Jan. 15, 2004
Recap|
Box Score
Georgia Tech head coach MaChelle Joseph
On Maryland's improvement from last year:
"I have to give a lot of credit to Maryland. That is a much improved Maryland team. In my three years in the league, that's the best Maryland team I've seen. They're well-coached, obviously, and they have great perimeter play. I'm really impressed with Kalika France, she's the real deal. She's one of the best one-on-one players in the league. Shay Doron does a great job, she does a great job drawing fouls. I just thought that their team played extremely hard."
"I think they have two of the best guards--not just freshmen guards--but two of the best guards in the ACC. We've faced some of the best teams already and they don't get much better than those two. Then you throw in that Alli Spence off the bench is such a great three-point shooter and they're really hard to defend. I definitely think it's the perimeter play."
On Kalika France:
"She reminds me a lot of Alana Beard because she has the intangibles. I saw her tonight get in her teammates' faces and say 'you get over there and you do this and you do that' and you don't see that out of a freshman. She was a fierce competitor out there tonight."
On Georgia Tech's play:
"Turnovers killed us. You can't go on the road and have 21 turnovers and win, especially against a team like Maryland. We've been a very good defensive team all year long, and I have to give credit to Maryland's offense because I think they were there and their shots were contested. They made difficult shots. I don't think they got any wide open easy looks at the basket, I think their kids just stepped up and made difficult shots."
Maryland head coach Brenda Frese
On Maryland's efforts:
"It's nice to be able to see us keep our composure down the wire. We got a lot of contributions from a lot of players on the offensive end. We stepped up and made our free throws and were able to finish the game. I thought Georgia Tech did a tremendous job and really hurt us on the defensive end; they were very aggressive off the dribble penetration. This is what the ACC is like; every game is a war and you have to be ready to play. It was just nice to be able to finish."
On Maryland's offensive and defensive play:
"We've been really aggressive and confident on the offensive end and not so confident on the defensive end. It will be nice when we're able to put both ends of the court together. It is nice to be able to see the kind of scoring we're getting from our guard play."
Sophomore forward Chrissy Fisher
On breaking out of her scoring slump:
"It was a combination of a lot of things. I hadn't been playing too well and fell into a slump. I knew I had to get out of it and talked to the coaches. I've been working through it at practice. I knew it was going to come one game, it was just a matter of being patient."
Junior guard Alli Spence
On Maryland giving up 87 points to Georgia Tech:
"A W is a W but we definitely need to get back to work on the defensive end. We're giving away a lot of dribble penetration. Like Coach said, our mindset has changed and we aren't being aggressive. We're attacking offensively and we need to bring that back on the defensive end."
