either.

Who knows? I'm not expecting any changes. So we're just going to try to schedule the best we can, hopefully do well, and we know when we get to the NCAA Tournament, we have a team that's capable of winning.

Q. Coach, third quarter was the big difference. From your standpoint, what did you see, and what changed from that second to third quarter?

KARL SMESKO: Well, we didn't change much. I mean, we went into the locker room, and we just talked about we had like a four-minute stretch in the second quarter where we didn't play well. And we thought, if we just played the way we were playing the rest of that half, that we would have a great chance of winning.

Two people that haven't got mentioned because they didn't maybe score a lot of points, but Alyza Winston and Emma List did an amazing job on their leading scorer. Like she scored a backdoor basket, I think it was on the very first possession, and they were able -- I think she finished with five for the whole game. And she's really good. I mean, she's a WNBA level player.

Those two just gave outstanding effort to limit how many times she got good looks at the basket. And obviously there was a time there where we were -- Kix was getting downhill on ball screens -- that's Kierra Adams, Kiki -- and Nucci was getting open and knocking them down, and she was catching and ready to shoot. That's production off the bench. When you have that, you have a chance to have an explosive quarter.

We have a team that can be explosive, and I think we scored about 30 in the third, and that gave us a little bit of cushion going into the fourth. And we were able to kind of maintain it throughout.

Q. I saw post-game you went up into the stands to kind of celebrate a little bit with the fans. What was that experience like? And how great is it to be able to see Southwest Florida faithful still up here in Philadelphia rooting you on?

KARL SMESKO: It was great to see so many people up there, those FGCU fans. I was up there celebrating with my partner who came to the game. She's a big part of this and why we're so successful.

And then my family was able to make it to the game. I wasn't sure they were all going to be able to make it. So my brothers, nephews, and my dad was able to make the trip. That just makes it extra special to me.

Q. Then this is your back-to-back years, two of your four program victories coming in consecutive years. What do you think that says to the entire country that you have had such sustained success and now you're doing it at the national level as well?

KARL SMESKO: Well, I'm not sure what it says to the entire country because we get a lot of respect nationally, just not with the seedings. Every other thing we get a lot of respect, whether it be the coaches poll, the mid-major poll, anything like that. Any time these brackets come out, a lot of people predict us to win.

It's not like people are super surprised. So I don't know what it says nationally other than we are a very competitive program. We have a lot of great players on our team. And we look forward to these challenges every year.