Clemson 63, Stanford 46
SHAWN POPPIE: First off, congrats to Stanford. I think they've got a heck of a basketball team, and obviously history with that program. Hats off to them. As they were coming in as hot as anybody in the conference, really.
But I'll tell you what, I'm super proud of the group we have in that locker room, to fight as hard as we did for 40 minutes, and it took a team effort, which we knew. It was fun to watch us put close to 40 minutes together, which has kind of been a struggle for us at times this year, and it came in different forms.
I could go through the list. I have two of them up here, but there's a whole locker room full that brought to the table what we needed. Again, proud of them, and we live to fight another day.
Q. Shawn, I remember on Monday I think for the coaches' conference, you talked about the attendance increase and how that was a big sign of what you're trying to build here. Beating Stanford, a team like that, in the ACC Tournament feels like a pretty big building block. Is that the right read on that?
SHAWN POPPIE: I would say. Not only that, but did you see that crowd we had behind us? For a team that came in 13-16 and the 14 seed, we got people believing in Clemson. I think it's a credit to our kids for how hard they play. They play together. They do things the right way. They represent our university and our program in the most perfect way.
Although we've not had all the results, we've continued to fight and stay the course. I think that you're exactly right; it wasn't two, three years ago Stanford won a National Championship. I know that roster is a little bit different, but for us to come in here with as many new faces as we have, our first year, I think that is a big-time win for us to come and get a win in the ACC Tournament and then see what happens.
But we also came in here thinking, if you look at our totality of a year, we've competed with everyone in the country and maybe a couple possessions short, and we just had to find a way to put closer to 40 minutes together, and today was a good first step.
Q. Mia, talk a little bit about that third quarter stretch where you basically had your team scored 12 straight and you had 15 of them. What was it like to have a run like that where the ball is just going in the basket pretty much every time you look at it?
MIA MOORE: Yeah, I got in foul trouble early, so it was just a lot in me during halftime I had to let it off the leash. Coach probably got on me, said we need you this half, so I just wanted to step up for my team.
We have a lot of seniors on this roster, and so I just wanted to be able to not leave any regrets, and now we're moving on.
Just wanted to be able to give them that chance to go out with a bang.
Q. You talked about the history of Stanford, and we're used to seeing Stanford beat teams in the Pac-12 the way that you guys beat them today. How do you feel like your defense really tightened up against them, didn't let them create offense and really beat them at their own game?
SHAWN POPPIE: Yeah, well, if you look back, we did similar at our place there when we were playing pretty good early in the conference season. I felt like some of it at times is matchups, and this is a good matchup for us, as they beat you with player movement and ball movement. If you have a level of discipline, it keeps them playing one-on-one, which may not be their strength.
I felt like for the majority of this game, we stayed very disciplined on their cutting actions and stayed what we called chest to chest, between them and the basket at all times, so then all of a sudden it makes the game a little bit more difficult for them.
With that said, you knew they were going to get some because it's constant. But I thought for the most part, we did a really, really good job of being very disciplined, and their actions then forced them to play a lot of one-on-one.
And then on the flipside, I do think we tried to stretch them out. They're obviously much bigger than us at most positions, so tried to move them around and tried to use our athleticism to get downhill. And I thought we got in the paint quite a bit; 30 points in the paint on a team that is much, much bigger than us, we did our job. That was not only off the dribble but obviously our bigs inside.
Q. Mia, you mentioned how many seniors you guys have on this team. To come off of that Senior Day loss and those feelings that you guys had, if both of you would like to answer, and Shawn, I'm interested in your comments, how that feeling coming into this tournament maybe was a little extra motivation, extra push in the gut, and just that confidence then that you had coming in that you guys could make some noise here?
MIA MOORE: For me it's definitely motivation. I love the seniors. I feel like they've given everything they've got this year. So just to lose that last game at home for them, it really made me sad. I just want to be able to go on a run here for them and for the team and for the culture, for Clemson.
ANYA POOLE: Coach Poppie told us coming into this tournament we're 0-0. It did feel bad to lose that senior night game, but we were just like, keep pushing one day at a time. We don't want to feel like this anymore so just keep working.
Being a senior and having six or seniors around me, we're literally just trying to push each other just to get to the next day, get to the next day. It's hard not to think about the losses, but we're like, if we harp on the losses, we won't see how we can push forward for the next few games.
And I think that loss did push us forward, especially I know talking to some of the other seniors like Loyal, she's like, this is our game. From the jump, straight out of the huddle, this is our game. Forget what happened last game. This is our game right now, and I think it helps us a lot.
SHAWN POPPIE: Yeah, I think that's kind of been our mindset. But it helps. We've been in every dang game. You get to the film, and it's like a gut punch because it's not always been about the opponent as much as it is about us keeping a focus or making the right choice.
So today on the board I wrote two things: What's your why and what's your choice? The rest, I don't need to put anything else up there. If they answer those two things right, we will be a really good basketball team, and I think they answered those right today.
Q. Anya, just curious from your perspective, you've played in the ACC for four years before you came to Clemson. You got here in the off-season. I'm wondering from then to now as a fifth-year senior, what's this journey been like and has the growth you've seen in this team met your expectations?
ANYA POOLE: Absolutely, it's met my expectations. It's exceeded my expectations. Coming in -- we have, what, how many -- we have so many transfers, and it's our first year together. I just got asked after the game how does it feel having so many transfers, and how do you get to winning games.
I was like, it's hard, but we just keep trying to get each other through it. We know each and every one of us are in the same position, so we try to give each other grace and understand that this is our first year playing together, but also some of us this is our last year.
So from the growth from the first day I stepped on campus to now, it's insane. It's really insane the way we've gelled together. We've had our ups and downs, but we've always figured out how to get ourselves through it together, whether that's getting on each other in practice or we're having a run in practice and now we're just trying to encourage each other.
We've had to figure out different ways to get through it, but I think all of our mindsets are we want to win, we want to do it for each other, knowing that some of have one year. I think that's what's helped us grow the most.
Q. Ladies, I was wondering about just that moment, being able to celebrate on this court. Mia, you started it running over to the band. Those moments and what it was like to be out celebrating as you guys were walking off.
MIA MOORE: Yeah, I just wanted to soak it all in. For me being on the big stage is definitely somewhere I wanted to be. I was at Mississippi State, that's a big stage, but I never really had the true experience; wasn't really playing.
So for me to be at this level and actually contribute, it means something to me. To be able to do it with the people that surround me is just really special to me.
I appreciate Clemson for everything that they've provided me this year.
ANYA POOLE: It's fun celebrating. Being here for -- this will be my fifth year here. It's really fun celebrating with those people that travel to the games. Some people are coming from God knows where, so far away, but they came for one reason: to support Clemson. You've always got to thank those people because they're spending their time, their money.
Our families are here. So being able to see them in the crowd and being able to cheer with them, but not only that, but also with my teammates. I just fought for 40 minutes with these people. My coaches, like hearing them scream on the sideline for 40 minutes, like we got to give them some credit at this point. So just being able to cheer and have fun (audio interruption) job now, fun later, and that was our fun later.
SHAWN POPPIE: Hopefully you guys see how blessed I am to have people like this in our program. In only a year, obviously we got Mia a little bit longer and Anya is a one-and-done and there's a bunch more over there, but I think they've done an unbelievable job of being appreciative and being relational.
You can feel it from the band, the cheerleaders. They're not just here. They're not just showing up because it's a tournament. There's a genuine love and support over there, and our kids feel that, too. I think that's back to the original question. It's what we're trying to build of who Clemson women's basketball will be, and they've done an unbelievable job of laying that foundation. To be able to celebrate with them, again, we got it out, and now it's back to business.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports