Dec. 7, 2007

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Maryland Quotes

Head Coach Brenda Frese
Opening Comments:
"I love to see the energy that we played with tonight, especially when we talked about coming in and really having a presence defensively, as well as getting on the glass and being able to rebound. I thought we did a tremendous job on both ends of the floor. We really were looking to be unselfish and looking to play for each other. It was just a fun game to be able to get a lot of different looks and, obviously, playing 13 games in 29 days, it's nice to be able to spread some minutes around and play everybody."

On players' recovery from illness:
"We're definitely on the road to recovery. All of our players are getting back and getting into the flow of things. We needed a game like this to recover with where we're all at. Again, much better energy and I think you can see from our last game out how much the travel and the illness affected us. This is the level we're capable of playing at."

On tonight's energy:
"I liked the energy level that we played with. Everybody was on board and even off the bench I thought we gave great energy and attention to detail, in terms of how we prepared ourselves. I like that we put back-to-back halves together, in terms of being able to hold them defensively."

Freshmen Marah Strickland
On the change from playing in high school:
"I'm just trying to stay as focused as possible. My teammates and coach [Frese] have been helping me out a lot [with the transition]. It's a big difference jumping from high school where we would be getting close to finishing up our season and [this year] we are almost halfway done with our season now."

Maryland Junior Marissa Coleman
On team energy and emotion:
"I think for all of us, we weren't happy with our last two performances, so we just wanted to go out there and play as hard as we could with a lot of energy and emotion. I think when we play with that much energy and emotion, there are not too many teams in the country that can play with us."

Northern Iowa Quotes

Head Coach Tanya Warren
On Maryland's performance:
"They have all the pieces to win a National Championship. To be honest, if they can stay healthy, I will be very surprised if they don't take the championship again this year. This team tonight, on offense and defense, they had a mission. They were out to accomplish a lot of things. When Maryland's hitting on all cylinders and shooting the three that well, they are going to be very hard to beat. They are always going to defend, but when they are scoring like that, they are going to be hard to beat."

On What N. Iowa as a team learn from this game:
"We have to move the ball better. We have to get back and transition, not just get back to the free throw line. When you are playing against a team like Maryland that runs the base line, you have to put yourself in a position where you can take charge. We can take away from this game that we have to execute the ball better. This game will make us better."

On the benefits of playing a team like Maryland:
"This game will prepare us for our league and that's what this is all about when you consider how young we are. It's about getting better each day, not necessarily looking at the scoreboard. For us, we have to be able to look at the positive steps, and that's what we'll do tonight."