Feb. 15, 2010
Georgia Tech Head Coach MaChelle Joseph
On Georgia Tech perimeter players
“Our bigs played well but I thought our perimeter players needed to step up. We needed Alex [Montgomery] and Deja [Foster] to play better. Alex did a tremendous job on the boards but her shot just wasn’t falling. We can’t win a game without our key players, especially against a team like Florida State.”
On Florida State playing against the press
“They played against Duke, who plays very similar to us. You learn from that. Watching their tape against Duke, they looked very rattled against their press. They must have worked a lot on that. They were very patient tonight. We held them to only 29 percent from the field in the first half but In the second half, [Jacinta] Monroe and [Alysha] Harvin showed up for them.”
On Sasha Goodlett’s third foul in the first half
“That was unfortunate because Sasha [Goodlett] was on a role and we were finding her. That third foul was key to the outcome of them game because we could not start her in the first five minutes of the second half. That is where they made a run and got the momentum in the second half.”
Florida State Coach Sue Semrau
Opening Statement
“Georgia Tech is a great basketball team. We’ve seen them play numerous times on film and they’re one of most athletic and one of the best defensive teams we’ve seen. I just look at what [Georgia Tech head coach] Michelle [Joseph] has been able to do with her players. Every year, they all get better. [Brigitte] Ardossi is a completely different player than when she arrived here. We knew we had our work cut out for us.
“I thought that Georgia Tech came out throwing the first punches in the first half and our kids responded to throw some of their own in the second. It was a great basketball game and we’re excited to win it.”
On shooting the ball better in the second half as opposed to the first half
“I just thought maybe we were on our heels a little bit. Sometimes that is what pressure will do to you; just the constant pressure of not being able to get into your sets and feeling it out. I thought in the second half we figured out the way we needed to attack it and the kids did a great job of doing that.”
On what was done in the locker room at halftime to improve the team’s rebounding
“We talked a lot about that. They had 13 offensive boards in the first half and we had 14 total boards, so that’s something that we don’t take kindly too. I think the players, again, once they stopped tip toeing around did what they normally do.”
Florida State forward Jacinta Monroe
On what the coaching staff said to the team in the locker room at halftime
“Basically, they just put the fire in our butts and just told us to go out there and play. We really didn’t have to make any adjustments, we just had to adjust our effort and we turned that around in the second half.”
