GW/Duquesne Post-Game Quotes
1/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 24, 2009
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
January 24, 2009
@ GW 85
Duquesne 82
Post-Game Quotes
GW Coach Mike Bozeman
Opening Statement
"In the first half, we were demonstrating exactly what we've been working on in practice. That's the kind of tempo, that's the kind of execution we want to expect from our team. That's the kind of attack mode that we've been working on since the beginning of the season. I feel that I don't have to coach effort any more. Now it's a matter of execution and basketball IQ. And we're getting there. Obviously from the end of the second half, we're not totally there. We have a ways to go, we haven't arrived. But I can honestly say I can see the improvement in the team. The difference in the first and second half is in the free-throw shooting. If you're not making those shots and the other team gets on a roll, it's cause for a close game. Hats off to Duquesne because they played very well, and hats off to my girls, because they are coming around."
What's it like to have more balanced scoring among your team?
"It's explained by our system. Every player has options. If you take one of them away, another player should be open. It was working so well today that if it wasn't there on one side of the floor, we'd have a second, third, fourth option on the other side. That's exactly what I like to see. I'm not sure we'll get that in every game, but I've not seen us execute better than we did in the first half of today's game."
What contributed to Duquesne's run to make the game close?
"There was a point in the second half where we hit a lull. Some of that was caused by turnovers. When we got into a set, we executed well. It was just a matter of getting into a set....Then we got it back; Jess started getting the ball back in position and executed."
What did you tell the team during that lull?
"I told them that every team is going to make a run on them, and not to panic. But at the same time, I felt we were a little careless with the basketball. They had to watch defenders coming from behind. They must have gotten us about five times that way, even though we'd gotten rebounds. I wanted them to be aware of that."
What kind of challenge does Kristi Little pose to your team?
"Not a little one. She's a gutsy player, been like that for years. She offers that grit; she's never going to give up. You could see her willing her team back into the game. You just can't let her get a head of steam. Sometimes, I think we were too high in our match up. She gets a head of steam and is not afraid to go inside against the big girls."
Senior center Jessica Adair
You seemed to have a lull in the second half, then picked it up again. What did you do to get going again?
"They started doubling, being a lot more physical than they had been early in the first half, so I had to adjust....It's hard to pass when you have hands in your face."
Duquesne Coach Suzie McConnell-Serio
Talk about your surge near the end of the game
"Well obviously we couldn't allow them to set up at half-court. They were just too strong in the blocks and executing well. They did a great job of knocking them down today. So we tried to play faster than they're used to playing, and just try to create off of our defense. We were fortunate to get stops and make shots toward the end of the game, which we weren't doing at the start. When we weren't hitting shots, our confidence level dropped on offense and defense. When you're trying to fight back from that kind of deficit, it's hard to come back against a great team."
What did you do to make the comeback?
"One of the things we talked about was shot selection. We weren't hitting threes, but the only way we were going to come back was to start hitting threes. We weren't able to go inside on them. Once we did start hitting threes, it opened up some things inside. We wanted to give our players the mindset that if you're open, you've got the green light; shoot the ball. We felt a more up-tempo game favored us."
Any other changes that helped you get back in the game in the second half?
"We started hitting shots...Unfortunately, we didn't shoot well from the free-throw line, and that could have been the difference in the game for us. It was really our defense, being about to create opportunities in transition, not allowing them to play their `blizzard' defense. If you allow them to set that up, you're not able to run your offense...It was just a matter of getting our offense going."
