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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2019

Greensboro, North Carolina

Syracuse - 92, Miami - 85

THE MODERATOR: We now have Miami, head coach Katie Meier and student-athletes Emese Hof and Beatrice Mompremier.

COACH MEIER: A lot of talent on that basketball court today. I mean, that had to be amazing to watch. Huge credit to Syracuse. Tiana, my God, like that was a performance for the ages. She's responsible for probably, what is that, 50 to 60 points of their 90.

And we know that. So here's a credit to her. We know that. That was the entire game plan. We had 17 different schemes. And she still just controlled the entire game.

And I think the game -- as a coach, you don't take a lead in that game and then not win it. So that's -- it's bitter for us because we did a ton, a ton of adjustments and the team was responding to every single one of them, not just in the first half but definitely in the second half. They responded and played with courage and executed the game plan and made timely shots and everything.

Then it came down to Miranda Drummond and Kelsey Marshall. It did. Miranda Drummond comes down and hits two 3s. And we get two for Kelsey, and she misses them. There's the game.

I'm not saying Miranda won the game and Kelsey lost the game. But in a game like that -- two wide-open 3s by your best shooters, right? Kelsey Marshall's a great 3-point shooter and Miranda Drummond is a great 3-point shooter. And if that goes 2-for-2 for Miami, 0-for-2 for Syracuse we win. And that was a huge moment.

I'm disappointed because we left the reservation a little bit. What got us the comeback and what got us the lead we didn't do enough in the last four minutes. So I'm disappointed in my team's response there and lack of a possession awareness. But hopefully we'll live to play another day and take that lesson and learn from it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Coach, I guess particularly talk about when Syracuse shoots 3-pointers like this, how difficult that is. And how does a game like this prepare you going into the NCAA Tournament?
COACH MEIER: You know, you get that draw. We've gotten the draw a lot where we find a team that is reliant on the 3. We've got our double big coming up -- I'm sorry, but let me talk about how amazing these two were. I mean, my God, just warriors. And smart. And moving off of each other and playing off each other.

I will answer your question. But there's no way I'm not going to get up here and tell each of you how much I love you and how proud I am of you and how unbelievable that performance was. It was amazing.

The question being, the second half, Syracuse we can withstand. I think we did some stuff to break the rhythm. There was four inches of a basketball game in the first half that we gave to Syracuse. That's four inches on a 3-point shooting team. We did not have enough urgency for that last four inches of our closeout.

So they made them. And in the second half I was screaming about four inches. It was -- I mean I wanted to fly a plane with a banner that said "Take those four inches, Miami," because once we took those four inches away, they were human and not superhuman.

Q. If both players could answer this: Obviously you guys have had a great season so far. And it's not over yet. But, in particular, what the two of you are looking for in terms of going to the NCAA Tournament. You don't know who you're going to play yet, but you know you can play with the best teams in the country. How confident do you guys feel like you guys can make a run in the NCAA Tournament?
EMESE HOF: I think we are confident. But we need to work on a lot to be able to pull that off. No one can relax. And we see that today. You're probably going to face a team like Syracuse. And like for me and Bea, that's adjusting -- because like one of us -- usually Bea, sorry -- has to defend on the perimeter. And that's different play-style. And, too, post we just defend down low. However, I am confident we can make a run in the tournament. And it's all we've got left.

BEATRICE MOMPREMIER: Just going out there and competing, focus on what we have in front of us instead of moving on to the next game, just going out there and competing.

COACH MEIER: Did I give enough credit to Syracuse? What a performance. I'm going to hang my head because I think there's some things we could have controlled, including offensive rebounds in the last three minutes of that game. But my God, you've got the Tiana thing you've got to solve and all of a sudden Strautmane steps up and then Drummond starts hitting. And then the offensive rebounds by Maeva. Three offensive rebounds. So they're very, very good.

This should not make Miami seem what's wrong with Miami. We've lost to NC State, who is very, very good. And Syracuse is very, very good. And we generated opportunities that we could have been on the other side of that.

We're not rocked, but I do think in times like this, sometimes the losing team doesn't give enough credit to the winning team. And I'm -- all hail Syracuse; they're good. So is Miami.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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