Jan. 2, 2015
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw
Opening statement:
“I think Florida State is a great team. I think they’re a top-15 team; I don’t know why they’re not ranked. They’ve really proven — I thought today especially — that they are a very, very good basketball team and they’re just going to keep getting better. I thought (Leticia) Romero really, really gives them a lift. She’s a really good, heady player and she really ran the team well. I was pleased with our defense on (Adut) Bulgak inside; I thought Bri (Turner) did a really good job on her. I was really disappointed with the rebounding. That’s really been very, very disappointing. The last two games we’ve really gotten pounded on the boards for offensive rebounds and we have got to do a better job if we’re going to be successful in the postseason. I thought Lindsay Allen was spectacular. She was just amazing and saved us a number of times and bailed us out with some great ball handling and was able to get through the defense and get some shots when we really needed to score. We’re just so confident with her with the ball in her hands late in the game.”
On improving on the offensive glass…
“I think it’s desire. It’s just effort. You have to go want the ball and we don’t right now. Our offense is a little spread when we have good spacing, so it takes a little bit more effort to get to the backboard and we just did a really poor job. I thought the biggest rebound in the game went to Jewell (Loyd) for the three-point play that I thought sealed the victory and we need to do that more often.”
On Madison Cable’s impact off the bench…
“She does so many great things that don’t show up in the stat sheet. She leads the team in floor burns; I think she’s on the floor more than anybody. She’s going to dive for a ball, she’s going to box out, she’s going to rebound. She got a couple of really nice defensive plays and she is doing a great job defensively. And offensively I think she’s starting to do a little bit more, too. She’s had a couple of big baskets for us, too, so I’m really happy with her.”
“She’s the consummate team player. She just wants to win; that’s all she wants. Whether she plays five minutes or 35 minutes, as long as we win that’s all she cares about.”
On whether they have a halfcourt shot drill (referencing Lindsay Allen’s halfcourt shot before halftime)…
“Actually they do one every day after practice. That was a huge shot that really changed the momentum. That was huge.”
On Lindsay Allen’s evolution as a shooter…
“We’ve encouraged her quite a bit to shoot more and early on (in the season) she really wasn’t shooting as much. We were scoring a lot of different ways early on. We didn’t have a lot of close games in the beginning of the season and I thought she just got back into her old role of distributor. But she’s always in the gym shooting, working on her shot and since the Michigan game I think she feels really comfortable looking for her shot.”
On overcoming the early deficit…
“I thought it was really hard. We thought coming into halftime, `Wow, we’re only down one. Now it’s a whole new game,’ and then immediately they went up nine or 10, so I was disappointed. We gave up back-to-back three-pointers and that really hurt us, so that’s when Maddie (Cable) came in and I thought changed the game.”
On the physicality down low…
“I think in the ACC you’ve got to expect that. I think every night’s going to be like this. It’s a physical conference; it’s great basketball. Everybody plays hard and there’s a lot on the line. We’ve got a big target on our back and we’ve got to get used to it.”
On facing a tough test in the conference opener…
“Last year we went to Virginia and I think won by four and that was early in the conference season, too, and I thought that set a tone for us to know we’ve got to be ready every night and there are a lot of a good teams that can beat us.”
On seeing more “fight” from the team…
“I think it was really good to see the resilience there and the intensity. We had to really muster and stick together because we were giving up some easy shots and we got down 10. Then we finally started to chip away at it and I think our confidence grew on each possession. I think we grew up a little bit more today.”
Junior Guard Jewell Loyd
On how Florida State disrupted the Irish offense…
“I think they were just really physical. Any time you’d run through the lane, they were bumping and then in the second half we got a little tougher.”
On Madison Cable…
“Maddie makes me play harder. Every time she’s on the floor I know she’s going to give 110 percent. She’s willing to risk her body, dive on the floor, on her head, anything for us to get a rebound or make a score. I love Maddie, when she’s on the floor, walking into the gym and seeing her, I love her.”
On Lindsay Allen’s evolution from distributor to scorer…
“She wants to score. She wants to help. She’s willing to take shots late in the shot clock. I think last year she was holding back a little bit and now she’s in full swing and today when she did the behind-the-back pull-up jumper, that’s the Lindsay I know. That’s the Lindsay we know in practice and it’s great to see that.”
On the difference between this year’s team versus previous years…
“We’re definitely younger. We’re still working on communication and that’s something we’re going to continue to grow in and get better with. It’s baby steps right now. We’ve got to go back to practice and that’s where it starts, in practice, and we’ve got to keep getting better at it to motivate ourselves. We’ve got to want to do it.”
Freshman Forward Brianna Turner
On Madison Cable…
“I learn from her. She just hustles and she doesn’t take plays off. Sometimes you take plays off but she plays every play 100 percent.”
On adjusting to the physicality of the game…
“I just try to be strong and not get pushed around and hold my ground in the paint.”
Florida State Head Coach Sue Semrau
Opening statement…
“It was disappointing to have the lead for 26 minutes and come out on the short end, but credit Notre Dame, they continued to battle when they got down. They are a championship team and they know about winning, and we’re a young team, we have six newcomers. I was really excited about the way that we were tested tonight and we’ve got a lot of things that we need to do better to achieve our goals.”
On planning defense against Jewell Loyd…
“We have to play team defense, not one person can stop her. We’ve got a lot of speed on our team, and we’ve got a lot of speed on our perimeter that we didn’t have last year. Last year we were a zone team and for [our team] to transform the way they have in such a short time makes me extremely proud of them. But it wasn’t just one person, we had different people that were playing on her [Loyd] and a lot of different help.”
On the team’s rebounding play…
“We feel like we’re an excellent rebounding team. I think first ACC game, and it being really cold up here for us we were maybe a little short of breath at times, and I felt like we could’ve done a better job on the offensive boards. But again, 16 offensive boards for us is ok, but Ivey Slaughter being on the bench for as long as she was, because she’s an excellent offensive rebounder, and even Adut Bulgak only getting 28 minutes, both really hurt us.”
On the sellout crowd tonight…
“Love it, I absolutely loved it. And I hope that happens here at Florida State pretty soon. I just compliment this community on how they rally around the women’s basketball team, I think it’s tremendous. Morgan [Jones] was great at the beginning of the game and said `We played a Louisville last year in front of 10,000 last year, what’s the big deal, we love this.’ But, this is what I think women’s basketball should be all about.”
Shakayla Thomas – Freshman – Forward
On being effective down low in the post…
“I had to work. Just not taking plays off, and I had to work to get my teammates to notice me down low.”
On not being intimidated by the long arms of Brianna Turner…
“You just can’t be afraid, and that’s what I tried to do. I’ve played against people just like her so it prepared me for this moment.”
Morgan Jones – Redshirt Junior – Guard
On how they were able to hang with the athletes of Notre Dame…
“I think Notre Dame has a lot of great players, a lot of great athletes and they have a lot of different weapons. They’re fast and they’re tall, and they have a lot of different defenses. But, I think our team did a really great job of controlling that and noticing mismatches, especially when Shakayla (Thomas) would have a smaller player on her, and we tried to use that to our advantage.”