Marquette University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
2/19/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2009
Head Coach Terri Mitchell's Opening Statement
"You never take anything for granted on the road. Our team had a lot of fight in us and every time we took the lead Cincinnati came back. I thought we stayed very composed and had poise down the stretch. We made some huge defensive stops and really worked the ball inside their zone. Cincinnati's zone was very good and I thought we were very patient on offense. I thought the difference down the stretch was where we looked to push the ball and overall I felt like our mentality was to try as best we could to wear them down. That's never easy on the road because you're the visiting team. We had a good inside outside attack and balanced scoring and I was just proud of the effort."
On the last 2 minutes of the game...
"I think this time in the season you just have to start making plays at the right time and it's about defense. Everything we do is defense first. Your defense gets your offense going. I thought our team really stepped it up. When the game becomes shorter and shorter, with only two minutes left, I thought we made some huge defensive stops and some big rebounds and then pushed the ball and looked for the best shot we could get. That's just experience this time of year. We know where we're at and we know how important winning in the conference is, playing in one of the best conferences in the country. We're just going to keep fighting every game. This is a big win for us, we have to turn around and look for St. John's and have the same kind of fighting mentality."
On the play of freshman Jessica Pachko....
"You never know with a freshman when she is going home how she is going to be. She had a big crowd here, a lot of people cheering her on, and she was everything that we thought Jess would be. She's solid, she's mature, she played 33 minutes with all of her hometown people cheering her on. She was physical and fought hard. I think that's a big step for her. When you're home you can get nervous and there wasn't an ounce of nervousness in her. That's what we love about her, that's why we brought her to Marquette and that's why she will continue to be an impact player in our program. Jess Pachko could be scoring double figures every single game, we just have to continue to get her the basketball."
On program win 500...
"You talk about the tradition of programs for me being at Marquette, I just love it so much. To be a part of a lot of those wins in my career, both as an assistant and as a head coach means a lot. To be part of over half of them just is a testament to the players we brought, the great staffs that I have worked with and speaks of tradition. As we approach alumni weekend, we're hope that the alumni will be thrilled and be proud of the part they've played in those 500 wins. We just want to keep moving forward and hope that we are a program that year in and year out that continues to win and goes postseason."
Freshman Jessica Pachko
On playing in her hometown...
"It was so much fun. It was awesome to come back home and see all the fans that I played in front of for four years. I got to come home and see my family. It was motivation to play in front of that team because they recruited me so heavily. I was close with a lot of those girls, I mean I grew up here so it was awesome to come home and play them."
On the influence playing in her hometown had on her performance...
"It was motivation. I felt like I started the game out kind of slow and I thought I can't let this happen. It was just a motivation to keep pushing through."
