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No. 14 Florida State at Virginia
February 7, 2011
Postgame Quotes

Virginia head coach Debbie Ryan
Opening Statement:
“I told my team, I felt like we played our best basketball the first five minutes of the first half and the last five minutes of regulation. A lot of credit goes to Florida State. I thought that they were able to score easily on us at times, and we did not respond well in certain situations. We just kept plugging away and plugging away, and once we started to attack and penetrate a little bit better, we got ourselves to the line. That was what really brought us back into the game. We were able to score with the clock off. I thought we executed extremely well down the stretch, right up through the steal. It just didn’t go our way at the end.”

On the play of Erinn Thompson:
“Yesterday and today in practice, Erinn played really well against the starting team, and in 20 minutes had 20 points. She seemed to be getting up and down the floor okay, and I gave her a shot tonight, but we have to be careful about how much we play her. She’s really a big help to the team right now because she can put the ball in the basket.”

On battling back in the second half:
“This team has a lot of fight and it continues to have a lot of fight. They’re not going to quit. We’re never going to quit. It’s not going to happen. Especially not here in JPJ, when it’s named after John Paul Jones whose famous quote is ‘I have not begun to fight.’

Virginia redshirt freshman forward Erinn Thompson
On her career-high points total:
“Tonight was very encouraging. My teammates and my coaches have been so understanding about my injury from this year and last year. Encouraging is the best word I can use to describe it. It was great to get a chance to directly contribute, and I’m glad that I could help my team. As much as we wanted that win, I really think we are steadily improving, and we’re going to get one. Whenever it’s in the books for us, we’re going to get it.”

Florida State Head Coach Sue Semrau
Opening Statement:

“Obviously it was a war and we knew it would be. 11-2 at home is no small feat. We knew coming in that they’d battle to the end. We were fortunate that Cierra [Bravard] came up so big for us all game long and we’re just really glad that she hit those free throws at the end.”

On making 20-of-22 free throws:
“We are improving as a basketball team. It is nice to see it and I know they put a lot of mental focus into that.”

On the ACC:
“It is just going to be a battle every single night. We know that. We are so young, half the time we are taking our thumbs out of our mouth to go get the rebound. We have just been finding a way to continue to win basketball games, and I think a lot of teams in the ACC are like that.”

On rotating players:
“In the seven ACC games that we’ve won, the shots taken are extremely balanced. That is one thing that we really pride ourselves on. We have a lot of versatility and a lot of balance. We have a lot of different weapons to go to.”

Florida State forward Cierra Bravard
On Virginia closing in:

“I think we kind of just lost focus. We might have gotten a little too comfortable with the 15-point lead. We were kind of in full go the whole game and attacked. We kind of backed off a little bit and let them play a little bit even. We weren’t hustling after loose balls for a good five to six minutes.

“There was no panic. There was a little frustration. We know we should be putting a team away when we have a lead like that, but we stuck together and held our heads high and we had each other’s backs. You just have to be positive in a situation like that. If you yell or scream at somebody and take them out of their game, then there is nothing they are going to do good for you, so you just have to stay positive and keep people up.”

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