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Post Game Quotes vs Harvard
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Nov. 25, 2017
Joanne Boyle
Opening Statement
“I was just happy we got the win. It was a tough go, to say the least. The ball was not falling for us, but there was no quit in us today. We’ve been searching to find our identity, and we always say it’s on the defensive end of the floor. I thought Lauren [Moses] did a good job as did [Joceyln Willoughby] of taking charges, winning 50-50 balls and getting stops when we needed to. We never lost our composure and we stayed in the moment. Because of that, we came out on the winning side.”
On the Aliyah Huland El‘s late three-pointer and the team’s play down the stretch
“I think it was on the out-of-bounds play. We thought the ball was at half-court, and the ref changed it and put it underneath. They didn’t panic, and we ran a play that we run a lot. [Dominique Toussaint] made a read, and she hit Aliyah [Huland El] off a flare. It was a nice pass, Aliyah had her feet set, and she knocked it down. Again, I think just getting stops was huge for us, not trading baskets with them, so I thought that was a turning point in the game for us for sure. [Domique Toussant] made a great read and Aliyah put her feet down. We really shot the ball well from that point.”
On tying the game
“Seniors, you want to put them in those situations and I think they embrace it. I think there’s a lot of people on our team who want the ball at the end of the game so I was happy that she was able to knock it down. On the other end of the floor, just getting stops, [Lauren Moses] and [Jacelyn Willoughby] taking charges was huge for us, the 50-50 balls was huge for us. All of those things really made a difference for us tonight.”
Virginia Senior Forward Lauren Moses
On Virginia’s effort today
“I think it was about the nine-minute mark in the fourth quarter where I just looked at them and I told them we have to believe it. We were down by nine I think at that point, so we have to believe that we’re going to get three stops in a row. We have to believe that we’re going to win this game, so that was more on the defensive side. I think we did a great job today, and we grew from games in the past, where we didn’t let our offense dictate our defense. We went out there and we hustled for every loose ball, every rebound, every stop.”
On overcoming scoring droughts
“We just have to make sure that when we get a stop, we have to value the possession. Whether that’s taking a good shot or not making a turnover. Like coach said, we have to have confidence that our shots are going to fall, that we’re going to finish layups. We practice these things and it’s not like we can’t do them. We just had to keep going, we had to keep attacking the basket, we had to keep shooting, you don’t know until you try. I think we stayed very composed during the droughts, especially on the defensive end, not letting that slip.”
On Harvard’s offensive pushes
“Those would usually be deflating times for us, but I think we knew that wasn’t going to be it, we had a chance to come back from that. Whether it was on the offensive end or the defensive end, we knew that we still had a chance. I truly believe that every single person on our team knew and believed that we were going to win this game no matter whether they got the rebound, put back, or 3-pointer. Everyone had faith and everyone fought.”
On preparation for the free throws with 8 seconds left
“I my head I’m like, ‘I got this, I’ve practice this.’ Just have to be confident. My teammates had confidence in me. Made the first and missed the second one, but I knew we were going to rebound from that.”
On the team’s confidence
“We can never doubt any team that we’re going against. We have to go in knowing that it’s going to be a fight and that’s why our preconference season is like this. It’s going to test us to be the team that we want to be in March. I don’t think we doubted any team that we’re facing, we go in head to head knowing that it’s going to be a grind and we embrace that grind.”