Post-Game Quotes
December 18, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 18, 2008
2008 Caribbean Classic MTE
Moon Palace Resort
Cancun, Mexico
First Round Game
No. 1 Connecticut 109, Washington 51
Washington head coach Tia Jackson
On initial impressions of the game:
"We wanted to come in to this competing in two different areas - defense and rebounding. We fell short having a rebounding margin of 26 so there is an area we need to improve upon. We've got Florida State coming up and they're just as athletic on the boards and we need to make a change. I thought there were some areas we were really looking to attack and that were really good for us, but we've got to do that more consistently. We wanted to push the ball and we weren't pushing the ball as much as we would have hoped. Those are areas we're going to talk about tonight, we're going to watch video and we're going to talk about Florida State."
On what can the team learn from this experience and apply it to the next two games here:
"We don't have time to get down, we have to turn around and bounce back right away. We can wallow in this if we want. But one of the things we can go ahead and stomach is Connecticut is the No. 1-ranked team in the country. They're very good. So we just wanted to make sure we could take some bits and pieces here that we can learn from and apply it to the next game."
On bright spots Sara Mosiman and Laura McLellan:
"It's too bad that Mo got in foul trouble because I thought she was one of the most aggressive players on the floor at one point. I wanted to keep her out there, she was doing it on both ends of the floor. She really went out there and tried to execute what the game plan was and she picked up some quick fouls there. That's unfortunate. Laura, if she would have had a little more fuel in her, we would have looked to go to her a little bit more. We know she's an offensive power for us, we've just got to make sure we're utilizing her at the right times."
On the play of UConn's top three players:
"They have a three-headed monster. There's Renee Montgomery who gets them the ball, then you've got Tina Charles and Maya Moore. We knew Tina liked to go over her left shoulder, her first eight points were over her left shoulder so that's a defense focus we've got to make sure we're applying. If we would have taken that away, who's to say they wouldn't have gone out on an 8-0 run right away on us. With Maya, she's a phenomenal athlete, very tough to defend, so we were trying to make sure we packed it in so we would blur her vision and looks at the basket. But when you get 10 boards in the first half, I think she ended up with 14, we've got to find a way to keep her off the glass. They went after the ball a lot harder than we did and that's unfortunate."
On facing Florida State next:
"Florida State is athletic, athletic, athletic. Their two leading scorers are their post players - one is extremely athletic, a little lefty in Jacinta Monroe. And then they've got Cierra Bravard who's extremely physical and strong inside. So one of the things we've got to make sure we're ready for is them going to the boards really hard and we've got to pack it in and take away some of their inside looks."
UW junior forward/center Laura McLellan
Impressions of the game:
"We didn't see anything we didn't expect. We knew they could shoot, we knew they were going to rebound, we knew they were athletic. I was told we were outrebounded by 26 so obviously we weren't able to get a body on them, so that hurt us a lot. Tina Charles had 29 points and we didn't do a good enough job of taking away her strength which is going over her left shoulder. It's nothing that we didn't expect, we just didn't execute like we should have."
What did UConn take away from UW's game:
"I think they took away a little bit of every aspect of our game today. They pressured our guards, we'd never really seen pressure like that. Their post players are big and we've never played against that type of athleticism before."
How does your ankle feel?
"The ankle is feeling really good. I have that hard cast that I wear and it gets taped up pretty good so it's not going anywhere. It's feeling pretty good."
What did you learn from this experience playing the top-ranked team in the country:
"It shows we need to work harder. We need to go out and execute no matter who we play, we can't get caught up in names, we just need to go out and do what we need to do to stop them."
UW junior guard Sara Mosiman
Impressions of UConn:
"Obviously they're an athletic team and there a lot of people on that team that will be going on to the league, so I think it was a fun opportunity to play a good team like that. Not a lot of people get that chance. They're just really athletic. What impressed me the most is just that they compete. It's something we can definitely learn from because we want to be in every game and that team will be in every game just because of how hard they play."
In addition to the rebounding end of things, what did UConn take away from what you were trying to do:
"I think it was their pressure. I think their pressure got to us a little bit in the early part of the game. I think that definitely put us back on our heels and we had to get used to it."
On her individual performance with a season-high 11 points:
"I felt pretty good, but I was frustrated getting those fouls because it cut me short. As long as someone is being a spark out there, that is what we need."
On needing to rebound with a game against Florida State tomorrow:
"I'm excited because we can take out our frustrations on this next team. The thing about tournaments is it gives us another chance right off the bat. We don't get to think about too much, we can't."
