ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 1, 2023

Lance White

Dayshanette Harris

Amber Brown

Pittsburgh Panthers

Postgame Press Conference

Clemson 71, Pitt 53

LANCE WHITE: Well, obviously being at the ACC Tournament and you get a chance and an opportunity to perform, and now all the rest of it's out of the way, and then you win or go home. That's always such a fun feeling of being able to come into this tournament against the best of the best, and I was really excited about having that opportunity.

I think we had had a season that we had been close a lot and battled and played in the fourth quarter and just came up short, and so now to be able to cut loose and go play. And obviously coming in, Clemson had beat us at home, so we thought we could really battle up against them.

Again, you take the second quarter out of it today, and I thought we played pretty good basketball, but that second quarter we just couldn't make a shot and couldn't stop them. That pretty much sealed our fate for what we were able to do.

Again, I'm so proud of this team, especially this group of seniors that have been so resilient all season long, to battle and fight.

We're not defined by a record, but they're going to be great young women in the world, and I'm really excited to be a part of their lives.

Q. Lance, you mentioned the second quarter. Was it just you got shots but they didn't fall? Was that the difference?

LANCE WHITE: Yeah, I thought we got a little stagnant on offense and didn't move it. And I thought we still turned down some shots that we needed to shoot to create worse shots. But a lot of those shots -- and I'll be anxious to go back and watch the film -- I thought they were shots that we have to shoot and make.

I think anytime you shoot 500-something percent, you know, you're getting a lot of shots. We got enough shots, and now you've just got to knock them down. And yeah, I told them at halftime, I said, we got okay shots. Now you've just got to knock them down and it can't affect you on the other end of the floor.

And I thought that was probably -- the biggest is once you miss a couple, then you tighten up and the next one gets a little bit harder and then steamrolls from there.

But again overall, I thought we got okay shots.

Q. What's the message to the team in the locker room after a loss like this?

LANCE WHITE: And it's the end of your season, and obviously we didn't do the goals that we wanted, and that hurts. Especially for these guys who we all came in together and fought and just really busted our butts every day to put us in and then you don't succeed what you want to.

But overall we're not defined by this one moment, this one game. They're doing amazing stuff. Again, to have these two soon-to-be graduates who are going to go off and do amazing things in the world, that's really what I want them to know and for us as a basketball team to know.

Q. What freshmen are you looking forward to maybe stepping up next season?

LANCE WHITE: There's a great core, and I think the growth of Liatu King and Maliyah Johnson are two really good -- Maliyah is a sophomore and then Liatu is a junior, going to be a senior. I thought they had huge growth.

Our freshman class is really good. They got huge ACC minutes. Avery Strickland I thought had an incredible freshman year. And with her and Marley and Aislin, I think that group really has a chance to be great.

So now you plug some people in with them, and now with the transfer portal and all those things that you can go really change it quickly. But I like the core. I like the nucleus of that. But that's where I think those kids really have a chance to take that next jump.

Q. For both of the players, what will you remember most about your career?

DAYSHANETTE HARRIS: Outside of basketball, the bonds I made, the relationships I made. It's been a true blessing, a true honor to meet some of the greatest people in the world and have them be in my life for the rest of my life.

AMBER BROWN: I'll piggy-back off that. I think mostly the off-the-court things is what I'll take away from Pitt, just the relationships I've built and the stuff we've overcome together.