Head Coach Brenda Frese
Opening Statement:
"Obviously, this was a tremendous game because it was between two of the best teams in the league right now. It was back and forth - no one deserved to lose this game. We started a little slow, so we had keep our poise and composure to get us going, [and] we did that because we were only down by one at the half. We made a conscious effort to get the ball into Brionna Jones in the second half; she was sensational and our guards were phenomenal getting the ball down low to her. There were so many contributions when you talk about Kiara Leslie off the bench, the run we made with a season high of 26 from Lexie 'Big Shot' Brown. This was just a really solid win."
On defending the 3-ball:
"The thing I love about this team is that we learn during the game; this is a very high IQ team. I knew that it would take a few lapses in the first half but, we really locked in on Melissa Dixon and Samantha Logic in the second half. Melissa Dixon, what a tremendous player, and Samantha Logic is so hard to defend. So I think that we did a phenomenal job in terms of trying to make them take some tough 3s."
On getting the ball inside:
"Give credit to this team, you give them something and they execute it. Getting the ball inside was a big piece at half time."
On rebounding:
"We were disappointed out of the gate. Our rebounding wasn't where we knew it could have been. Once we able to build on that, rebounding was an area that we could really get to and I think we were able to in the second half. Kiara Leslie was sensational coming in and give us six boards. She is someone who hasn't played a lot but was ready when her name was called."
On her roots in Iowa:
"I mean I grew up a Hawkeye fan - I couldn't be in this game. I lived 30 miles from the school, attended all their games, went to their camps, worked their camps as a counselor, so I have special pride in being from there. At the end of the day, when the tip went up it's Maryland vs. Iowa, it's competitiveness. I have so much respect for Lisa Bluder and her staff. This is one of her best teams, and they are just so good and talented.
On freshman guard Kiara Leslie:
"So many things are contingient on playing time. Kiara was phenomenal in practice yesterday. We watched filmed on Iowa, and we knew Logic was a bigger and stronger guard, so we need someone to match her and we knew it was going to be Kiara. We felt like if Kiara was mentally and physically ready to play, which she showed early."
Sophomore Center Brionna Jones
On the adjustments she made at halftime:
“I think personally I just had to work harder to get open and present myself to be open to my teammates, so I think that was the major change that I made in the second half.”
On Lexie Brown being the go-to player late in the game:
“I think she has a great mind for the game and I think that we are comfortable having the ball in her hands. She is great under pressure.”
On this being her third straight double-double:
“I think that my teammates just find me when I’m open and I just have been working hard getting the rebound and getting second chances for our team.”
Sophomore Guard Lexie Brown
On her offensive improvement from the beginning of the season:
“I think that I have just been more confident in my offensive game. Coach B has been telling us to really push the ball in transition to get teams on their heels. When you get teams on their heels it’s a lot easier to score and that goes for all the guards.”
On how she stays calm under pressure:
“The main goal is to get the best shot possible, and in this game it happened to be my layup. But there has been so many times where the best shot is a dump down or a kick out, so we just need to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.”
On her steal late in the game:
“Well when they had been pressin,g they had been looking for their shooters and I thought maybe they would do that again. Honestly I think I was just in the right place at the right time, but I mean, that was a big turnover and a big steal and I was really proud of our team’s transition defense this game.”
Head Coach Lisa Bluder
Opening statement:
“I first want to start off congratulating Maryland, they played a great game. Brenda [Frese] has done a wonderful job with this basketball team. She’s an Iowa girl and we’re proud of her success, but we wish we could give given her their first loss in the Big Ten tonight. I’m proud of my team, the way they battled. I thought we came in here to a place that has had a pretty good home court advantage and I thought we battled. I thought our team maintained their composure throughout the game; it was a one possession game with a minute left. There were just too many free throws for Maryland and too many offensive rebounds.”
On Iowa’s road trip:
“This was a pretty tough week for us; we had three games this week. We played on Monday night, on Thursday night and today. It was a long week and two of those being on the road, getting home late Thursday night, it was obviously a challenging week. I thought our players handled it very well. We had one of the best Big Ten road records last year. Half of our games are on the road and we expect to play well on the road.”
On Maryland getting the ball inside in the second half:
“They did a nice job of putting the ball back, coming off of the ball screen and tossing the ball back. You can’t be on every side as a post so I thought they did a really nice job of the return pass back to the overload side and taking advantage of that. Again, [Brionna Jones] is a really nice player and she’s hard to guard. I thought my post gave up a little poundage out there and I thought she battled really hard.”
Senior Guard Samantha Logic
On playing at Maryland for the first time:
“Going into every game you want to know that you can win if you play well enough. I thought we did really well in the first half battling through foul trouble, I think we had five people with two fouls. That is pretty tough to battle around. Like Coach said, we definitely battled and that’s all you can ask to do against a top-five team on the road at their home floor after a long week. We don’t want to make excuses; they played better than us, enough to win. We’re not going to make any excuses as to why we lost; we just didn’t do what we needed to do to finish on top.”
Senior Guard Melissa Dixon
On Maryland’s perimeter defense:
“They were really aggressive on defense, we knew that going in. They are a very athletic team and we knew that it was going to be a battle and they were really aggressive on defense.”
