ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 4, 2022

Sue Semrau

Sara Bejedi

Florida State Seminoles

Postgame Press Conference

NC State 84, Florida State 54

SUE SEMRAU: That was a good old-fashioned butt kicking. Wow, credit NC State. They're so balanced. They are so mature, so talented. When you've stopped their action, they find a way to freeze you, and then they can go by you one-on-one.

I thought there were a lot of times we stopped their action, and then we relaxed. You know, either they would just go by or they'd come up with the offensive rebound. They just did a great job.

I'm disappointed in our effort here this afternoon, but we'll go back and we'll look at it. I'm glad that we got a chance to play NC State. I think they're one of the best teams in the country, if not the best, and to get a chance to play them, to be put in a situation where we had adversity, and now we have to respond.

Q. Sue, the third quarter I think they came out and scored on seven out of eight possessions. Jakia Brown-Turner was very aggressive, but we've seen times when Diamond Johnson didn't shoot the ball very well. How difficult is it to stop in terms of the wealth of offensive options they seem to have?

SUE SEMRAU: Yeah, Jakia didn't do a whole lot when we were up there, and then when you stop Cunane even, there's so many different weapons that they have. Really you can't pick and choose. You have to do a great job all the way around, and we were not up for the task today.

Q. The 15 turnovers very uncharacteristic for your team. What are some things you wish your team could have done better just to come out with a win in today's contest?

SUE SEMRAU: Yeah, I just felt that -- we just felt like the looks in our offense were just going to be there, so we just threw it to where it was supposed to go, instead of really recognizing that there was somebody in the way.

Yeah, I don't know. Like I said, it was -- I would say it's uncharacteristic, but man, that's what NC State makes you do. They are just solid. They are such a good basketball team. They're well-coached.

I don't know, it turned into a lot of points off turnovers, and that hurt us a ton.

Q. Coach, you shot 4 for 9 from three, which is a pretty good percentage, but it was only nine shots. Is there a reason why you only took nine shots from three, especially on a day when it seemed like you were shooting pretty well?

SUE SEMRAU: They just guarded us great. I mean, I thought they were able to be out on our three-point shooters. When you've got that presence in the paint with Cunane and it's hard to score in there, they can stretch out their defense, and I thought they did a great job defending.

Q. Coach, you guys started out a little sluggish in the first quarter. Is that something you guys just need to get yourselves ready to go right away knowing at the tournament you have to be fired up right away?

SUE SEMRAU: Help me one more time with that. Why did we start slowly?

Q. It looked like you guys started slow. Yesterday you had such a great performance. Did you have a hard time getting everybody ready to roll?

SUE SEMRAU: Sara, what do you think?

SARA BEJEDI: I think they threw the first punch, and we just didn't have an answer for it. Like you said, we had a great game today. We played as a team. Today kind of got shocked of NC State's performance. They're a great team, and we just didn't have a response today, unfortunately.

Q. Sue, what will the next few days be like or I guess the next week, and do you think you've done enough for a bid?

SUE SEMRAU: Oh, yeah, I do. We talked about getting seven out of the last ten, and then to get eight out of the last 11, then you run up against NC State, our net will increase just because we played them.

Yeah, I do, and we will get back to Tallahassee, take a couple days off and then we'll get back after it, keep our rhythm, go back to fundamentals and make sure that we're ready once our name is called.