March 24, 2008
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
No. 6 seed Arizona State (22-10) defeated No. 11 seed Temple (21-13), 61-54, Sunday evening during first-round action in the 2008 NCAA women's basketball tournament.
Postgame Notes
• Arizona State improves to 10-8 all time in the NCAA Tournament. They are coming off an Elite Eight appearance in last year's tournament, their best performance to date.
• Temple drops to 3-7 all time in NCAA Tournament play.
• Arizona State improved to 3-1 when tied at halftime. The game was tied at 26.
• The Owls lost for the first time this season when tied at halftime. They won the only other game in which that happened, a 56-51 victory over Dayton in the Atlantic 10 Tournament semifinal.
• Arizona State senior Jill Noe reached double-figures for the 13th time this season and the 54th time in her career. She had 12 on the night.
• Noe grabbed four rebounds to move her into 10th place all-time with 374.
• Arizona State junior Briann January reached double-figures for the 22nd time this year and 42nd time in her career with 10 in the game.
• Arizona State junior Lauren Lacey reached double-figures for the 24th time this season, scoring 14 tonight.
• Temple senior Lady Comfort scored 11 points tonight, giving her 1,007 in her career. Comfort becomes the 16th Owl to score at least 1,000 points in her Temple career.
• For Comfort, it was the 18th time this season and the 39th time in her career that she reached double figure points.
• With five rebounds tonight, Comfort moved into seventh place for the most rebounds in a single season in Temple history. She finished the year with 286.
• By scoring 21 points tonight, Temple senior Ashley Morris is now 24th all time at Temple with 817 points in her career.
• With those 21 points, Morris has moved into 11th place on the Temple list for most points in a single season. She had 518 this year.
• The game was Morris' 25th this season in double figures. In her career, Morris has reached double figures 28 times. Morris has put up at least 20 points eight times in her career, all of which have come this season.
Arizona State Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Charli Turner Thorne
Opening Statement:
"That was a hard-fought win. Our hats are definitely off to Temple. They are an outstanding team and took us to the wire. Ashley Morris and Lady Comfort were great seniors and Dawn Staley does a tremendous job. I am very proud of my team and their effort. Coming east and playing a team of Temple's caliber and we hadn't played in two weeks so we had to get some rust off. It's good to get this game under our belts and hopefully with each game, we'll get sharper."
On second-half adjustments that enabled Arizona State to begin the second half on a 13-0 run:
"In the first half, we didn't play as we normally do and take things away, I thought. Offensively, we weren't playing strong in the paint and playing soft. We came out in the second half and got more aggressive on defense, took the ball up stronger, were a little more patient and we settled down, took our time and took the ball stronger to the basket. We also picked up our defense."
On playing with three or four guards at the end of the game when Temple was pressing and trying to get back into the game:
"We do that on occasion. We just wanted to have more ball-handlers and they are great free-throw shooters. They did a great job."
Junior Guard Briann January
On the two-week layoff between the Pac-10 tournament and the NCAA tournament:
"Any team is going to struggle when you don't play for two weeks. It's hard to simulate a game situation in practice, but in the second half, we got back to our solid basketball and got it done."
On Temple guard Ashley Morris:
"She's an extremely quick and athletic guard. We tried to contain her and keep our hands up. We tried to take her out of her comfort zone the whole game, but she's a great player."
Junior Forward Lauren Lacey
On her teammates' getting her the ball in the post:
"The great thing about our team is we have both a inside and outside game plan whenever we go into a game. The guards did a great job of getting me the ball inside, not just me, but all of our post players. First half we struggled a bit, but in the second half, we slowed down, put the ball up and it went in the basket."
On the physical nature of the game:
"Inside was extremely physical. We've seen a lot of physical teams and that's why we've played a really intense preseason schedule to prepare us for March."
Senior Guard Jill Noe
On whether she was concerned that this could be her last game:
"I try not to think like that. I try to take everything minute by minute and I just knew if I went out and had fun and brought a lot of energy things would turn in our favor. It was contagious and it was really fun. My teammates were helping me stay energized. This was a great team win."
Temple Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Dawn Staley
On opening blitz of second half:
"I thought we lost it on the defensive end, not necessarily what we were doing on an offensive end. I thought we came out in the second half and gave up an easy lay-up. Our players were not ready to play and then we just played the ball screen wrong on (Jill) Noe and she got a three off ... I think that gave them a little cushion to open the game up. It was more so of a mental breakdown defensively but other than that I feel the ballgame was pretty even."
On not getting enough points from other people other than Ashley Morris:
"Ashley usually does her part but we just need some other people to step up. Yes, score points, but be a threat out there on the floor. I think everybody just sat around watching her go to work and our players never really became a threat on the floor. I told our team, we lost the heart and soul of our basketball team ... She was it this year! Hopefully our players will come back and this sour taste that's left in our mouth will force them to do a little more during the off season."
On losing Comfort and Morris:
"It's hard to lose players every year, especially seniors because of what they mean to your program not only as basketball players but also as people and leaders. They have to move on ... The have to display kind of what they've learned as 18 - 22 year olds and being a part of a basketball team. Challenge themselves to conquer a lot of other things in life, which could include basketball. Certainly with the education they get from Temple University, they'll be an asset to some company or basketball team and I'm proud to know they wore the Temple uniform proudly."
Senior Center Lady Comfort
On ongoing sense of frustration of not being able to get that extra pop after rallies:
"It was a little bit of frustration at the end. We knew we could come back (down 8) but then a turnover sort of broke us down mentally."
