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Maryland at Virginia
Feb. 16, 2012
Postgame Quotes

Virginia Head Coach Joanne Boyle
On the loss:

“I’m disappointed, as the kids are too. Obviously we didn’t play our finest first half. Maryland really came out strong; they understood they were playing for something really important. I think we are too, but they came out and played like it. We came out, got punched, and didn’t really respond until the second half. It was our worst game of the year.”

On her halftime talk:
“I don’t really have to say a lot at this point in the season, they understand. They can speak for themselves in the locker room, and I heard them doing that. They need to be able to do that. We can’t pull them along on everything. But we got out-rebounded by 27. The name of the game is how many second chance points you’re going to give a team, and we gave them 48 points in the paint. I just thought we laid down there in the first half. Maryland was clicking tonight; they’re a great team. But I don’t think we showed our best game by any stretch.”

On the January game against the Terps:
“Last time, we were much more aggressive on both ends of the floor. I thought we handled the paint much better when we were at Maryland. They only scored 20-some points in the paint in that game, but doubled that on us tonight. We played a much different game down at their place than we did at our place. I just don’t think we matched what we had in Maryland for them.”

On Maryland’s penetration into the zone:
“We didn’t move. They were running a little triangle play in the middle of our zone. Instead of sitting on top of the post players and letting our guards cover high-post, we took two steps too far out. When they got us on the high post they just picked us apart. They’re strong, so they’re not going to miss a lot of baskets. And even if they do, you end up standing behind them, and you don’t have a position for rebounding. We got over-rotated. They also hurt us on the press. We got tired, and had to take off the press. But you don’t get back in the game sitting in half-court defense all night.”

On Ataira Franklin:
“She has just been struggling a little bit from the field. She just needs one. She’s fine, She’s not going to stop shooting, and I’m not going to let her stop shooting. She just needs to get her legs under her. A lot of times if we can get our defensive stride we can get some easy buckets.”

Virginia Senior Forward Chelsea Shine
On the defensive effort:

“As a post and a post group, we take our rebounding to heart. You put a lot on your shoulders, your post players should have the majority of the rebounds on a stat sheet in a game. Tonight, personally and as a group, we didn’t stop the bleeding and we didn’t do a good job on the boards. I think that was what killed us. That was the most disappointing part.

On Maryland’s big forward players:
“We have played teams like that and big posts in the ACC and in postseason play too. To be able to be physical with them is important. We may not be as big as them, but we are quicker than they are, and our guards do a great job of digging in and helping. That zone is supposed to be able to keep us packed in to the paint. I think that in the first half especially we were leaking out too much, trying to cover their shooters. We respected those post players, but we were going out too much. We can’t change their size, but we can change the way we approach that and change the physicality we take to them. If they’re hitting us, we need to be able to hit back. We didn’t do that tonight.”

Virginia Senior Guard Ariana Moorer
On cutting the lead to 11 points in the second half:
“We just had to find a way to keep chipping away, but we didn’t do that. We just didn’t dig deep enough within ourselves to keep getting the stops and chipping away at their lead.”

On the mindset after the loss:
“The mindset doesn’t change at all. We have to keep being aggressive. We can’t come out flat, like we did this game. We’ll hold on to it tonight, watch the film tomorrow and then move on.”


Maryland Head Coach Brenda Frese

On her 300th career win tonight:

“I thought we really set the tone tonight with our defense and rebounding. Those are the things that you have to have as you are going down the stretch here in February getting ready for postseason play. I’m just really proud of our intensity that we played with tonight for 40 minutes and just getting better in terms of what we are doing. Obviously, the last two years we have come in here and sprinted out of here in terms of those battles. I’m just proud that we were able to play with a lot of energy and intensity tonight.”

On the timeout called after Virginia’s second-half run:
“We knew it was going to be a game of runs, but we really wanted to be intense with our defense and get on the glass and use that timeout to refocus in terms of where we wanted to be to dominate.”

On improving their game from one month ago in College Park:
“It starts and ends with your players and the ownership that has been taken in the locker room. Defense is an area where we felt like we could drastically improve in. This team, to their credit, has really brought in, and you are seeing that growth on the defensive end. We have always been able to dominate rebounding, but we feel like we could get better in that area as well, in terms of adding to our guard play. I said this about our team all season long, when you challenge them and you give them something to work on, they want to get better. That is pretty exciting on the coaching end. They are never satisfied with where they are at.”

On Virginia’s zone defense:
“We really wanted to get out and transition. Their match-up zone is a really difficult zone, so we wanted to be aggressive. It was as pretty close to a flawless first half as you could get.”

Maryland Junior Forward Tianna Hawkins
On scoring 26 points and grabbing 14 rebounds:
“I would say I played a pretty good game. My teammates found me and I’m happy that I was able to help. I know that without them, me having a good game would not be possible. I think we were able to dominate inside with the physicality that we played with, and I think we did really well.”

On playing with a little anger from the Miami game:
“I believe so, and a couple of us are rivalry players to a couple of the players on the Virginia team. I think we had a little bit more energy coming into the game.”

Maryland Sophomore Forward Alyssa Thomas
On giving coach her 300th win:
“It is definitely special to give coach her 300th win against a team that we are used to splitting with. It is a pretty big deal for us.”

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