Post Game Quotes
January 13, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 13, 2008
Head Coach Tia Jackson
General Comments:
I thought we beat a very good team today. They are receiving votes for the top-25. We just came out and really committed to defense and rebounding. We didn't start off rebounding well. We were down seven, made some adjustments and ended up out-rebounding them by five. We kept a very good team that was leading the lead in three-point percentage and three-point field goals made to about 21 percent. It was huge for us. This is great place for us to build with the UCLA game and an even better place to build to get read for the Oregon schools.On the offense: We wanted to go hi-low. We knew that USC was going to try and overplay us. We were able to get it in from the wing, it worked to our benefit and we started to exploit it even more. All year it has been the plan to go inside. Today we just really proved it and it started with [Andrea Plouffe]. At the end of the game I asked her if she wanted [the ball], she said yes, so I made some plays to get to her. I loved it. I love keeping [Plouffe] in the game. She is possessions waiting to happen. She is going to go get every rebound.
On the defense: I think we mixed it up so much that they could never get into a rhythm. I'm going to give credit to our defense. [Washington] works hard and it to have the defense pay off is huge. We went zone, we extended some off our pressure, we were switching some and they didn't know whether is was going to be a guard guarding their shooting or [a big]. It really got them out of sorts. I thought for the most part our defense was what won this game for us.
On Jess McCormack's injury: She took a pretty bad hit. We are going to get her checked out just see what her status is. It was her head.
On playing physical: We have to play whatever game the refs allow us to play. If it is a physical game then by all means we will match physical play. If we have to tone it down a bit then we'll tone it down. But we prefer physical.
On Sara Mosiman: She was playing poised, taking the right shots, doing the right things and penetrating. A couple of passes weren't to my liking, but we've seen her grow in that direction from game to game to game. I really thought she had a nice second half.
UW Player Quotes
On her pain levels:
"It feels like it's finally coming together for me. It took a few games. [The pain is] never gone. It's always the same thing. I just try to maintain it and hope it doesn't get any worse and do treatments for it. It's something chronic so it's not going to get better by the end of the year...Sometimes I'm limited in practice to half court sets. The more I practice the worse it gets. So I have to pick and choose the most important parts of practice for myself. Adrenaline helps me push through it but of course I still feel it."On the emphasis of going inside on offense: "It's always the plan to go inside. It depends on the way they're playing you, if they're sticking more toward the post and double teaming and fronting, it's harder to get the ball in. But if we can get position and come in, then of course we're going to take advantage of that. That's always the plan. And then when we start hitting inside the outside will start to open up for our three-point shooters."
On why the offense worked tonight: "It was just coming together for us. Everyone was working hard. We were all on the same page on offense."
On the feeling of tonight's win: "It fuels the fire for us. Now the younger players understand that on any given night on the Pac-10, everyone's capable of beating anybody. We have to make sure to bring it any other game."
On the physicality of the game:
"Whenever we play USC it always goes down to the wire, it's always a close game. In the past three years it's been they win there, we win here. It's always a game with them. It definitely got physical tonight."On going inside: "When you have Jess in there who towers over everybody and Dre who's so strong...that was a huge emphasis for tonight's game. In the past, we haven't been getting the ball in as much as Coach Jackson would like. That's something we focused on, getting the ball in their hands and letting them score easy layups."
On why it worked: "I wasn't surprised. Dre's so solid and Jess doesn't play like a freshman. So with those two in there, I'm pretty comfortable. I think that's what we have to do in the Pac-10."
On the feeling of tonight's win: "This is a good win for us. It's still early in the Pac-10 so we still have a long way to go. But I think this is a good start for us. We were up by 10 or 12 points with 5 minutes left. It shows a lot of maturity that we didn't let them come back. Even though there's freshmen out there, they weren't playing like freshmen. They stepped up and we kept the lead."
On the standing ovation at the end of the game: "That was pretty cool. We have some great support and great fans. They were loud tonight. That's awesome, that's what you dream of playing in front of.
