Maryland Head Coach Brenda Frese
Opening statement:
“I thought it probably wasn’t one of our sharpest outings in terms of the start and kind of different flows in the game, but I thought we were put in a lot of different scenarios, especially early. We had some foul trouble, but I thought we were really able to go to our bench. Sarah [Myers] came in and really brought the energy up. That speaks volumes in terms of the talent and depth that we have on our roster. We spend a lot of time talking about being ready when your number is called and being able to play. I think you see that we have a lot of different combinations to go with. Defensively, we have to get a lot better. The turnovers in the second half have to get cleaned up, so there’s a lot of areas for us to tighten up moving forward. I thought Maryland Eastern Shore was a much improved team from a season ago when we went there. They never quit and fought really hard for 40 minutes.”
On keeping the chemistry during the game when rotating in players:
“It’s tough. They’re trying to settle in as a group that works, but we’re trying to see some things in terms of who’s ready to play. I think we’ll see that all season in terms of throwing some mixes out there that play well together.”
On the back court play with Destiny Slocum and Sarah Myers:
“I thought the two of them were sensational. They did a tremendous job in terms of running the team and really having a good presence and aggressiveness. A really good all-around floor game from both of them.”
On Stephanie Jones’ return:
“She’s been really ahead of schedule. You look at her on the court and I’m impressed by how fearless she is. That and-one play she made, we kind of cringed. She’s beating people down the floor in transition and she always seems to be in the right place at the right time. Again, she’s really adding to the depth. She’s at 75 percent right now in terms of her explosiveness. We’re just trying to work her back and be smart with it in terms of these games. You can tell she’s really going to be able to help us.”
On having Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Brionna Jones to rely on:
“They give us a great comfort and great security. They settle everybody in. They’re that calming influence on the court for everyone, to play around and within. They’ve been through the wars, so I know that when they’re calm, the team can feed off of their presence.”
On getting Brionna Jones the ball and setting the tone for the team:
“It’s really important. I thought the last game she only got three attempts, so it was an area that I know I talked to our guards about a little bit. Really being able to establish that inside outside presence makes our guards job easier when they don’t have to figure out how to defend Bri Jones inside but again, she gives us a tremendous presence.”
On improvements to make:
“We can always find a lot of things to improve on. First of all, we gave up 61 points. That’s way too many points as our competition level increases and what we’re going to see in our league and nationally. Our defense needs to improve. I was not happy with our defense at all tonight at all. Fifteen turnovers in my opinion, we had six or nine at half, so there were way too many in the second half in terms of what we’re doing. We have to get to the free-throw line more. Fourteen free-throw attempts is not a lot. Sixty-four percent from the free-throw line, we have to do a lot better. There are a lot of areas to keep us humble and hungry.”
Freshman Guard Destiny Slocum
On her early foul trouble:
“I think I learned just to be disciplined. The first one was just pretty dumb on me and I wasn’t there at the right time. I lunged for the ball and put myself in a bad situation. I just have to be smarter and more proactive about how many fouls I have and what to do and what not to do.”
On the differences in her play between the first half and second half:
“I think it was what the defense was giving me. Since I was more facilitative in the first half I think they played off me not thinking I was a shooter. They just gave me my shots and I was open and my teammates gave me good passes.”
On making an impact during the game:
“Coach always tells us to be ready when our number is called and you never know how long you’re going to be out there. I know there are a lot of great players on our team who can score the ball so I just hit the one’s that were open.”
On finding her rhythm early in the game:
“I thought we played together. Coach called some pretty good sets in the beginning and we just took what the defense gave us. I think that’s one of the things — we have so many weapons. Like Destiny [Slocum] said last time, she was taking open shots, I was taking open shots,
Brionna Jones was taking open shots. We had so many open shots and I think that’s something we took advantage of throughout the game.”
On stepping up with the team in early foul trouble:
“I always feel like I should play to my ability. When I saw the guards were getting into foul trouble I just wanted to help any way that I could whether that was offensively or defensively.”
UMES Head Coach Fred Batchelor
On his team's performance tonight:
"I thought the kids showed a lot of character and a lot of fight. They are very young with freshman and sophomores but they knew we were playing against a team where we were the inferior opponent. I think we knew that coming in. We just wanted to fight. Maryland has been dominating and killing people. You see the scores. I was really impressed with our kid's ability to keep their heads up and continue to have some confidence and put the ball in the basket to give us some confidence. Last year we didn't score a field goal for the last 13 minutes of the game. When I look up in the first quarter and see we have 17 points I thought that helped us gain some confidence. So I was really proud of the fact that they came out wanting to compete."
On playing Maryland in College Park:
"I think it is great to have experience like this on the road and walk away losing by 45 and feeling like you accomplished something is a little paradox for me.The fact that we only had 12 turnovers in this game and we shot more free-throws than threes. We made as many threes as they did. I think it gives us some confidence scoring 60 points against a top ten team in the country. So now where we were only averaging 60 points a game in our league, now we feel more confident in our ability to put the ball in the basket."
