Kay Yow’s team had seen a 25-18 lead evaporate as No. 5 seed Florida State tied No. 4 seed N.C. State 29-29 early in the second half of Friday’s women’s ACC Tournament quarterfinal match-up at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Check out Clark’s blog entries here.

But Yow said her team knew not to worry.

“We know we can’t hold really good teams to no points and in just no time they will have that spurt,” Yow said. “The thing is to never…panic, to maintain our poise, our focus and energy.”

Sure enough, her team stayed cool – scoring 16 of the next 19 points to jump out to a 45-32 advantage. The Seminoles at one point pulled to within 56-47, but they then scored only two more points the rest of the game.

“We really just focused on defense a little more, tried to pick it up on defense and tried to get our hands on some loose balls,” Key said of the team’s defensive intensity down the stretch. “Just trying to make them work a little harder since we know they played yesterday.”

By game’s end, the Wolfpack had its largest lead as it secured a 76-49 victory.

Key hit both of her 3-point baskets and scored 12 of her 14 points after halftime. She said State, which has won nine of its last 10 games, isn’t peaking, but that it’s warming to the postseason.

“We are starting to gel more. Everybody is back from injuries. Everybody is getting more into it,” Key said. “It’s March Madness, so I think that everything is going in our way right now.”

Senior center Gillian Goring led the team with a career-high 22 points and 19 rebounds in 37 minutes. She said once again that her play is a tribute to her coach, who is struggling with breast cancer.

“Come to get the news about Coach Yow, [it] just changed my whole life, and it’s like I committed my whole life to come out and play and be the most dominant player for Coach Yow and try to give her my all,” Goring said. “I’m not going to be baby up no more – I’m just going to grow up and play hard for Coach Yow and keep my promise.”

Goring also said that even though she expended plenty of effort Friday that she won’t be feeling tired heading into Saturday’s match-up against No. 1 Duke, which is 30-0 this season.

“Just having great teammates pushing you in practice and telling you this is what we are working for, it just inspires you,” Goring said. “You don’t get tired – you just keep working hard everyday.”

Meanwhile, Yow said she hoped Duke would get a tough test from Virginia on Friday – the Blue Devils won 79-58. But she said it was a bonus that her team didn’t have to play in Thursday’s opening round after it earned a bye because it was the No. 4 seed.

“For the last few years we’ve had to play that first game, a second and then hit a great team like Duke in the semifinals and be completely exhausted from two games,” Yow said. “So I feel like we’ve only played one – this is different. So we should at least have more in us than if we had to play two.”