ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 2, 2023

Brooke Wyckoff

Makayla Timpson

Florida State Seminoles

Postgame Press Conference

Wake Forest 65, Florida State 54

BROOKE WYCKOFF: Huge credit to Wake Forest and their second-half comeback. They really showed a lot of fight and got the job done. Credit to them, and I wish them the best going forward.

This is a really tough loss. I thought we had a great first half defensively, and that changed in the second half, and we weren't able to score the ball and definitely couldn't get stops.

We're going to learn from this and regroup moving forward and get ready and excited about what's next.

Q. Coach, just what changed for your team offensively in the second half? Did Wake do anything to make things more difficult to score?

BROOKE WYCKOFF: Yeah, they started the second half by just pounding it in inside. Hinds, they got her the ball inside and she really was aggressive and was able to score there, which they hadn't done in the first half.

And then Jewel Spear being Jewel Spear, she had struggled the first half shooting-wise and just came out determined. She hit threes only but really key ones in the way that she does, key threes at key moments for them. But they came out pounding it inside, and we weren't able to get stops.

Q. Specifically down low, it felt in the first half that you guys were dominating the second half. That changed. Did something happen in their defense or in your offense to take away the inside for you guys?

BROOKE WYCKOFF: Yeah, I mean, they sent several bodies every single time. KK is our go-to player and does a phenomenal job inside, so they made an effort to take that away. It was really physical down there, and so we had some unfortunate shot attempts that didn't go in, and we weren't able to score down there because they did, they sent a lot of people to the paint, even on our penetration. So it wasn't just on post touches.

MAKAYLA TIMPSON: Same thing like she said. It was kind of hard for me to score. Got a lot of bodies behind me, so there's somebody else to depend on to score the ball.

Q. What's one basketball thing you think you got better at throughout the year and that you're proud of your growth?

BROOKE WYCKOFF: I am proud of our defense, I will say. The team that you saw in the first half today is the team that I know that we are defensively. That's where we start and set a tone, and what leads to our offense. We have gotten better in that area. We've won a lot of games holding really good ACC teams to a low shooting percentage, and that was the tale of two halves tonight. When we play great defense, we're really, really good.

Q. How will you use this loss as motivation for your next challenge that lies ahead?

MAKAYLA TIMPSON: We've just got to go into the tournament and just -- we're just on a loss, like two-loss streak. So we've just got to get it and we've got to get it done. We've got to mean something deep down inside and we've got to take heart and take pride in this loss, and we've just got to go win.

Q. Coach, I just want to ask you, O'Mariah Gordon seemed to play limited minutes the second half. Can you explain what was going on with her? She couldn't play that much the second half.

BROOKE WYCKOFF: Well, she's not used to playing this many minutes. She gave us 25 great minutes, and so as the game went on and some physical tolls was taken, we had to keep a shorter rotation or a longer rotation, just managing minutes there.

Q. Brooke, I was curious if you could share anything about Ta'Niya's injury and if there's any prognosis for March?

BROOKE WYCKOFF: Yeah, Ta'Niya has an injury that's day-to-day and we're evaluating it every single day and just weren't comfortable with her playing today. We have an amazing medical team and staff around her and with us here in Greensboro, so it was a day-to-day thing. And we'll just continue to move forward there and hope to have her back for the tournament.

Q. Obviously a lot of emotional highs and lows with this game today, but throughout the year this team has been able to bounce back in a big way a lot. You have no doubt this team is going to be able to do that, having the high of getting ready for the NCAA Tournament selection show and being ready to go?

BROOKE WYCKOFF: Yeah, absolutely. We've been able to bounce back so many times and have dealt with a lot of ups and downs, as every basketball team does. Today is another example of that where we had some adversity, and we can absolutely learn from it. We have time to regroup and come out stronger and better for the tournament in a few weeks.