March 5, 2010
Recap |
Notes
Post-Game Quotes: Maryland
Opening Statement
Brenda Frese: I thought our young guns just grew up today. And just to see the poise and the confidence that we played with. I think we were inspired today after watching our men's team yesterday. So just a tremendous passionate energy in terms of what we wanted to do against UNC and I think the biggest thing is we finished it. We finished it and completed it for a 40 minute game.
Brenda, you talk about that second half where most of your players were in foul trouble, and how that limited or changed what you were able to do and how you had to fight to the end?
Brenda Frese: Oh, man it was difficult. Obviously when you have the number of players that we had in foul trouble sitting there with four fouls. But, like we talked about, I thought our team showed tremendous grit. We fought and we kept battling and you know each and every player stepped up at a different point in the game.
Coach, could you just talk a little about Lynetta's performance today. I mean bouncing back from her performance against UNC where she didn't get to see too much time and today averaging a point a minute that was pretty good.
Brenda Frese: That was huge. And it started in her approach coming up to this game. And, you know, from the tip, I mean she just, put this team on her back with her energy, with her emotion. She just refused to lose. And it was really contagious within our team. She made so many plays I thought they really did have an answer for her with her stepping up and being able to hang down low, it was really versatile for us.
Lynetta or anybody. I don't think you guys had a foul in the last five and a half minutes. With five and a half to go there were four people with fouls and nobody fouled again. What is it like playing defense when any of you knows the next whistle somebody is probably gone.
Lynetta Kizer: My coach has always told me that when you get into foul trouble you have to play that much harder. Like I said four of us had four fouls, and we kept playing hard. We weren't really worried about the whistle, we just went out there and played great basketball.
Brenda, can you talk about the sequence with about 10 and a half to go and Lynetta went out and bringing back 5-30 and you still kept the lead through that. Can you talked about team's poise through that era.
Brenda Frese: Yeah, you know I thought so many players stepped up in that time. We were small then in terms of our four guards. Lori had a shot, and I remember the 3 by Jackie on the wing, and that was just a great shot, a great courageous shot, and she shot the ball with a lot of confidence. I think that is what you talk about in terms of growing up, I mean each and every player taking the ownership themselves and wanting to make play.
Cetera DeGraffenreid had six steals and was all over the place. In the last frenzied minute there how do you keep your poise and keep your mind and knowing that she is there and you don't let it bother you too badly.
Lori Bjork: Yep Everybody knew that so then they didn't want to foul me. So it was kind of like how long can I hold on to the ball before I need to give it up, while she is running around out there. So you didn't want to dribble yourself into a corner and get the team in trouble. So it kind of was a little game. They were trying to figure out when to give it up."
Tianna, you were playing with four fouls, but you still had 13 points 11 rebounds in 22 minutes. Can you kind of talk about what you have to do when you have four fouls so can make sure that you don't get the fifth.
Tianna Hawkins: My Coach said all the time is that when we are in foul trouble we have to do our work better to win the game but it stopped early and I picked up the fifth foul.
Coach, what did you think of exacting in the second half, I mean, it seemed like there was a whistle every second. You guys played it all. I mean you made some decisions, what did you think of that?
Brenda Frese: Yeah, you know, it was difficult obviously, because there was such a flow and the freedom that you got to play with in the first half. I thought the second half it got a lot more physical. And so, obviously why the calls needed to be made. It's difficult, I mean, in terms of free flowing game in terms of possessions. I thought we did a tremendous job not letting that impact us, the foul trouble and playing through it.
For Brenda or any of the players. Are you going to sleep a little more comfortably tonight regarding the NCAA tournament after this?
Brenda Frese: I'm not going to sleep much. I'm going to be thinking about Duke and that is where my focus is. Like we told the team, we control our destiny, and that is just every single time we step out and play. And that is all we can control.
Just along those lines how big is tomorrow's game for you guys?
Lynetta Kizer: It's real big for us. They have beat us at home and they have beat us at their place, and it's hard to beat a team three times. I know the coaches will have us prepared. And we are going it go out and battle 40 minutes. And the way we are right now I'm confident and ready to go.
Tianna Hawkins: Yeah we're focused on the next one. This afternoon was a lot of fun playing in that environment and we are not thinking long term and we are thinking next game, and we are excited to play.
