Quotes: Silver Stars vs Mercury


Dan Hughes

Porsha Phillips

Danielle Adams

Corey Gaines

Diana Taurasi

Penny Taylor

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Silver Stars Head Coach Dan Hughes

(opening statement on tonight's game)
"It was just a couple of things tonight. The game had separation and we played catch up a great deal especially in the second half. I liked the way we competed. I thought we had a really hard time defensively getting a consistency out of the game. You can't be really upset when your team scores 95 points without your leading scorer. But you give up 105 in the process of doing that. That's where we watch the film it will come back to us. Had we been sturdier defensively it would have been interesting to see what the end would have looked liked. They (Mercury) came right out of the gate and we answered it. I thought (Penny) Taylor was really good, (Candice) Dupree also. We did a decent job on (Diana) Taurasi. You're fortunate when you can find her on a night where that happens. Different things broke down. We had a period where I thought they hurt us interior wise. Taylor was the consistently the playmaker throughout the game. We'll look at the tape."

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Porsha Phillips

(on tonight's game)
- "I had some big shoes to fill tonight. I sit on the bench and watch Sophia (Young) play, she's my role model and I try to do the things she does. I was pretty different starting tonight. It took me a long time to warm up, since I'm use to coming off the bench. Next time I'll be prepared mentally to come out and do better."

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Danielle Adams

(when asked about her role coming off the bench with the Silver Stars)
"That's my role, it's to come of the bench and bring as much energy as possible and I try to do that every game. I did that tonight, but we came up short."

(when asked if the Silver Stars just ran out of time to recover and take the win)
"Yeah, we kind of came back at the wrong time. If we would have come back earlier it would have been a good game."

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Mercury Head Coach Corey Gaines

(Do you feel this was a big win, giving San Antonio their first loss this season?)

"Yea, San Antonio is the number one team in the league right now I think. Tough team to play against, it's sad that Sophia couldn't play. Sometimes you have to be lucky too, unlucky for them, lucky for us. They are a good team, Becky shot the ball well, Adams the rookie is playing great. It's just a good team."

(How does it feel to win without Taurasi having her best game?)
"Our team is pretty deep this year; it's the deepest we've ever had. We do have other players that can score. Our scoring is starting to pick up, so with other people scoring we really don't need (Taurasi) to score. The good thing about our team is that we have players capable of scoring points, not just one player."

(Talking a little bit about Penny Taylor's performance tonight)
"Penny's one of the top players in the world. She's definitely a player who's capable of putting up big numbers. She's won a world championship, she's been in the Olympics, she's won two championships with us; so it's not like it is something new."


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Diana Taurasi

(How do you feel about the team's overall performance tonight?)
"We played really well. We played with a sense on both sides of the ball. We're trying to get back on track and San Antonio is just a really good team. They have a lot of players that do many things that you have to match. They showed tonight how they're still the best team in the league by far."

(With you not having a big scoring night and the team still being able to win, what does that say about the team this year?)
"That's the team we're trying to be, it's not one person. Every night we have to get contributions from different places and as long as you bring that aggressiveness and emotion, we can live with what happens.

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Penny Taylor

(How big was the win tonight?)
"It's big for us to get this first win of our four game road trip. Going forward like you said, we had a few losses to start the season but we really feel like we are going forward now with some momentum."

(How does it feel to win without Taurasi having her best game?)
"It's great, we rely on her so heavily so often that when she is not having one of her best nights that everyone has to step up. She is always doing something out there, she's getting us the ball or she's getting on the boards and playing really good defense, so she is always doing something positive for us."

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