(Making more free throws) would have changed the complexion of the game. Hopefully we can learn some lessons from this game that will help us down the road when we get to league play. |
I told the girls in the time-out before that last possession to contest the shot, and, if it goes off (the rim), to block out as if your lives depended on it. Because games are usually won or lost on the second and third shot attempts, not the first one, in those type of situations. And we fought for that ball until time finally ran out. |
I told them on the way over here. I can show you what a big win is like, with pictures (and such), but I can't make you feel it ... I can't put it into words. |
It'll be a while before I come down from this. We've just been through so much this year. It seems like everything we've done the last five weeks has just been wrong. |
It's been a bumpy ride. They're a great group and worked hard. We have a lot to build on. |
It's hard to win ball games when you shoot like that from the foul line. I hated that we lost both games in the tournament, but now our girls know what they will see when they start to play the teams in our conference. |
She just broke a minor rule in our team policy; it was nothing serious. |
She will be out for at least a week ? anything after that is just speculation at this point. |
That was a big call. |
The game really turned ... from that point on we had to go man-to-man and we're just not sound man-to-man. |
The table could not have been set any better for us. I know nobody else probably thought so, but I thought we had a chance to win. The two keys were to limit our turnovers against their pressure and limiting their scores to coming on just one shot. We didn't get it done in either case. |
We didn't get it done on either shot. It doesn't matter what you do on defense if you don't protect the backboards. |
We gave Nikki a wide open look at a 3, which is something you can't do against a good shooter like her. She and Stephenson shot us out of our zone defense, making us switch to a man. And that's something we're not very good at. |
We have tried to put in some new things and were trying to take advantage of some of those things. |
We went down tonight but we played for 32 minutes. You'd think that playing hard and competing is something that they should be able to do, but it's something that they've got to learn. |