Quotes: Florida State 69, Duke 53

Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie

Opening Statement:

“I thought Florida State played really hard and well. I thought we played harder the second half and had a little bit more intensity. The rebounding stats are very telling. Their offensive rebounds are very telling because they had some key put backs in particular, 42 [Kai James] had some pretty critical put backs at tough times. I would like our team to grow more. I think when you don't have a player like Azurá [Stevens] you have to be more of a team and you have to work things more and we have not chosen to do that. We have turned the ball over too many times; we have tried to rush when we should be slowing down and so we have not made good choices relative to the change in our lineup. We will have to make better choices in the future.”

On what enabled Florida State to get so many paint points in the fourth quarter:

“42 [Kai James]. Pretty much. Well Oderah [Chidom] fouled out in 19 minutes. Lynee's [Belton] knee wasn't working for her and so we were left with Amber [Henson] playing a lot of minutes and then Erin [Mathias]. So we became a little bit thinner inside. We can't have Oderah fouling out in 19 minutes, I can tell you that is going to hurt us right there. I think they did some nice things at that time, and 42 [Kai James] was a big part of it.”

On Florida State's defense:

“Well I have to give them credit for defense and just playing very physical basketball, obviously. But I won't give them credit for 22 turnovers. That's on us, in terms of making poor decisions. Some of those turnovers might have been good defense but certainly not all of them. We've got to clean up our act a little bit. You can see, it's horrible, six assists is horrible. Nobody is working for their teammates to get the ball to people and create assists. That's a very important concept. So I credit the defense, but I'm not going to give it all to the defense.”

On Azura's absence hurting team mentality:

“Well it's too bad if that's the truth. I've asked the team, they said no. That would be a shame because that would mean they didn't think very much of themselves.”

On the lineup in the final minutes of the game:

“That was actually one of the highlights of the game. We had a bench out there playing defense and playing together. That was one of the highlights for sure.”

On Florida State's bench points:

“Before that, it's kind of an interesting story here that we haven't been asked about the fact that their bench won it for them. I mean, you're acting as if they played an outstanding game. We did a good job here offensively and the kids need credit for that, particularly with some of these players. It's interesting that that's what a team is all about, what they did. But when you have 35 bench points to 12, there's the game, there's nothing else to discuss. And you look at again, number 42, the James gal [Kai James], was critical with what she did. Because we had probably out best defender, Amber [Henson], was still in the game. Amber didn't get any help because Oderah was fouled out but that would be the matchup we would have to do again. So I thought that was interesting. Now [Shakayla] Thomas is a go to player who comes off the bench so I don't really count her, but that number 11 [Maria Conde]. Number 11, teammate of Angela's, and number 42 won the game for them. So they should obviously feel good about that because some of the other players didn't do well.”

On the pressure of getting a big team win:

“Look, as coaches we are just concerned in the moment. That's kind of a loaded question because that means you believe the rankings. I don't believe in rankings, so I can't answer that to you. I'm very confident in our team, I feel like we should have been able to beat Miami. We didn't, I know, but I feel like we should have been able to. As you k now, we beat Virginia, quite well without Azurá. And I think we should have been able to beat Miami but we didn't pull it off, I get that. And I think we should have been successful tonight. It's one of those things where, I'm just not into rankings. I'm into playing teams, having our team play teams and be successful. This team hasn't connected enough to get over the top, it doesn't matter if they're ranked or not, forget it, and it's just any team. You have to be connected as a group to go over the top. I realize there's been some disconnect provided by the injury of Azura, but that's where leadership comes in. Leadership is connecting the dots and getting in a group to hold each other accountable. As Angela said, she wants to win. It's more than statistics. I thought Angela played the best of anyone today. Okay, so it's more than stats. The team has to come together and understand that is more than stats. It's how we are going to connect and how we are going to feed off each other. You know, we have missed Hayley, you have never mentioned Haley Gorecki. Haley Gorecki is a great competitor we have missed her forever, forever and a day. It's not just the Azurá factor, it's the Haley factor, and it's the factor that this team needs to step up and lead behind closed doors and understand that we have got to get it done. It's not about ranked opponents. That is what it's about for us.”

Florida State head coach Sue Semrau

Opening Statement:

“Duke is always a hard place to play. Remarkably none of my players except for Emiah Bingley have played here before. With the change in the ACC schedule and the rotation, this is the first time, so it worried me a little bit when we had everybody taking pictures at the shoot-around and the awe of it all. I didn't think it was a particularly good game to watch, a lot of stoppage of play, a lot of turnovers in the first half. I'm proud of my kids. We told them it would be defense and rebounding. To outrebound Duke, who is one of the best rebounding teams in the conference, by 11 I think was really critical.”

On Maria Conde and Kai James in fourth quarter:

“That's I think my favorite part of the whole game, is that that is when we got really good last year is when anybody could step up. They are both capable players. I just have some more experienced players that have carried us on the offensive end. I thought Maria, the way she came in and just knocked down a couple of threes without hesitation, and she went and got an offensive board was huge. We felt like Ki with her size could match up with Duke's size in the interior. She was perfect from the floor and she was playing in front of her brother tonight, who plays at [North] Carolina, so I think we are going to have to get him to as many games as we can.”

On Duke's defense:

“I think we were expecting a lot of defensive changes and I told them at a timeout that I think we were over-coaching and we were putting them in too many sets when there were just people open. I thought we just instead of trying to hit the open player we were trying to make sure we were all on the same page running a play.”

On Azurá Stevens being out:

“We didn't know she was out. We didn't know until game time and we had planned on her playing. You always have to plan to play a team full strength so we planned that way. I think she brings a different element with being able to post up and shoot the three, but it wasn't that we were consciously going after their players in the post, it is just that's where we've got a great strength there. Shakayla [Thomas], Ivey [Slaughter], Adut [Bulgak], Kai [James], they can all score down low.

On use of mid-range game:

“We certainly emphasized how much size they have. We felt like if we could get by one, it was probably wise to pull up and shoot those mid-range jumpers. With the exception of Shakayla and Ivey who can go in and by anyone to get to the point where they are one-on-one with anyone down low, but again they can both shoot the mid-range, just huge development in their games.”

On team going forward:

“I think we played a really tough non-conference schedule. We played four teams in the top 25 that are our four losses, and they were all great games: Arizona State, the Connecticut game, Louisville. You look at those losses and they have prepared us for where we are going. We were playing Shakayla on the perimeter early, I mean nobody can stop her on the interior, and that is my fault. Then we've got Adut and [Leticia Romero] that both get hurt, so now we are playing Brittany Brown and Emiah Bingley at the point so we have been evolving. We don't compare this team to last year's team. We made the mistake early on to look at this team and maybe put a comma on the end of last year instead of a period, and once we went away from that we developed our own personality.”

Junior Forward Ivey Slaughter

On getting a win in Cameron:

“This is my first time playing here and I'm a junior. It speaks volumes. It's a really hard place to play, I will say that. We stayed together, we came together. That is one of our biggest growths this year that we have accomplished. When we have people step up like Maria and Kai, it really speaks volume to our team and how much depth we really do have.”

Sophomore Forward Shakayla Thomas

On getting a win in Cameron:

“This is my first time playing here clearly and the atmosphere was loud. We came together as a team, and the players who stepped up. That's the best I've ever seen them play.”

Quotes: Florida State 69, Duke 53

Players Mentioned

Azurá Stevens

Duke information

Quotes: Florida State 69, Duke 53

Players Mentioned

Azurá Stevens

Related Videos

Duke information