ASHEVILLE CHAMPIONSHIP

November 12, 2021

Mitch Henderson

Jaelin Llewellyn

Tosan Evbuomwan

Princeton Tigers

Harrah's Cherokee Center

Press Conference

Princeton - 66, South Carolina - 62

THE MODERATOR: Good evening, and welcome to the Asheville Championship. We will start with opening comments from Coach, followed by questions for players, then we will end the press conference with questions for coach.

Coach, over to you for opening comments.

MITCH HENDERSON: I'm, first, very happy for the guys. We've been dealing with the question of not having played a game in 600 and however many days for a long time. It just kept coming up, and they have to answer that all the time, and it wasn't their choice, so glad we can talk about something else.

These guys were just terrific. South Carolina puts a ton of pressure on you, and we coughed the ball up a lot. They got a lot of offensive rebounds, but I thought we hung tough and came up with some really big plays when we needed it.

We're just absolutely thrilled. This is a terrific tournament, and we're happy to be here now. And I'm very pleased with the win. I think that's a good team.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Questions for Jaelin or Tosan?

Q. Just for both of you, what did you see from South Carolina, and did you anticipate them to shoot as many threes as they did tonight given the fact that they weren't making them early?

JAELIN LLEWELLYN: I think we knew that they were going to pressure us a lot, and I think we prepared for that, although we did turn over the ball a lot, but I think, like Coach said, we hung tough and stuck through it. They did shoot a lot of threes, but I think we did a good job rebounding as well, and it came from toughness from all the way down the line. Yeah, it was good.

TOSAN EVBUOMWAN: I think we did a good job of just staying with it, and being kind of prepared for anything. Coach did a good job preparing us for the game, so allowed us to -- whatever came up, we were ready for it.

Q. For both of you guys, your coach was just talking about how long y'all waited in the program to be able to play again. I mean, what does it mean to be able to participate in a tournament like this, to be able to play and just have normal basketball back?

JAELIN LLEWELLYN: It's unbelievable. Sitting at home for 600 some days, it's been crazy watching everybody else play, but just being here at this tournament is just -- I'm so grateful right now. It goes all the way down the line with the team. We're just so glad to be here, and it feels even better to get a win. Yeah.

TOSAN EVBUOMWAN: Just so thankful to be here. About time we played another game, so just thankful and happy to get the win, of course.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Jaelin, Tosan. Next we'll take questions for Coach. Any questions? All right, then. Coach, thank you for your time.