South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley
On Florida controlling the tempo of the game
“It was pretty tough for us to control the tempo, and that was one of the keys to getting a win. They just disrupted us all night long. We didn’t handle the pressure well. We knew it was coming. We just didn’t handle it well. I don’t think we had enough time to prep for that kind of pressure, but that’s life in the SEC.”
On Florida’s pressure
“When teams are as athletic as Florida, they are going to apply pressure. We just need to get better with it. It has been our nemesis all season long. We just need to help our point guards. It’s a load that they have to carry, and we have to organize and be where we need to be. We also need to take care of the ball better. Our guards are very, very young. They have not played as much basketball on this level as they need. We just need to keep growing and progressing.”
Brionna Dickerson
On turnovers
“It was the [Florida defensive] pressure, and that’s something that we need to work on. We need to make sure with teams that try to pressure us that we’re able to handle it. They were undersized in the post, and they figured that the best way to get at us was to make sure [the ball] didn’t get down there. “
On the zone defense
“They played a very wide defense, and I think that we didn’t do a very good job of taking advantage of the middle of it.”
Florida Head Coach Amanda Butler
Opening Statement
“It was a great win for us. Whenever you can go on the road in this conference and beat a great team like South Carolina, you have got to be pleased. There were obviously some things that we could have done better, but I think that every coach is going to feel that way. These two guys [Sha Brooks and Marshae Dotson] tonight, they played like seniors. Their experience really showed through. They hit shots and made plays consistently.”
“We were able to generate a lot of steals and turnovers. One of the things that we knew we had to improve from the Auburn game to this game was that we just had to play tougher defense period. Whether that meant tough man, whether that meant traps or full court – whatever it take. We had to play tougher defense, stingier defense, and we obviously were able to get things out of our traps. The big thing about tonight was that when we caused those turnovers, we were able to turn it around and get points from it.
