Quotes From 2005 ACC Tournament Quarterfinal: Virginia-FSU
Story Links
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery
VIRGINIA CAVALIERS
Debbie Ryan: Today’s game was a battle from start to finish. I was obviously concerned coming in with LaTonya Blue and Siedah Williams not being able to play today because of injury, but I had a lot of confidence in my team. I had a lot of confidence in every single player right on down the line being ready to play today because they prepared extremely well all week. Without those two in practice, I had seen some really good things from Tiffany Sardin prior to today. I told Brandi Teamer before today, that this was a game that she would have to step up in and really give us a good solid performance, and she went well beyond.
I was really pleased with a lot of things that happened today. Sharnee Zoll, I thought did a good job of executing on offense and directing us a little bit on defense, putting double figures on the board. There were just a lot of great performances today. Jocelyn Logan had some great blocks, gave us double figures, came out in the second half and really turned the heat on defensively. I thought the whole team turned up the heat defensively in the second half. You got to give a lot of credit to the Florida State team, I thought Florida State played extremely hard. We had a 10?point lead with four minutes to go, and they came back, and you can ask my team what I said in the huddle during the time?out right before we came back out with that 10?point lead and sure enough it was exactly how they play. They have a lot of heart and they have a lot of character as well and that’s why the game was so close today.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. Sharnee, after they fouled you the first time, you knocked the first two down, did you kind of sense they were coming after you, how much did making the first two help the rest of the way?
Sharnee Zoll: Well, the whole second half I heard them saying if we need a foul get Zoll. Zoll, Zoll, Zoll, that’s all I kept hearing from their sideline. I was like wow. I must be shooting really really bad from the free throw line, because they are coming after me. I knew I had to knock them down. I knew my team had confidence in me so I just had to hit them so we could win.
Q. Debbie, did you see something that you can take advantage of with Brandi inside, seems like you ran a lot of plays for her and weren’t able to have success with that?
Debbie Ryan: I think we were trying to get the ball inside all day. Brandi was just the recipient of a lot of the plays that we were running because she was the person in the game on the block. And we like to keep her on the block. So we were just going to her because she was open. I think that the guards did a great job of recognizing that, and they were really guarding us hard on the outside. Florida State took Brenna out of game some, so we had to penetrate and kick out to find Brandi on the blocks. Brandi was doing a great job of catching today. They were all over us. They were using their bodies and using their arms and using their hands, and I don’t mean that in the negative way. That’s the way the game was. She did a great job of catching a lot of things that might not have been catchable at times. So you got to give her a lot of credit for making plays that might not have been plays. But, yes, he were going to her quite a bit today.
Q. Brandi given that LaTonya didn’t play, is that one of the most rewarding wins of your career?
A. Yes, I feel I owe it to LaTonya because there was a time last year when I wasn’t able to play and she would pick up the slack for the team. I felt like it was only right for me to pick up the slack. Tiffany and I did that today and the rest of the team followed our lead.
March 5, 2005
FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES
COACH SUE SEMRAU: I thought Virginia did a tremendous job of filling in the hole that LaTonya Blue met. She has been the glue for them all year and I thought their team came out with a lot of fight, and did a nice job.
You know, obviously, we’re disappointed. But my team has had a ton of fight all year. I saw it again here this afternoon, and I wouldn’t go to battle with anybody else. Alicia Gladden, her double?double, Roneeka Hodges coming out and scoring 26. They do this night in and night out with an undersized team that isn’t very deep, and I’m just extremely proud of them. It is a tough one to lose in overtime. You can’t get much closer than that.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. So you chose to foul Zoll there, do you regret that now, she is only a 55 percent free throw shooter?
COACH SUE SEMRAU: I know she only hit 15 free throws in all of ACC play. No, I don’t regret it. We had five seconds. We probably would have had seven seconds. They would have held it. (referring to time left in the game) And then we would have still had to score, and we still had five seconds to get a look off, so, no, I think it was an educated risk and she stepped up big.
Q. Coach, you got double digit points from three players, but beyond that you didn’t get much scoring from any other players, what happened that the scoring was only concentrated in three players?
COACH SUE SEMRAU: Have you seen our stats lately? We only play about six. I think the only other person that usually steps up and scores is Linnea, but she didn’t get a lot of shots off. She is one that steps up and scores. But the other ones usually fill in the gap.
Q. Alicia, after you went up by seven you had a nine minute stretch where you only scored six points and they went back up 10. What happened in that scoring drought? I was wondering if their defense changed?
ALICIA GLADDEN: I think our problem was our shooting. It wasn’t their defense. Our shot selection wasn’t as good as it was supposed to be. People were shooting early shots in the shot clock. I think a lot of people weren’t thinking before they were shooting.
Q. For the players, what got it turned around that last four minutes of regulation when you got the offense going and forced the overtime.
RONEEKA HODGES: I think we build up our defensive stops. We got stops, and I think it carried over to the offensive end, and we were fortunate enough to get a couple of buckets and come back. I mean we didn’t really panic because we been in that situation several times. We got the game to overtime where we wanted to be, but we just couldn’t pull it out in the overtime period.