March 21, 2005

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Penn State Postgame Quotes vs. Liberty
Head Coach Rene Portland
On the game: We're certainly disappointed, it's not the end of the season that we anticipated, but at the same time I want to congratulate Liberty. I want to thank our seniors for their great run, they've been a part of a lot of great things at Penn State, it's hard on them because their time at Penn State is over.

On defense: We didn't take anything away. We had four kids in double digits, but so did they. We tried a little bit of everything tonight defensively, it just didn't work.

On Liberty's play: We ran real well in the first half, but they came out in the first five minutes and hit two threes, two crucial offensive rebounds off of foul shots, and that really seemed to be a major turning point of effort for us. They seem to know what Penn State's all about, and it's Tanisia, and we really weren't getting her into a gray area in the middle of the lane. Their second half effort on rebounding gave us the night that we had.

On Tanisia Wright and Jess Strom: Certainly it's well documented how I feel about both of them, they have come together at Penn State, taken Penn State to some great places, I think they are a major reason of the last three years of success and a big reason why we stayed above water and got to the NCAA Tournament this year. It's real frustrating for them that they couldn't take us a little bit further. They mean everything to this team, they have been the typical Penn State student athletes, doing a good job academically as well as the sacrifices that they've made to be the best on campus. We're extremely proud of them.

Tanisia Wright, Senior Guard
On the loss: I'm disappointed; we never wanted to go out this way. They just wanted it more than we wanted it, and it showed. Down the stretch, they got rebounds when they needed to get rebounds, that's something that we can control. If you want it, go get it, and we just didn't do it today.

Jess Strom, Senior Guard
On her performance: I had pretty good shots and they just weren't going in for me in the second half.

On Katie Feenstra: She's big down there, we couldn't get open drives as we usually do. We had opportunities, we just didn't stick them.