Post-game Quotes
11/29/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2008
MILWAUKEE -
Head Coach Terri Mitchell's Opening Statement
"It was a pretty exciting game to be a part of for our 6th game of the year. Our players have fought hard. The adversity of not having your starting 4 and 5 players, shows that our team had a lot of character. We took the lead, but obviously, we then had the turnovers late in the 2nd half. We had a drought-I felt like we had good shots, but they just weren't falling. You learn a lot about this game with composure, especially composure down the stretch. I give Virginia a lot of credit. When we took the lead, they never backed off and turned up the defensive pressure. Statistically, we rebounded with them, we did everything we were supposed to, but they came out the winners, and we are going to learn a lot from today. Monica Wright obviously played fantastic. I thought our guard play was very good. We are going to grow and get better and turn around to play Utah.
On how this type of play will help teamââ'¬Â¦
"I said in the locker room that no one can drop her head right now. It's the sixth game of the year. This is the time that we're going to learn about ourselves and get better. Coaches will watch the film tonight and be very clear on some of the things that we did well, some things that we didn't do well, teach them, and turnaround and play another game against a team with a completely different style. Utah likes the motion/cuts, motion/cuts, and we got to be able to be on our best game. We have to respect their long tradition and come out fighting. Right now it's about character check. You lose an emotional game, will you come back tomorrow to fight? Knowing my team, I think we will."
On tremendous play by Wright and other UVA playersââ'¬Â¦
"They had big shots at critical times. I guess that's what good teams do. This is a team that has already gone into Tennessee's house and beat them. It's not like there is much that intimidates them. We had some shots, and we knocked down some and we didn't. There's a lot going on in our post game. I thought Georgie and Paige did very well. We obviously didn't get the scores from them that we did yesterday. Our guards were playing very well, but in the end, I think that's what affected us a little bit because we had to rely more on our outside shots and getting inside touches and scoring, and that's probably why we need to find another post to play that position. We have three, but we need to develop another player off the bench."
On the learning opportunity present in this tournamentââ'¬Â¦
"We hand-picked the teams, picking teams with winning traditions and great coaches that are going to make us better. That's why we're in this tournament and that's why the University stepped up and said yes, we are going to sponsor this tournament. At the end of day, we are going to get better because of it. We'll have more film to show to players. We'll prepare a scouting report, and they'll have to know it to turn around and play a team with a completely different style of play, and then we turn around and play Northwestern on Tuesday night. Four games in five days will really test our strength and our ability to emotionally turn around."
Senior guard Krystal Ellis
On second half mistakesââ'¬Â¦
"We just didn't keep our composure but we tried to figure it out in timeouts. We figured it out, but in the end we didn't win."
On reasons why Marquette made late-game mistakesââ'¬Â¦
"We just started playing their type of game-up tempo and really fast- instead of doing what we do best. We are an up-tempo team, but we like to be in the half-court also. We weren't running the plays like we were supposed to."
On what can be learned from this gameââ'¬Â¦
"Yes, capitalize on the win. We were up and we didn't capitalize, and that's a big thing, Virginia is like any other team in the Big East. They are very up in your face on defense, they pressure the ball and they do all sorts of things. I think this game helped us, and it will help us in the Big East so that we can have wins and not losses."
On high 3- point shooting towards end of gameââ'¬Â¦
"We probably settled for 3's, but we went to the basket also, and we weren't getting the fouls so things changed."
Virginia Head Coach Debbie Ryan's Opening Statement
"It was a tough atmosphere to come into and really the only thing that I think saved us tonight was the fact that we've been here before. We've played in two very hostile arenas already at Tennessee when they were No. 6 and at Old Dominion when they were No. 24. Our team was prepared for the atmosphere.
I thought that Marquette came out very prepared and obviously Angel Robinson and Krystal Ellis played really well tonight. They were just very difficult to defend and just really tough the entire night. Robinson was especially tough at the end of the game. I thought they rebounded the ball extremely well and really what we had to do was find a way to get stops and score. When we get in trouble, its obvious we go to Monica Wright and she really delivered tonight in every way, shape and form.
I thought I got a lot of good play from my first-years, Chelsea Shine and especially great play from [Whitny] Edwards tonight, besides Monica. It was a hard fought battle and just a very, very tough game. Both teams deserve a lot of credit for putting on a great game tonight."
On the difference at the end of the game...
"I think it was the experience that we've had already this year. I mean, we're not a super-veteran team - we play a lot of first-years. But because we've been in tough atmospheres like this before, we stayed together. I thought Aisha Mohammed came alive at the end and just was boarding everything at the end. I felt very confident going down the stretch and I thought we realized when it was time to take the game over. We made a really good move at the four minute mark and we played our cards then. Once we played them, everything started to fall our way."
On bench production...
"I thought Mohammed came alive in the second half. I thought that Whitny Edwards played a very steady game and Enonge Stovall gave us 28 great minutes. She made one three but was in there playing really good defense. She was the one who had to guard Robinson a lot of the game - she and Britnee Millner. Britnee may not have scored a lot of points but I thought she just did a good job of neutralizing what Angel was doing tonight, she was just a tough guard tonight."
On being down 14-13 and forcing four straight turnovers...
"Forcing the turnovers was important. The main thing though is that we really understood where the game was and it was time to push it over the edge for us. We were behind almost the entire game and once we were able to get within striking distance, we realized it and were able to get the lead and once we did that, we understood we had to stay there."
