Nov. 30, 2004

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Loyola Coach Candy Cage

On the Maryland zone
"My team just didn't do a good job of getting inside and really attacking it, and their zone was really big. It gave us fits. It shut us down. Just totally shut us down offensively. The only time we could get anything going was if we could just get a rebound and run. They're really good, we knew that coming in."

On their rebounding
"We sent Harper to the line 10 times in the first half and a lot of them were her own putbacks. We just didn't do a good job. It was something we tried to emphasize. We knew we were going to be way outsized physically, and talked about pushing back and being strong but we just didn't do it. You can't just give them second and third shots and put them on the free throw line. We knew this was going to be a tough area for us, but I was just hoping to not give up as many second shots as we did."

On positives Loyola could take from the game
"I told my kids, before Maryland's season even started, that if this team matures, that Maryland team is a top-five team in the country, no question. We have nothing to lose. We try to set smaller goals and try to get ready for our conference play. We played hard. Even when we were down 30, we were still diving on the floor. We talked about effort; we talked about not giving up and playing hard. It's difficult when you're not putting the ball in the basket."

On Maryland
"Come March, nobody is going to want to see them in their bracket, I truly believe that. You guys are going to have a lot of fun watching them. They're going to win a lot of games."

Maryland Coach Brenda Frese

On the game
"I'm very excited about the way we played tonight, especially defensively. It was nice to see in our man as well as our matchups the progress that we've made in the past week. It's something we've been challenging them with and it's great to see them respond."

On the size advantage
"Teams are going to make adjustments so they started doubling. So we started doubling and then we were able to get our outside game. I thought they were extremely unselfish. We're going to have a tremendous inside/outside game."

On the rebounding advantage
"That was something we challenged them with at the beginning of the game. We should be leading the conference in rebounding. We've got a lot of kids who should be able to get to the glass both offensively and defensively."

On balance
"That's what we're going to have to have. Any given night, players can have an off night and it was nice to be able to see so many players step up."

On aggressiveness
"Anytime you can get to the free throw line 24-25 times a game you're being active, and we want to be able to get there a lot more."

Maryland guard Kalika France

On the post players
"I want to give them the ball. They're going to make it easier for us. We're going to work as hard as we can to get them the ball."

On shots
"I just take what the game gives me. The post made it easier for me, my looks were much more open, but I just take what the games give me. Some nights the game will give you four shots, and other nights, it will give you more."

Maryland guard Laura Harper

On her performance
"Things were just flowing. Sometimes you can't really explain. My focus was defensively. I figured sometimes if you just focus on something else, offense comes, and that's just what happened."

Maryland center Crystal Langhorne

On the team defense
"Our coaches have been stressing for us to play better defense. I knew sooner or later we were going to have that game where we played great defense. We really needed to come out better defensively tonight and we did."