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Women’s Basketball Postgame Quotes
Virginia 103, Georgia Tech 101 (2OT)
March. 2, 2008
Virginia head coach Debbie Ryan
Opening Statement:
I need to give Georgia Tech all the credit in the world. They played an incredible game. They played with a lot of heart and they’re extremely athletic. They are extremely physical and put a lot of pressure on us, and we weren’t matching that in the first half. In the second half we changed our tune and got a little more physical, which was a much better sign for us. In the first overtime, I thought we called the timeout a little too soon, we probably could have run the same play with only six seconds on the clock. Fortunately in the second overtime, we got another opportunity with about 6.4 seconds on the clock this time, and things worked perfectly. That’s a play that we’ve been waiting to run all year, but it’s the first time we’ve run it in a game, so it was good to see it worked.
On the last play:
Tara’s a great shooter and everyone knows it. So we put Tara in the corner to draw the attention so that they couldn’t double at the post. Really, it’s a very simple play and we happened to put the ball in the right place and Monica Wright scored it.
On the Georgia Tech technical fouls called on MaChelle Joseph and Chioma Nnamaka:
We were down about six or seven at that point, and there was a definite swing. Nnamaka is a great player and she was money for them today. Sometimes we were right in her face and it didn’t matter, once she locked in, she hit everything. So, it was a very unfortunate foul for her. I know the refs were getting antsy about things because the time before the staff was coming back at the officials a bit, I guess they just decided enough was enough.
On Lyndra Littles:
I thought Lyndra’s effort was tremendous tonight. Even though she had to be on the floor a lot of minutes, I thought she gave me everything that she had. I had to rest her that one stretch, because she was exhausted. I just felt like she gave us everything she had tonight, especially offensively, but she also had some big defensive boards. The foul trouble was what it was, and I couldn’t worry about it. I just had to play her.
Georgia Tech head coach MaChelle Joseph
On the game:
I give Virginia a lot of credit they played really hard. Their players were extremely competitive, they’re a great team that is very well coached. It was a great battle out there for both teams; they played their hearts out and left it all out there. One of the things we have to learn is from our mistakes. We made the same mistakes that we’ve made before, but we’re going to learn from them and we’re going to get better. This game definitely made us a better team and I think we still have a lot of basketball left to play. We have good depth and we have a strong offense. I’m very proud of how our team played today.
On the fouls:
You’re not going to win a game on the road when you foul 35 times. When you give someone 46 free throws, that’s tough to overcome.
On two top players fouling out:
To take Virginia to two overtimes … really says a lot about the character of our team. It was about finding out how tough we are and what we’re all about of. And I think we find out that we are pretty tough. We had some players out there who hadn’t played in but a few games this season. I’m just really proud of our effort, how they persevered and how they stayed after it. A couple calls changed here and there and it would have been a different game.
On the ACC tournament:
I think Virginia could beat anybody on any given night. They have a starting five that is as good as anybody in the ACC. They are a very talented team.