ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 5, 2025

Amaka Agugua-Hamilton

Breona Hurd

Latasha Lattimore

Virginia Cavaliers

Postgame Press Conference

Virginia 64, Pitt 50

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: Very proud of our group. I thought it was a great team effort. That first game is always about getting settled in the tournament, getting the jitters out, so I was really happy to see us do that.

Pitt did a good job of trying to junk the game up and changing defenses, even in the middle of the possession, things like that. We just stayed poised. We had some really good performances, some key breakout games. But overall as a team, I'm just proud of our effort.

Q. Latasha, in the first half you had rebounds, blocks and steals. You had not scored. What did you do in the second half to get going at that end of the court?

LATASHA LATTIMORE: To be honest, I always come into a game and I tell myself, if I'm not doing one thing that I'm good at, which I'm pretty good at scoring, if I'm not doing that, then I always look towards doing something else for my team that's really important, so rebounding, playing defense.

Coming into this game we knew 15 was a big factor for Pitt, so just when I came in, just as much blocks as I could get, as much steals as I could get.

Second half, Coach Mox came to me, it's always a thing and goes, you need to get going, you need to pick it up. It's easy for you.

The little things like even going to the free-throw line, I know I didn't make a lot, but those things were the start of what kind of got me going. Just playing defense and knowing that it's going to come to me and not forcing it to come.

Q. Coach, you talked about it a little bit, kind of getting settled in the tournament. Obviously last year you got upset in the first round. Was that in your head at all or was it new season, new slate?

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: It wasn't in our head, no, but it was just controlling our own destiny. We're trying to play for something right now, trying to get into postseason, play our way into the NCAA Tournament. We have big goals. Obviously take it one game at a time. It wasn't in our head. It was understood.

I referenced it one time because you just can't -- every game is going to be a close game; every game is going to be a dogfight in March, period.

So we can't think, oh, we beat somebody before; it's going to be easy. We referenced that because that's what happened to us in the past. Beat a team, then they beat us here.

But it wasn't in our head at all. We were just working on controlling our own destiny, being urgent in our play, and competing at a high level.

Q. Coach and then Breona, can you talk about coming out with a 1-3-1 and that particular strategy for Pitt considering No. 15? And Breona, you're an outlet bringing the ball up now, so can you speak to your comfort level bringing the ball up the court?

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: We'll get to that one in a second. But yeah, I think they were playing a bunch of different defenses. They were going 2-3, and then as soon as I would call a defense that put us in a 1-3-1 set, they were going 1-3-1.

So we could switch our set to a two-guard front, so kind of a lot happening in each possession when they were trying to junk it up like that, and our players did a good job of adjusting. We were getting the shots we wanted.

Early in the game I think it was a little bit of nerves. We were missing a lot of open shots, things like that. Once we settled in we were fine. We understood what they were trying to do, change the zone in the middle of the possession, so I just told our players, we've just got to be calm, listen for the call, get to your spots in time to execute the play. We did a really good job of that.

Then Bre, I mean, Bre can handle the ball. That's why she brings it in transition. And she has one speed, and it's fast. Just planning for the -- I wanted to get Mo out earlier and P and some of these that are playing 40 minutes just planning for the next game, obviously, but making sure we close out this game.

So that's why it happened later on, because Pitt was making it a game. When I finally was able to take Mo and P out, Bre was the one that had to bring the ball up the court and be the one. She told me in the locker room, never again. But it'll be again.

BREONA HURD: In high school I dribbled the ball up the court a lot, so I'm pretty much comfortable with it. It's just the speed thing that I have a problem with. I don't really know how to slow down. It's just 100 miles an hour.

But I --

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: She's a first year. She'll get there.

BREONA HURD: I'm pretty comfortable with it. I like to dribble up the court and find my other teammates wide open.

Q. Coach, do you have an update on Olivia?

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: As of right now, I'm pretty sure everybody is going to be available for tomorrow.

Q. You have seen Cal once already this season, not that long ago. It was a close game; went down to the end. What will be the key tomorrow night against them?

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: Yeah, I mean, that game at our place, we lost by three, I believe, and we did a lot of things wrong in that game. But we did compete. So we understand there's room to grow. So we're going to get back and watch the film with the players.

The key is they don't really -- they don't go deep really. They play five or six. We both kind of play the same amount of people. So the key is obviously competing. That's something that we talked about this year, and we were inconsistent at times this year.

So competing for 40 minutes. But then also they got a dominant post player inside that requires a double-team just like Pitt did, and they have shooters everywhere. We've got to understand it's going to take multiple effort plays to guard them, and we've just got to execute our offense.

Q. Faye had a big game for Pitt against you in the regular season. She was 3 for 19 today. What was the strategy? You mentioned double-teaming. Did you do anything differently this time than when you played them in the regular season?

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: Yeah, so we doubled her both times, but when we were doubling her at their place she was splitting our double-teams. We weren't tight enough. So we were coming in with the wrong angle. So today we were coming with a different angle to close it, so when she tried to split it, she's going to shoot it right into us, like right into our chest. So I thought we did a really good job of making her take some tough shots. She got frustrated early. She still finished with a double-double, but that's a first-team all-conference kid. She's very good. I thought we did a good job, given the type of talent that she is.