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Nov. 11, 2016

Recap | Final Stats

Head Coach Joanne Boyle

Opening statement:
“I was excited. It was a good first game for us. We have a lot of young people so as you get the season started, you’re just looking for development, chemistry and substitution patterns and all that, so I was pleased with tonight. We’ll keep working towards things we need to get better at, but overall it was a good win for us.”

On the team’s reaction to a slow start:
“Yeah, I’m sure part of that is just flow and that we haven’t played a game, other than some scrimmages, in 6-8 months. We have a lot of young people, two of them that were starting tonight, so I think it’s just having a feel for each other out there. As the game went on, especially the second half and third [quarter], I thought the girls just really did a good job of understanding each other and playing off of each other.”

On the importance of the freshmen:
“Two of them were starting for us, and I thought Felicia [Aiyeotan] and Lisa [Jablonowski] came in and gave us some great minutes. For four of them to really contribute on their first night, which hopefully is the plan moving forward. I think with Breyana [Mason], Lauren [Moses] and J’Kyra [Brown] and some upper classmen, means it is a good balance of experience and youth. It is just trying to find those rhythms along the way, but they all contributed in really good ways.”

On the importance of starting the season with a win:
“We got off to a slow start, but once the rhythm changed, it’s like taking a deep breath and we knew we were going to be fine. I think with a lot of young kids sometimes you get that nervous energy early, but I thought they just settled into themselves really nicely.”

On importance of upperclassmen:
“I think balance is what this team is abou. We have great balance, great leadership and upperclassmen who have been out there before. When the freshmen get rocked a little bit, you notice an upperclassman takes over. Again, I would say, we had great balance with really good chemistry.”

On what was the most positive takeaway:
“I think our effort, except for one little lapse there in the third quarter. I thought the team stayed together and they were fighting through the adversity. I thought rebounding tonight for us was really important and I thought we did a really good job at changing our defenses with everybody being on the same page.”

Freshman Guard Dominique Toussaint

On her first game as a freshman:
“I was extremely nervous, but once the ball went up I felt fine. We practiced what we had to do and it was just muscle memory from there.”

Senior Guard Breyana Mason

On the change in momentum in the second quarter:
“I think it started with our defense. We were able to get our hands on a couple of balls, get a couple of steals and we had a series of stops, so I think that really helped get us going. Then we kind of settled down offensively and worked through our sets and tried to look inside out and that’s what I think helped us.”

On how she thought the freshman played in their first game:
“I think it was great, obviously it’s the first game so everyone regardless of your year is going to be nervous. I think they did a tremendous job regardless if they were hitting shots or not. They had good effort, really stepped it up defensively and tried to rebound and give whatever they could tonight.”

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