Post-Game Quotes
December 21, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2008
2008 Caribbean Classic MTE
Moon Palace Resort
Cancun, Mexico
Third Round Game
Northern Colorado 65, Washington 63
Washington head coach Tia Jackson
On the game:
"I think when it was crunch time we got outworked. Northern Colorado made a pretty tough basket at the end there and it was a careless turnover at the end on our part. But it's never about one possession. We had several breakdowns defensively that should not have occurred. Call it a lack of focus or the fact that we got a little bit tired. I hate to use tired as an excuse because Northern Colorado played two games prior to this one as well. But it looked like we were more tired, looked like we were a step slower. It looked like they wanted it just a little bit more than we did."
On what happened in the final minutes to let UNC back in the game:
"We broke down defensively. They got a couple offensive rebounds, there were a couple boards that we got that we ended up turning over. Again, careless things that happened there at the end. But I think for us defensively we just had a couple breakdowns. That's our strength and that's our backbone. That's the area that should have the fewest breakdowns. We had a pretty good offensive gameplan getting the ball inside. That's why Laura ends up with 22 points. When you've got defensive breakdowns more than you do on the other end, that's a problem for us when that's our bread and butter."
On almost forcing the turnover on UNC's last possession:
"Again there's a loose ball right there and they end up with it. That seemed to be the story line throughout the whole game. We were careless towards the end and when we needed to be the most careful, we were the least."
On plan for the last play:
"We had a shooter trailing in Sami and we were going to get Michelle coming off the screen on the weak side. Sarah was called for a double-dribble and we never had a chance to get there."
On Laura McLellan's performance:
"That was the focus. We knew there wasn't a person on their team that could handle our post players so we wanted to get it inside and attack them and I think for the most part we did that. Offensively that wasn't where the breakdowns were, it was on the other end of the floor. If you allow a team that shoots threes - and live and die by it - to shoot 25 and make 11, that's a tough pill to swallow."
On Kansas State:
"Kansas State is another good shooting team. They were the Big 12 champions last year, we've got to have our A-plus-plus game. We've got to regroup. We've got to find a way to bounce back."
Junior forward/center Laura McLellan
On the game:
"It's really tough, especially coming off a win like Florida State. We let them get way too many three-point shots. We weren't getting a hand up. We knew they were shooters and we just weren't stopping their three-point shots. They killed us on that."
On what happened towards the end:
"We made mental breakdowns, nothing that was forced. It was stuff that we could control."
On what the team can learn from this game:
"That we need to go 100 percent on every play, we need to hustle, we need to beat them to loose balls, we need to box out and execute our defense a lot better."
