Washington vs. Stanford Postgame Quotes
February 13, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 13, 2003
Head coach June Daugherty
On Keys to Victory: "Pretty fun stuff. Our mission was to come out this game and play a lot more physical on the defensive end, we mixed it up, showed a lot of different sets defensively. We tried to take Stanford out of their comfort zone offensively. The number one thing was we had to be physical and we had to outrebound them and the mission was definitely accomplished."
On Rebounding: "Early on, Kellie (Dalan) and Andrea (Lalum) had their hands full, especially on isolation down low matching up player to player. Their posts are tremendous. I thought these guys did not give up defensive position almost the entire game especially at the start I thought Kellie and Andrea signalled the toughness that we were not going to give up the box today. They said, 'This is our house, you're going to have to take it outside,' and that's what they did. They kept them out of the paint."
On Offense: "All year we've been in the top ten in the country in scoring, field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, assists, and Stanford's up there too. So we weren't really concerned about the offense. We have people like Giuliana Mendiola up there running the show, getting the spacing, moving the basketball, breaking them down. I thought as a team we did a good job setting screens for each other. Stanford's defense was very good, and a lot of times we were taking shots with the shot clock running down, especially in the first half. But we worked really hard against pressure, at moving without the basketball and were able to get some good looks. But we're a good shooting team and we'll take those shots if we've got open looks any time."
On Victory's Statement: "I think it makes a statement, there's no doubt about it. Stanford's a very good team, so are we. We beat a very good team tonight. We're excited about it. Like [Giuliana Mendiola] said, we're taking them one game at a time, we want to keep improving at this time of year, you've got to keep stepping up and get better and better. This was a big step up for us."
On Team Chemistry: "These guys have worked hard for a long time. We've got a fifth year senior with Cheryl (Sorenson) and four other seniors in this program. And the underclassmen were here all summer, and the foreign trip to Australia. Sometimes teams do well off those things, sometimes they don't. This is a close knit group that's worked very hard together and they have a common goal and they're unselfish. They're not worried about who's getting the credit or whatever, they just want to get it done for each other. It's an amazing energy that they share."
On Defending Nicole Powell: "I thought that everyone that rotated on her did a really good job. She's a good player, obviously she's very good. But we wanted to stay loose and stay in front of her. I think a lot of times when she can feel you that's when the spins start happening. She's so lengthy at 6'2" and very strong about going to the boards. I think the other thing that we tried to do and didn't do a great job in the first half but did a better job in the second half was keep her off the boards. And we were able to accomplish that."
On Nicole Castro's Contribution: "That was pretty fun huh? We were in a little bit of foul trouble at the guard position. Nicole (Castro) takes great pride in her defense every day. Ask the purple team, the starters, she's all over you all the time. She's just getting better and better and she gave us a great boost. I think the crowd go into it too to see a freshman go out there and play as well as she did against Nicole Powell and that was really fun at the end of the game to see her hit that three and kind of finish off that amazing contribution off the bench."
Guard Giuliana Mendiola
On bouncing back: "We wanted to come out and bounce back. We showed a lot of heart. Stanford's a great team; we wanted to see how much we've improved rebounding wise. We got killed on the boards last time we played them."
On the Pac-10 Conference: "The Pac-10's strong. Most teams in the conference are strong and play hard. We're a great team and Stanford is too. It's going to be wars out there every night. Whether we get credit or not, it's definitely a good conference."
On quick start: "Everytime we get a quick start we get in rhythm. It seems like every shot is falling. When we get the crowd going right away it keeps us energized the entire game. We want to play hard for each other. We knew it would be a battle and we stepped up to the challenge tonight."
On last week's practices: "I've never seen so many bodies on the ground. I was matched up against my sister and we were tearing each other's eyes out and throwing elbows. We definitely carried that over to the game."
On doing rebounding drills with men during practice: "We try to box them out, it makes things a little bit more difficult. They help us tremendously. They help us get more physical, they grab and foul and it helps in the games."
Forward Andrea Lalum
On the offense: "We let the offense come to us, but we were going after the rebounds because that was our goal."
Forward Kellie Dalan
On win: "It feels like we're back on our game again, we won't have it back until we're consistent. We were able to get some confidence back."
On starting: "For me it's about how well I contribute. I don't usually get rebounds. I'm usually the one boxing out, so it was refreshing to get some.
