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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: STOCKTONMarch 27, 2017Sue SemrauChatrice WhiteLeticia RomeroStockton, California SOUTH CAROLINA 71, Florida State 64 THE MODERATOR: Good evening. SUE SEMRAU: It was a heck of a game and I just a.m. so proud of the young ladies and the team that has developed here. Obviously we're disappointed. We didn't shoot the ball well. They shot the ball great. In every other category, we win. But unfortunately you have to put the ball in the basket, and 71 shots to 45 shots; 18 offensive rebounds to two; 12 assists, 11 turnovers to their eight assists, 18 turnovers. You look at that: We beat them in points in the paint, points off turnovers, second-chance points, fast-break points, bench points, and it goes on and on, and that's just this game. It's tough. I wouldn't trade our scorers for anybody. I thought they made a valiant effort, and give ourselves some chances, but congratulations to South Carolina. They are a tremendous basketball team. Q. They kind of held you at arm's length for awhile, and you made that furious run at the end. What changed for you guys? Was it just the urgency that time was running out? LETICIA ROMERO: I think it was, and we kept talking the whole time to each other. I think we were realizing that this could be our last game, and we didn't want it to end like that. You know, we were down by, you know, ten, 12 points, and we wanted to try. We became more aggressive. I think everybody believed a little more, and that gave us -- that keep us going. Q. You guys have been a part of some pretty big comebacks throughout this entire tournament. In the fourth quarter, did you guys really think, hey, we've got this; we can make this comeback; we can complete this? LETICIA ROMERO: Yeah, I think we believed the whole time and that made a huge impact on how we played. I think we, you know, again, the communication that we had to each other during the whole game, and especially at the end of the quarter, somebody will steal the ball, Brittany's layup in the end when we were in zone. Ivey getting charges; I think that gave us a lot of energy to come back and try to win the game. But I mean -- yeah. Q. To have the rebounding advantage and for to you have a pretty efficient game, seven of nine from the field, but to not get the win and to see the shots not fall, what was it out there? Was it disappointing when the shots weren't falling but you were still getting those good looks? CHATRICE WHITE: Yeah, I think the whole game, we got all the looks we wanted to. The shots just weren't falling. It was frustrating on the court, but we tried our best not to let one mistake lead to the next and just continued to fight. But you know, we wanted it to go in the basket and didn't tonight. Q. Senior year, I know it's kind of raw, but can you sum up your year and time with Florida State and coming here from Kansas State and making something special out of this? LETICIA ROMERO: I would say this has been really positive, and honestly what I take from all of this is how much we've grown and how much we've come together after all the things that we've been through, and even, you know, having a start -- I remember when I came from Kansas State, that I wasn't playing at the beginning. I loved how this team played and I wanted to play so bad. And then being able to play and what a season we had; it was amazing. The next year, we struggled a little bit, but we never let all that split us apart. We always try to come up with new things, new ways to come together, and I think this season has, you know, has been that change, that growth, that we really seek last year. So I'm really proud of everybody, the coaches and my teammates. Q. Kind of a similar question I already asked. When the team was starting to make that comeback, you've watched this team Storm back from 17 down; did you believe, too, this is the Seminoles I've seen all year? SUE SEMRAU: Yeah, one thing goes your way, at that point, it was a five-point game and we missed shots and really we had held them for a long time without scoring. Again, I don't know why we rushed so much, but it felt like we rushed. We took a lot of quick shots. I mean, obviously 71 shots, that's a lot of quick shots. Again, it's kind of the tale of so many coaches: When the ball doesn't go in the basket, it affects your confidence and your mentality. And started going in; I thought we could maybe pull it out. Q. Offensive rebounds were very hard for them to come by but they got one late that was a big one. SUE SEMRAU: That was huge. Q. This box score, are you going to look at this box score for a while and figure out how you didn't win this game? SUE SEMRAU: No, we just didn't hit shots. That was the big bottom line. And why didn't we hit shots? I thought we rushed. I thought they played some good defense, but I thought that we felt the pressure of them scoring, and rather than being more deliberate and getting the looks that we wanted, I thought we took the first open look. And it hasn't been -- that's not what we've been throughout the season, so credit South Carolina for that. Q. They got out to a 5-0 start like they did the previous game, and you guys only tied it for 11 seconds. So how frustrating was it to not be able to get over the hump, even though you were close? SUE SEMRAU: Well, we talked about it in the last time-out; the last time we played them in 2015 in the Elite 8, we led for 37 minutes, and it was kind of the tables were turned; and they had led for 37 minutes, basically, and let's go do this thing. But rebounding is critical, and that rebound that gave them that extra possession was really big. Q. Kaela Davis, can you just talk about -- I was very impressed with her this weekend. I had not seen her in person a lot. How difficult is she a guard for people? SUE SEMRAU: I think she's been better for them since Alaina Coates has been out. She knows -- she wants to be a scorer and she's an excellent scorer. So she knows that it's her and A'Ja, and so she loves that fence. I remember when she was at Georgia Tech, she was the only one, so she would go take 31 shots. Now she gets an opportunity to get great shots. She's just become much more disciplined. Just she's a great kid and a great basketball player. Q. What was it like seeing Leti miss shot after shot and open look after open look? SUE SEMRAU: I was just really proud of her for continuing to shoot it, because she is, you know, a 50-50-90 kind of kid. And again, I thought they were maybe more rushed. I don't know why; I guess the sense of urgency and the opportunity. I know she's disappointed in herself, but I couldn't be more proud to have coached her. Q. You guys win the rebounding battle, especially on the offensive rebounds, but you offset that with the amount of fouls. Do you think that had a big difference in the total outlook of the game? SUE SEMRAU: Yes. I wish I could say more. I just -- I don't know. I thought that it was a physical game. Yeah. Q. Thomas being on the bench for the entire second quarter, how much did that really mess with the flow of the game for you guys and your offense? SUE SEMRAU: Well, it's not our favorite situation to be in. So that, really, I thought Chatrice stepped up and she did a great job. I thought Ama Degbeon did a tremendous job defending A'Ja Wilson. And just Ama and Ivey haven't been the go-to scorers that Shakayla has. I thought Chatrice stepped up and did some good things, but we would have liked to have her on the floor. Thanks so much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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