Post Game Quotes vs. No. 3 Tennessee
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Nov. 28, 2013
Head Coach Joanne Boyle
Opening Statement
“I’m really proud of the kids and I thought they really fought hard. We had four or five goals as a team for today, and they got almost every one. When we came out in the second half, it took us three or four minutes to get going. Tennessee is a team that just ramps it up, so they took advantage. We had to try to play catch-up a little bit. You have to play almost a perfect game against them, and I thought we did a good job, but there were little things like missed free throws that hurt us.”
On the energy of the first half
“We just made everything tough for them. Against the match-up zone, you have to take away the paint. We took away all of their bigs and all of their rebounding. We had to live and die a little bit by the three-point shot. Meighan Simmons got really hot, but we did everything we needed to do in that first half to go into the break with a lead.”
“When we came out in the second half, we were just a little bit flat. That cost us early. We got in foul trouble. Missing free throws. The wheels started to come off a little bit. But I felt the last five minutes of the game, we really fought to get back in it. I am really proud of the effort, but with a young team, we need to clean some things up. We can play with teams like this. And I am really proud of that.”
On the plan after Faith Randolph hit a three to put UVa within five
“She hit the three and then we called a timeout to put more of our pressing group in to try and get a stop. At that point, we fouled. They scored. We had to go back with our normal group. We were trying to get some momentum to cause a turnover.”
On whether Tennessee was doing something different to Ataira Franklin in the second half
“I think we had some miscues offensively. We got out of sorts. We needed to get Frankie the ball a couple of times. That is a young team. They don’t understand time and score and who is hot in a game. That really cost us.”
On what they will do with the quick turnaround before playing again Friday
“The girls are going to watch the first half of the SMU/Kansas State game and then we are going to go back and do ice baths and rest up. We will have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner tonight and then watch some film, but really it is about resting up and get ready to play again tomorrow.”
Senior guard Ataira Franklin
“This was a game where we really came out knowing we were really going to have to rebound and defend. We came out strong sticking to those principles. Those were the two things the coaches harped on and told us that were going to win us that game. We were in a great position in the first half to do that when we were executing and doing those things.”
On what it was like shooting in the high school gym
“Coach always tells us to control the things that we can control, like your feet being set and your release point. You can’t really worry about your surroundings.