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Postgame Quotes
No. 14/13 George Washington 70, Virginia 68
Nov. 12, 2007

Virginia Head Coach Debbie Ryan
On the game:
“We were strong defensively, but they won the war of physicality. I wanted us to get to the free-throw line a little more often, but that didn’t happen.”

On being the underdog:
“We’re in the mindset that we can beat anybody, no matter what they’re ranked. We’re never out of a game and we’ll prove it.”

On the last second of play:
“They didn’t communicate, and I didn’t have another timeout to tell them what was going on. Aisha (Mohammed) wasn’t even supposed to take the ball out of bounds. But, the chemistry and everything, that will come with time. It’s early in the season.”

On playing South Carolina:
“We’ll have to regroup really quickly and get down there. We’re ready, though, and we’ll have some things to take away from that game. One of my assistants, Angel Elderkin, coached in the SEC last year (for Tennessee), so we’ll know a lot about them.”

Senior guard Sharne Zoll
On the reasons for the loss:
“We turned the ball over. You’re not going to win with your point guard having two more turnovers than assists. We didn’t hit our shots, we didn’t make a lot of layups. There were a couple times where we left their 3-point shooters openthey have great 3-point shooters and we left them open. We didn’t box out. All the things we said we were going to focus on at the beginning of the year killed us tonight.”

On the game overall:
“We were up pretty much the whole game. It’s either a win or a loss. Of course we’re going to learn from this. This is the second game of the season, we can’t be too hard on ourselves. We’ll see where we are. They are the 12th, 13th team in the country and we took them down to the wire and we fought too hard to lose this game.”

On teammate Lyndra Littles:
“Lyndra is one of our go-to players, she’s an energy player, she’s just everything for us. She gets the ball to the basket, she hits jumpers, and she sets up screens. She was playing great defense tonight. She came up and just really sparked us.”

On the defense:
“We played really well defensively. But we can’t turn the ball over. We outrebounded them, but they got a lot of rebounds at crucial times. Maybe we got tired, or maybe it was lack of focus, but we need to rebound the ball at critical times.”

Junior forward Lyndra Littles
On team chemistry:
“We’ve just got to work on finishing. But it takes time to get the chemistry right. We’ve got 23 games left, so I’m sure we’ll get that down.”

Junior center Aisha Mohammed
On the bigger George Washington players:
“They’re big, but I’m big like them, so we kind of fit each other in the post. But I missed a lot of layups. The game was rough, but it’s part of the experience. So the next game we’ll know how to take the big girls, even when they’re bigger than us.”

GW head coach Joe McKeown
Opening Statement:

“It was a hard-fought game. We got up early, then they got up in the second half, and then we came back. No one could really get control of the game. We made a couple plays at the end. Virginia drilled two 3-pointers at the end too, and made my hair gray. It was dark coming into this game and just a hard-fought game. I thought both teams played really hard. You also have to take into consideration that it’s also November 12, and you don’t have a lot of practice time anymore like the old days, so you’re not going to execute at a high level. It was just a war simply down the stretch. We just made a couple more plays.”

On being 0-10 vs. Virginia coming in:
“We haven’t played very often. We’ve only played twice in 10 years. I know I’m not 0-10. I can promise you that. Virginia, for a long time, we haven’t played a series with. I think we played them last year in 2005. It was a great game played at GW and they beat us there. Then we beat them here. We just haven’t played that much. That tournament back in 1996 is the only time I can remember.”

On Kimberly Beck:

“You got Kim Beck, which is like having a Steve Nash, John Stockton, or one of the top guards in the country. At the end of the game, she is making big plays, and I think everybody feeds off of her. So that was the difference down the stretch. We made big threes. She’s just a great player. An All-American. The 3-pointer that was hit right before our run was what got us going. Then she hit another three in the corner. One of them opened up the lead for us a little bit. We got up five twice and they came with a three too. Zoll hit one in the corner and I think Wright hit one in the end. But Beck is just a great player. I’m glad she’s at GW.”

On Sarah-Jo Lawrence:

“Sarah-Jo is from this area. She’s a senior and been a great player for us. This game meant a lot for her probably more so than anybody else on the team. As a sophomore I had a WNBA scout call me about her. She’s so explosive. Last year in the NCAA Tournament, she had 23 or 24 points against North Carolina. Sometimes she’ll get a little out of whack where she tries to do too much. I think for her to have a great senior year, she needs to play within the team. She has tremendous talent, and we’re glad we got her out of Orange.”

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