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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTFebruary 28, 2018MaChelle JosephAntonia PeressonFrancesca PanGreensboro, North Carolina Georgia Tech 61, Clemson 52 MaCHELLE JOSEPH: We got to work a lot on our zone defense which I thought we did, Antonia did a great job at the top of that zone, making it difficult for them to get shots and to run their stuff, but I thought Francesca came out and did what she does, and she looked for her shot, she carried us early offensively and came up with some big rebounds down the stretch. The key to this game winning this game is we were able to shut down Kobi Thornton in the second half. She had 12 first-half points, and we only allowed her to get one point in the second half. Q. So often games of this nature in a tournament, both teams have come out tentatively feeling each other out. You guys came out with an 18-4 explosion right out of the block. What was going on, and do you plan on taking your pregame speech and making it available for the public? MaCHELLE JOSEPH: No, I mean, obviously I think our team is really excited to play in this tournament. We feel like we let some games slip away throughout the course of the season, and you know, it's one of the things we told them is like, we have nine lives but this is it. We've got to win some games to have an opportunity to get no postseason. You know, we haven't given up on the NCAA Tournament. We feel like we're playing our best basketball right now. Obviously we had a tough January, but you know, we've won five of our last seven games and we're playing our best basketball. We came within one possession of beating Florida State last weekend, and like I said, I think we're pretty excited to play. We've got good depth and we're going to be ready tomorrow and take on a very good Virginia team. Q. Y'all had pretty control of the game the whole game till the fourth quarter when they made a comeback. Do you feel like the team let off the gas a little bit or Clemson just fought back hard? MaCHELLE JOSEPH: Well, Clemson, every time we play, this is our third time and like I told my players and our staff, it's really hard to beat a team three times in a season. I knew Clemson, the other contest at Clemson, was a tough game for us. I knew that they played everybody close. They make the game -- they make it hard for you offensively because of all their different junk defenses that they play. So I thought that they would give us their last shot, they came at us pretty hard but again we weathered the storm. I didn't feel like we got rattled. I felt like we knew -- we played to win, instead of playing not to lose, and that was one of the things we had to learn in January. Q. Can you talk a little about your defense, because you held them to under 29 percent shooting, and you shut down Thornton in the second half, can you talk about your zone and what allowed your defense to be so successful today? MaCHELLE JOSEPH: We talked about it at halftime. We had a little conversations about Thornton because we had talked about not letting her touch the ball, and obviously the first half she was tremendous. She had 12 points and six rebounds and at halftime we talked about, we need to keep her from touching the ball. I mean, because when she was touching the ball, she was making plays and I thought as a team we focused in on that, we kept the ball out of her hands a lot. We kept her off the boards for the most part and we were able to get stops, but our defense has been the backbone of our program. It's the backbone of this team, and we know we have to defend to win. Q. General tournament question. You win this game, ordinarily in the regular season, you win a game, you have a little time to celebrate, but you have to turn around tomorrow and play a very good Virginia team. How do you put this one in the rear-view mirror and move on to tomorrow? FRANCESCA PAN: We know that we have a quick turnaround, so of course we are happy are our win but now we need to get back and get recovery and be ready to play tomorrow because as you say, like tomorrow, we are against Virginia. We need to like play 100 percent. ANTONIA PERESSON: I feel like our run last year helped us to get to the mindset to win and advance. That's what we remember from last year and we will try to do this also right now. We know that we play every day as we keep winning but I feel like with our depth, we have a lot. So we are excited for tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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