STOCKTON, Calif. -- Ivey Slaughter stands corrected. And she will probably continue to stand there for the next couple of days.
Sitting in front of a microphone after her game-changing performance Saturday in the Sweet 16 against Oregon State -- an 11-point, eight-rebound, nine-steal effort that led the Seminoles to a 66-53 comeback win over the Beavers at Stockton Arena -- she tried to demur.
The senior forward tried to say that she isn't the best defensive player on the Florida State team. But teammate Leticia Romero and coach Sue Semrau weren't having it, and they cut her off before she could finish her thought.
"Yes, you are," Semrau said.
"She definitely is," Romero added.
They had the scoreboard to back it up.
Slaughter grabbed a game that was quickly siding away from the Seminoles -- Oregon State built a stunning, 17-point lead in the first quarter -- and pulled it back from the brink, setting the tone for her team and disrupting everything for an experienced Oregon State squad trying to get back to a second consecutive Final Four. Slaughter's defense catapulted her team into the Elite Eight, the Seminoles' third trip since 2010, and a rematch with South Carolina, the team that ended Florida State's season just short of the Final Four back in 2015.
South Carolina had little trouble handling No. 12-seeded Quinnipiac, the tournament Cinderella, which was overwhelmed at the start of the game by a 16-0 deficit and fell to the Gamecocks 100-58.
While South Carolina earned its spot in the regional final without much drama -- getting 28 points from Kaela Davis and 24 from A'ja Wilson -- Florida State had no such cruise to the finish. Florida State and Oregon State engaged in an intense, physical battle made up of tough shots and gritty defensive play.
Slaughter's defensive performance was the catalyst for everything good the Seminoles were able to wring out of a difficult start.
"G.O.A.T. Goaty." said Florida State forward Shakayla Thomas, the ACC player of the year, who posted her third straight double-double of the NCAA tournament with 12 points and 11 rebounds on a bumpy shooting day. "She should be the MVP. She came out ready to play. At first, she started rocky, but she finished great, and that's what we needed."
With Florida State facing a 35-30 halftime deficit, Slaughter gave her team precisely the second-half start it needed with a steal and layup on the first possession of the half. That started a 12-2 run that gave the Seminoles the lead and control of the tempo and tone of the game. The Seminoles finished with 16 steals and 28 points off turnovers and were able to stage a big comeback without hitting a 3-point shot in the game.
"I think the whole world knows that I'm not the best scorer or I'm not the best defender on the team," Slaughter said, "but I just know that with my rebounding and me taking charges and helping the team, that's what they need for us to win the game, and I do it to the best of my ability."
Slaughter said she thinks her quick hands and agility came from the years she spent in gymnastics. But as the cost of gymnastics class started to increase, Slaughter said her mother made her choose between the mat and the court. She chose basketball.
Semrau said Slaughter's humility in the face of her own accomplishments is part of the work she has done with her team this season: trying to get them to recognize their own worth. Confident players translate into successful teams.
"You love it because they are not cocky, but at the same time, it's a confidence that we are trying to instill," Semrau said. "We talk in our program about becoming strong, beautiful, powerful women. That's more important to me than whether or not we go to the Final Four."
South Carolina was clearly the superior team in getting to the Elite Eight for the second time in three years.
"I was incredibly proud of our team to be able to lock into the game plan and execute it," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. "It seemed like we were off for a long time. I thought our players came out ready to play on both sides of the ball, and it was a really exciting game for us."
Oregon State (31-5) reached the Final Four last season, but this was not that kind of happy ending for the Beavers, who struggled to score after their fast start, with just 11 field goals in the final three quarters.
It was a rough day for senior guard Sydney Wiese, the all-everything player for this program the past four years. Wiese finished with nine points and four turnovers. She was 3-of-14 from the floor and 0-for-10 from beyond the 3-point arc.
Shots she had been hitting all season didn't fall -- for Wiese or any of the Beavers' perimeter shooters. Oregon State went 2-of-17 from beyond the arc in a game in which points were at a premium. Wiese set the Pac-12 record for career 3-pointers made this season.
"Obviously, it wasn't a great shooting game for us. Why? I'm not sure," Oregon State coach Scott Rueck said. "The shots that Syd got, definitely a few of them were forced, but she also got shots that she hits. The ball just didn't go down. I thought we got some good looks, and it just didn't drop.
"And when you look at this game, you look at every statistical category, the one that really stands out is turnovers. But other than that, it's shooting the ball, and we just did not shoot well enough to beat this team today."
Last year, Oregon State lost Jamie Weisner and Ruth Hamblin from the Final Four team and got further than many anticipated, with Wiese and Gabriella Hanson leading the way. The Beavers were picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12.
"Nobody sees all the stuff behind the scenes that got this team with so much transition going into this year to play at a level capable of being a Sweet 16 team or beyond," Rueck said. "I'm just so super proud of them. I don't think their careers are going to be defined by today."
Meanwhile, Quinnipiac, whose upset wins over Marquette and Miami made it the talk of the tournament, might be defined going forward by what it achieved the past two weeks, despite being overtaken by the Gamecocks.
"We clearly had stated prior to the start of the season that getting into the tournament was not the end game anymore for this program, that winning games was the goal," Bobcats coach Tricia Fabbri said. "We obviously measured up against one of the top programs in the country. We clearly know where we stand. We clearly now have our next steps in the program, and where we go now, another route and strategy, is being hatched.
"Not many people outside our region knew about us, and now we're going to use how everyone knows how to say Quinnipiac. Now everyone in women's basketball has paid attention to our story, and we plan to use that."