ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 7, 2024

Brooke Wyckoff

Ta'Niya Latson

Florida State Seminoles

Postgame Press Conference

Florida State 70, Wake Forest 53

BROOKE WYCKOFF: Just very, very proud of this team for getting this first-round win -- second round, but first for us. We knew this had to be a different story this year coming in, and I'm just proud of the way we persevered. March is tough. Wake Forest is a great basketball team. We stuck it out for four quarters and were able to come out with the win.

Really proud of KK Timpson for breaking the single season double-double record for Florida State, as well, today with her performance.

Q. Ta'Niya, you and Makayla almost outscored Wake Forest by yourself. Was it cool after you couldn't play last year to get a game like that to start the tournament and get rolling?

TA'NIYA LATSON: Yeah, it was. Me and KK, we always try to lock in before the game together. I feed off of her energy, she feeds off me. Like I said, we just tried to be ourselves. And we're the captains of the team, so we try to lead by example.

Q. Coach, after seeing what Wake Forest did last night coming back from 15 down, what was the message at halftime when you went into intermission with a 20-point lead?

BROOKE WYCKOFF: Yeah, I try not to say at halftime that we know a team is coming because we do know. These girls know. Again, last year we were in that same spot. We were up big 18 or 20 on Wake Forest, and they came back and beat us. So they knew. Wake Forest did what Wake Forest does. They came back.

But again, we were able to weather the storm, and I'm just really proud. I have a mature group. They knew the deal. I didn't have to say it.

Q. Coach, you play Syracuse tomorrow. Obviously you played them once earlier this year and they came back in that fourth quarter. What do you think was the difference in that first game against the Orange?

BROOKE WYCKOFF: Yeah, I thought we allowed -- in the second half we relaxed a little bit. We allowed the rest of their team to get going. Dyaisha Fair was having a phenomenal game as she always does, and we weren't as sharp as I would have liked us to be on the defensive end to start. They got a lot of points in the paint. They started offensive rebounding really well, which is what they do. But we didn't do a good job of keeping them off the boards. When we don't get stops, it's a little harder for us to come down and score.

We learned from that one, and obviously Syracuse is a great team. It wasn't like we just -- they're going to compete no matter. We're ready for tomorrow just in terms of what we learned, and I know this team is excited for the opportunity to compete against them again.

Q. You mentioned how proud you are of KK for how she's continued to improve. Last year she was the most improved player in the conference. This year what's the biggest leap she's made from that breakout season to really a dominant season?

BROOKE WYCKOFF: It's her consistency. She is, as we said, like, just double-double, she broke the season record. That's consistency right there. We can rely on her game in and game out to score. She has a phenomenal shooting percentage and to rebound.

Then defensively she's our rim protector. She's able to stay in the game. She was in foul trouble a lot last year. She does not get into foul trouble, knock on wood, as much anymore, so she's able to be out there and really do what she does and produce.

She's still got a long -- she's still got so much potential I feel like, so much untapped potential, so I'm excited to see what she does next.

Q. Ta'Niya, you were nodding pretty vigorously during Coach Wyckoff's discussion of that Syracuse game. Are you excited to get another match-up with Dyaisha Fair?

TA'NIYA LATSON: Yeah, for sure. We've got to get our get-back. We're going to win tomorrow.