Post-Game Quotes
January 03, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2009
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Washington Head Coach Tia Jackson
Opening Statement: "I'm extremely proud of our kids, especially in a time of adversity. We lose our second leading scorer in Kristi--or second, depending on a tenth of point. I thought Charmaine [Barlow] coming off the bench was fantastic. We don't ask her to come in and be Kristi, we ask her to be her, and she was her and then some. I was very excited about that. I was very excited about Michelle [Augustavo] stepping into that role, starting in the second half. I was just very proud of the girls. Washington State is a much better team than they were last year, so I definately see it being another fight come the end of the season at their place, so we're looking forward to it, but now we've got to switch gears and get ready for Cal and Stanford."
On Kristi Kingma's injury status: "She's in with the doctor right now, but I know she sprained her ankle, and for her to be out of the game means it's got to be bad. But until I get in there and find out what's going on exactly, I know she's on crutches right now, so I'm not happy. We've got some very capable players to step in and help out until she gets healthy."
On why Sami Whitcomb was on the bike at times during the game: "She's been having some, let's just call it dehydration for now, that's what I was told. But for it to last 24 hours, they've been putting Gatorade in her because she was cramping up quite a bit. So we just want to keep her warm."
On Washington's shaky start: "I don't know if we started out shaky, it was more they started off very well. I mean, they are a much improved team and we were expecting it to be a battle from the start, and it definately was."
On switching to a zone late in the first half: "It helped because they made subs. They had their least aggressive scorers on the court and we tried to take advantage of it."
On the inconsistent availability of players in the game: "It was the most bizarre chess game I've ever played. At one point I turned and looked and all I had were post players to put in the game, which was the flip-side of what we had at the begginning of the year. Sami was hurt, she had to step out for a second because she was cramping, and I was like 'What now?' The good thing is we've dealt with this before, we've dealt with players being out. I mentioned this before, but we aren't going to face anything we haven't faced already. And low and behold, now we've got to implement some new players in there. Welcome to Husky basketball."
On Michelle Augustavo's play: "One thing that she brings that you won't see on the stat sheet is her leadership. She's poised, we call her the calm amidst the storm. I know what I can expect from her, there are no surprises when she is on the floor. She's playing extremely confident right now; I said it last year if anywhere in the bank if she's open she's going to score it. You saw it against K-State and you saw it tonight. I'm excited for her senior year because she's embraced her role and is playing extremely confident right now."
On Washington State's poor free throw shooting: "Well, theire post players were shooting most of them in the middle of the game--Ebony [Coates] and [Heather] Molzen--they're not their best free throw shooters when you look at it on the stat sheet. But at the same time when you give them those second and third opportunities which is when we then fouled them, those could have easily been and-ones. We've got to really focus on rebounding, so the ladies know what we're going to focus on the next few practices."
On Liz Lay ajustin back into the rotation: "If I don't have to use her, if she's only at 65%, there are some times that we need things that she brings to the table. Rebounding, she's instant offense, her aggressiveness is insurmountable. We've got to find some windows for her to come in, and I'm picking and choosing when those are."
On Mackenzie Argens status: "Again, if I don't have to play her I'm not. Our post players--Heidi, Laura, Mollie, Lydia, Liz--they did some good things on the floor for us tonight. She hasn't had a full practice. I get a little nervous when a player hasn't had a full practice and then expect them, with all the adrenaline intact, to go out there. I've got to, personally as a coach, feel a little more confident about putting her out there. I never want to put my kids on the floor and not have success, so I want her to feel good, not just physically but mentally."
On Sarah Mosiman's status: "I'm going to go with the high end, probably a few more weeks. It's pretty disappointing news, but I hope I'm wrong and she gets healthy in a week. It looks much, much better than it did a week ago, but as far as her being able to cut and move and do the things we need her to do, it's probably going to be a few weeks."
Senior Michelle Augustavo:
On her performance in the first half: "I tried to just let the game come to me, but in the first half a few players went down and I felt like I was out there a few times with a lot of young kids who maybe weren't sure what to do. I just tried to take over, make plays and keep us above water till we could get some people back in the second half."
On Washington State's improvement: "This is the best team that I've played against since I've been here. June's doing a great job getting kids over there. They're good. They're much better than last year."
On when she noticed Washington State getting frustrated: "As early on as the first half, we came back. We kind of went on a little run and took the lead. The second we took the lead the tide kind of turned. They started arguing with each and kind of getting frustrated. That's only better for us to jump on that. I think definitely going into halftime we had the momentum and just kept it going in the second half."
On getting over their own first half frustration: "I think that, like coach said, Washington State came out really well. I think our shots weren't really falling right off the bat. But I just told them to hang with it and we'll be fine and it ended up being alright."
On whether thoughts of losing the streak crossed her mind at all: "Never. Throughout the week people kind of mentioned that to us. Heidi and I were going to make darn sure that the streak was not going to get broken while we were here."
On how Coach Jackson handled the in-game injuries and substitutions: "I think that she had a ton to juggle. She says that I'm poised for her, but she is really always poised for me. I think that helps me alot too because if she was running around all flustered that would just be chaotic for us. Kristi going down and Laura going down, it was like dominoes. Everybody was just falling down to the ground. I think she had a lot to juggle and she did a good job."
On potentially losing Kingma for a couple games: "It's huge. She's our starting two-guard and she's one of our leading scorers. People are going to have to step up. We already lost Sarah Mosiman but like coach said we've dealt with this adversity before. Last year, we were ten times more injured than we are this not recover quickly because we definitely need them."
Junior Sami Whitcomb:
On her left hamstring cramps throughout the game: "It's just something that felt pretty tight and a little stiff the other day. I was doing a drill and it just like really got bad and I had to limp off the court. I didn't pull anything or strain anything. I think it's just the cramp and it's just kind of staying there right now."
On Coach Jackson's reaction to her being on the bike: "I think she wasn't sure of whether I was going to be on the bench or on the bike. Then she saw me on the bike and I was just trying to get off really fast and I got my leg stuck. She knew that I would be on the bike each time trying to keep warm."
On what Kingma's injury will mean to the team: "It will depend on how bad it is, whether she can just tape it up real good and play. Jen does a really good job of working people a lot, rehabbing a lot and getting people healed real quick. Hopefully she can play with us next week. If not, maybe [Mosiman] will be back by then and other people will step us for us."
On getting things turned around in the first half: "I think some of our shots starting falling. I think that we were taking better shots. Taking time and setting up our offense. I think that our defense really stepped up. We recognized that offensively things weren't going our way. Maybe calls weren't going our way, which is part of the game. But defensively we just buckled down and did what we need to do. They had a couple people get into foul trouble and I think that we had some people come off the bench for us and do a really great job defensively."
On her second half performance: "I think I settled into my shots a little bit more. A little bit more patient. I feel like I had some better looks in the second half also. [Morton] did a great job of finding me a couple times. Maybe I was looking for it a little bit more. I kind of got into a rhythm; I was in and out of it in the first half."
On the rivalry with WSU: "I think it's a lot more now, probably with the coaching stuff. It's a rivalry just like any other one. People try to make it out like we hate each other, but I really don't think that's there. We want to continue that streak and they definitely want to break it."
On Augustavo's play: "Her play for us all year has been huge. She comes off the bench and we need her minutes, her threes, her scoring, whatever she does. Coach [Jackson] talks about how she is just so poised out there for us and she really brings that calming sense for us out there. I think that she did a great job of that this game also. Her leadership out there is great for us too. It always helps when she can score because she is a great shooter and a great scorer. So that's icing on the cake. She does a lot more for us out there too. You could see that at the end of the first half and the very end of the second half. We definitely could have used that there as well. Sometimes we get a little out of sorts and having someone out there to do something like that to calm us down. Just to say were up, this is our game, just settle into the offense, we don't need to force anything. She definitely helps with that."
