Marquette University Athletics
Women's Basketball Set to Face Duke in Second Round
3/22/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Marquette Head Coach Terri Mitchell
"We understand the battle that we are up against. We understand that Duke is probably the best team in the nation right now, but it is certainly not going to take away from our excitement and our ability to fight. We will approach this game like we do any other and that is rely on the defense end first."
"They are scoring 82 points a game for a reason, they are explosive and their transition is amazing. We will make that our first and foremost focus. If we can just make them work for every point, then hopefully, offensively we can do some attacking ourselves. We know the task is huge but we have a little bit of momentum going into this game and hopefully a confident bunch will step onto the court tomorrow night."
"Our best road experiences were all losses. We played at DePaul and we lost in a one-point game with everyone cheering against us. I think we were able to handle the crowd quite well, and I think at that point with DePaul, they were highly ranked in the nation, it helped us. We came out of that game a better team. Our whole goal is to come out of every experience better, and then at the opposite side of that, we traveled to TCU and Houston, two losses against two highly ranked teams where we felt we didn't perform anywhere near where we could have. Our defense was great against TCU. Our offense was absent, and I give all the credit in the world to TCU and their defense. In Houston, we played half the game, but basically what happened out of that was a very motivational week of practice where we just would not settle and said we know we didn't show our best. So the losses really motivated us. We've had wins, but we take a whole lot more out of a loss."
"If we take care of the ball, that's the first thing. Second thing is, as soon as they have possession, we'll do like we've done every other game and we sprint back as hard as we can into half court and then contain the ball. While one person contains it, the rest go back and protect the paint. The philosophy remains the same. It's a very talented team we're playing against. You can't focus on any one person, you got to focus on the entire team. You have to know where all the players are. We can't stay in the back court. I thought, yesterday, with ODU, we spent too many times trying to stay up on the ball and it gave them opportunities where it was five on four and they passed over our head and we were gone. So we talked at halftime about if you do get beat or they throw over you, just sprint back into the paint and then you find the next person you can to help out with."
Marquette Guard Carolyn Kieger
On not allowing turnovers in next game
"I think it's really important because they obviously are a great team in transition, and if we're turning the ball over, they're going to get easy scores. So, that's one of our main focuses, to try to get as many shots as we can when we have the ball and not turn it over and turn it into easy lay-ups for them. It's a major key."
On playing a bigger team
"I saw they put their big people up using their long arms for traps, but we're just going to have to realize we can't through or over them. We will have to be in the right position, work together and pass the ball around."
Marquette Forward Christina Quaye
What was your best win of the year?
"The best win has been yesterday, making it into the tournament and having the chance to advance. We played a lot of great games over the course of the year but we worked hard to get into the tournament so winning that first game means a lot. It just gives us motivation to go on into the next round and play our best."
