Post-Game Quotes
November 23, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 23, 2008
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Washington Head Coach Tia Jackson
Opening Statement: "Very excited to get our first win, that's for daggone sure. The girls played hard, we had a good defensive plan going in, and we executed it to perfection. We caused some problems because their starting point guard was out for the game; we knew they were going to have a rookie, so to speak, because it wasn't her expert position. We were mixing it up a lot and having success at it. We feel good--the ladies are going to embrace this victory. However, rebounding will be an emphasis in the next few practices."
On the team's goals: "Our goals are really to make it about us. We know if we go out there and execute Husky style basketball, with the defense being our catalyst, we're going to be in a good place. For a while it hasn't been about us, it's been teams putting us back on our heels; it's been about them, now we've got to stop them. We wanted to go in and be the kick-starter here and not welcome them to our home."
On the full-court press: "It was a full court zone press, allowing us to trap at will. We wanted to get the ball in somebody else's hands to handle the ball, and if they ended up throwing it down to a post player, that worked for us because she's going to try to get it back to a guard, so we can reset our press and then look to trap them even more. Then it got even better when we brought in subs--it picked up. The athleticism showed, the quickness--we did some really good things with that press."
On the team's defensive scheme: "Our defense depends on who we're playing. We knew their point guard was out, Tasha Harris, so we wanted to press them. I told one of our coaches that as soon as number 13 went out of the game, who was their backup point guard, we wanted to press them even more. As soon as she went out, we went out smelling blood. We went out and tasted blood."
On Kristi Kingma's performance so far: "She did well. Kristi is one of our scorers, and she knows it. It's just getting her to understand time, situation, and score, and finding the opportunities to do that. When she gets hot early, we try to run things through her as much as we can, or at least use her as a decoy to get some of our other players some opportunities, as well."
Sophomore Guard Sarah Morton
On the team playing with more emotion: "One of our keys to success has been just playing basketball--setting and reading screens, and not just being robots. We were about there ready to win; we were pissed off, and we took it out on them."
On the team's progression: "I think our intensity has picked up, with the press it kinda helped us push the tempo. That's also been one of our goals, to keep pushing, get them back on their heels, like Coach J said, so we don't really have to set up a play, we just pushing it to get our fast break points, which is really important."
Junior Forward/Center Laura McLellan
On having success inside: "It's never that easy, I think a lot of my points came from getting good looks around the basket, I know [Sarah Morton] gave me a really good assist. Our guards had a lot of assists tonight, so they were making good entry passes. We knew they would try to block our shots so if we gave them a pump fake, we knew they'd go for it. We had a lot of different options, a lot of different moves that we could do that we saw on tape."
Freshman Guard Kristi Kingma
On the less mechanical play of the team: "Obviously we haven't had much success the last two games, but you've got to stick with what got you to this point. I think for most of my teammates that means being fearless, and that's an emphasis we've had at practice--you're going to have games like that, you're going to miss shots, but you've got to have the right attitude going into each game. I know I didn't play well last game, but I came into this game pretending I played well last game so I had that confidence."
On shooting improvements: "I am a freshman, I'm going to make mistakes, I'm going to rush things, and I know htat, so after last game I took it pretty hard. But, you've got to take it one day at a time, so this week in practice I made sure I got extra shots in, and just came into the game prepared and confident. Coach J told me before the game, `I have confidence in you.' Especially as a freshman, that really helps out because I know that my coach has confidence in me."
On the press: "Defense creates our offense, and once we were able to get them on the press the easy baskets come, and when the easy baskets come then the hard baskets come, and then everyone makes everything, so getting those easy baskets and getting that energy up was huge for us."
