All of a sudden (in the second half) we started to play vertical, where now we're playing forward basketball rather than looking to throw the ball backward and going side to side. We got our players out running. |
All of a sudden that night we just came together and clicked. |
Hopefully the situation doesn't overwhelm them though. Because a the same time it's still a game, and I think this group does well when they can relax. |
Hopefully we will be able to go out and give it everything we have. |
Hopefully, the two of us, we can lend a little advice and a little experience. |
I don't know why we do that. That's one of the things we talk about before (every game). Our goal is to keep (opponents) at 10 free throw attempts or less, and we gave them 25 tonight. We've just got to move our feet, we've got got to stop reaching with our hands and we've got to take better angles - things that at this time of year you hope to be fine-tuning rather than trying to go back and build a foundation. |
I kept talking about it all week. You know, preparation ... we're doing new stuff. At the same time, it's coming ... it's coming ... and then, all of a sudden, BAM! It came out. And we played, I think, our best game of the year. |
I think we got into her head a little during the first half, when she got into some foul trouble, and we kind of took her out of the game. |
I thought we played very good, consistent defense throughout. I was also pleased with our decision-making as we only turned it over seven times. Our balance was very good as well as we had 11 different players score. |
I told them in the locker room that I was very proud of them. I told them to be disappointed in the loss, because you gave it everything you had and I understand the tears, but at the same time, you have put Harlan girls basketball back on the map in a position that it has not been for awhile. |
I'm very proud of all of them. They helped put Harlan (girls) basketball back on the map ... a place it hasn't been in a while. |
Instead of reading 'Denison' or 'Monarchs' across their chest - that was big not doing that. We sat over there, we wore white, we were in their locker room . . . we erased some of those (memories). And then Nicole came out and led us early with some big baskets to build our confidence. |
It seemed like Lacey lost some of her composure (in the first half). And she regained her composure in the second half. |
It wasn't pretty at times, but we toughed our way through it. These kids are mentally tough and they did an outstanding job of staying that way for 32 minutes, because it's a tough environment. |
It's a game where it doesn't matter who it is, the team is going to be a quality team. Maybe there's a little bit of disappointment that it's not Denison, but also maybe you get away from the head game, too - 'oh, it's Denison.' Now it's somebody different, but at the same time you can't relax. You still have to stay at a high level, go out and attack them. |