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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2020

Greensboro, North Carolina

Florida State - 62, Louisville - 60

THE MODERATOR: We welcome head coach Jeff Walz as well as Jazmine Jones. Coach?

JEFF WALZ: Just want to first congratulate Sue and Florida State. I thought it was a fantastic basketball game between two teams that really competed. It went back and forth, we came back, we take a lead, they hit a big shot, we hit some shots, they stepped up, made some free throws, we make some free throws at the end. Just a great basketball game.

The first quarter is where we kinda got behind the eight ball there. Had some great shots, shots we normally make and she just didn't go in. We go 4 of 17 in the first quarter and that put us behind. We kept clawing and kept clawing and tied back up at half and then when we would get the lead you gotta give Florida State credit they came up with big offensive boards where we couldn't get any separation.

So overall, you know, just I thought a great basketball game. I think our young women competed. I'm proud of them.

Now, you never want to lose. There is no question about that. But now what we've got to do is we'll get some time. We will get some rest, get back in the gym and prepare for the NCAA tournament.

Q. Coach, you went smaller for a lot of this game with Kylee getting 20 minutes. Talk about the rationale behind that?
JEFF WALZ: What we tried to do -- the one point -- she had two fouls, got those two and kind of for a little bit they called a foul on Yaya when they put it to the scorer's table I thought they said 21. So I thought that was Kylee's third. So we took her out and we bent with Bea and they went with four guards also and we were having a hard time trying to match-up with two bigs in the game. I thought Bionca was doing a nice job defensively for us again.

We chipped away and chipped away and came back and took that lead and then 2 hit a big 3 at the top of the key there, it was a huge shot. That's something we talked about. What we've got to get better at and we know it's something we take pride in is Florida State converted when we had breakdowns. When we make teams take shots we want them to take it normally works out in our favor and we didn't do a terrible job defensively, we only gave up 62 points but the problem is they made some big ones when we had some breakdowns.

Q. Jaz, take me through the final possession, what you guys were trying to get done?
JAZMINE JONES: Coach drew up a nice play for Kylee to screen across for me and if Mykasa had Kylee, because they switch, and if Kylee was open she was going to throw it to Kylee, but she wasn't. So she threw it to Dana and Coach said go for a layup if you can get to the basket and she missed it and I got a chance to try to tip it in and it just didn't go in.

Q. Coach, you talked about No. 2 making the big three-pointer. I saw you point her out at least a half a dozen times, shooter, shooter, shooter. Why did she get open right there?
JEFF WALZ: We just lost her. It's part of the game. You've got to give her credit for stepping up and making the shot. But, unfortunately, that's one of those situations that we will sit there and watch film with them and just explain that it's so vital that you know where shooters are on the floor.

Now, they lost us a few times, too, you know, when she made that three then Dana got a wide-open three in the corner that didn't go in for us.

It's part of the game. We will regroup. This stings, it hurts, nobody likes to lose, and we put a lot of time and effort into this and our goal was to come in here and be not only be conference champs but win the tournament. Unfortunately we came up a little bit short and now we will get prepared for the NCAA tournament.

Q. Coach, what do you say to the team after this one to get them ready for a high NCAA bid?
JEFF WALZ: You've got about two weeks before, a week and a half before we find out who we're going to play. We know we will play at home. There is not much you say. They're all competitors. It's not like I have to give a big speech to get them excited and prepared to play.

We will take some days off, which they all need, and then we will get back at it on Thursday, probably, Wednesday, Thursday, of this coming week, have some good practices leading up to Selection Monday and then figure out who we're going to play and when.

Q. Jaz, the bench gave you guys a boost today is that a positive you can claim from this loss, their performance?
JAZMINE JONES: It was a positive for us all year. We knew we had a deep team coming into the year and we knew no matter who Coach took out the game we knew we was adding something to the floor.

Q. Coach, any concerns that this might knock you out of a number one seed?
JEFF WALZ: The reveal a week ago showed we weren't a number one seed. So I wasn't too concerned about that. That's the one nice thing about the reveal. There is really not much guessing of what goes on. The only chance we would have had was to win out and hope somebody would have gotten beat. I'm not concerned about that at all.

Q. Jaz, you were matched up against Gillespie a lot in this game. Talk about her athleticism and how hard it was to prevent her from doing things?
JAZMINE JONES: She is a great player, first time all ACC, of course. She has a nice -- she can stretch the floor, being at the 4 position she is, coming down here and getting threes, getting into your body, reverse pivot, hitting a 15-foot jumper. She is a great player. We just had to stay on her and make her shoot in the pocket and make it difficult for her.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you and good luck in NCAAs.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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