vs. 
POSTGAME QUOTES
JUNE 9, 2004
On the game:
"I thought defensively we were really good tonight. I thought Kedra (Holland-Corn) did a really, really good job on Marie Ferdinand; she’s really hard to play. I thought at one time we had our offense rolling, but we got out of sync with it. At one time we had 30 points, with so much (time) to go.
"We turned the ball over a little bit more than you need to
turn it over in certain spots. Pee Wee (Shannon Johnson) is so good
defensively, she just causes all our point guards a lot of problems. She’s
so strong, she’s such a good player. I thought to play even with them on the
boards was pretty good. Hard to believe we shot 48 percent and were able to maintain a 12-point lead, five-point lead at one time.”
On the defense of Marie Ferdinand:
“We had just made up our minds that
she’s just too good a player to give her too many open looks. We just
decided that somebody else was going to beat us. Maybe they would, but we
didn’t care to let Marie Ferdinand beat us again (as she did in the
season opener). She’s good enough sometimes you can’t help it. I had
(Holland-Corn) doubling her. Just doing everything I could to take
(Ferdinand's) hands off the ball."
On the difference between this game and the season opener:
“It looked like
to me it was the same thing all over again. We had a 12-point lead this
game, an 11-point lead that game, we let them right back in right before
halftime (of the season opener), we let them right back in after halftime (this game). I
said, ‘Is this going to happen to us again?’ "
On whether it’s difficult to maintain intensity when the lead is 19 points:
“I don’t think it’s intensity, I think it’s two thoughts – I think they’ve
got a nice team and they’ll start to play better and we've just forgotten what
brought us there (to the lead)."
On the play of Sheryl Swoopes:
“It was good. When her 3-ball returns, her
game will return. When they get out on the 3-ball, it makes everything else
happen."
On the game:
"It felt good to just get a win. We felt like we owed them a little something. They came in here our first game and beat us here. We just wanted to come out and we felt like we had a bit of momentum after the L.A. game and I thought we came out and played, especially in the first half, very aggressive. It was definitely a great team win for us tonight."
On the Comets:
"The first thing Coach said to us at halftime was this was almost the exact same score we had when they came back and beat us (in the opener). We all had that in the back of our minds. The start of the second half, we were ready to play, but we just couldn’t get our shots to fall. I thought at that point we really stopped running our offense, stopped doing the things we were doing in the first half that got us that lead. Then he told us what we needed to do and we finally started scoring, getting our shots to fall and that was the biggest difference in the game."
On how important this game was:
"It was really important. They came in and shocked us in the first game. We were controlling the game for the most part. We knew that we had to take advantage of some mismatches, and we gained some advantages, but they are a very competitive team so we knew we had to play a 40-minute game. We weathered the storm and we came out with a victory."
On whether they were complacent in the second half:
"We were just taking what they were giving us and then they started taking those things away, so we had to look for options and we were just going other places. We were able to do our own thing (in the first half), but as we continued to make shots and make things happen, they made adjustments and took those things away. They went into a zone for a long period of time so that changed the complexity of the game. It’s not always easy to play against a zone, especially when they focus on your go-to players."
On the game:
"I thought our offense was rolling. We were hitting from the inside and the outside and when you’re playing like that, it makes it a lot easier. And our defense was rolling; we were playing very well and in sync as a team. We just want to that more consistently."
On her game and her turnovers:
"I shouldn’t turn the ball over first of all. No one made me turn the ball over, I turned it over myself and that’s what I have to get out of. (I was getting) kind of lax, kind of comfortable. I want to stay aggressive."
On the game:
"The last five minutes of the first half, we got some more energy and got back into the game. The game's not lost during the time when we were trying to get back in the game. The game was lost the first five minutes of the game. The crowd got into it, they got confidence, their players are playing with a lot of energy and focus, and we didn't. We had to play a great second half just to get back into it. We'll look at some tape, we'll break down our offense and defense, and I think it's just a matter of us putting it all together at the same time. If we put two halves together, we're fine. The game's not played in one half. We've got to do something to get a better start. If we get a better start and give ourselves a chance to win early in the game, we're fine."
On the comeback:
"We finally started playing the way we can play. You can't dig a hole against a team like that. Sheryl and Tina took it upon themselves to get the team jump started on their back. That's what great players do. In the first half, they scored 24 of their 30 points. Everybody knows who they're going to. They went to Sheryl and they went to Tina. They hit some shots and got the crowd into it. We did a better job on them in the second half, but when you dig a hole against them and you're on the road and down 19, you exert so much energy trying to get back in the game, that when a couple of breaks don't happen for you while you're trying to make that run, it's tough to get back in the game against a good team like that. When you're down that much, you've got to almost play a perfect game after that. It's tough to say I want you to play a perfect game after that."
On facing the Comets so often:
"It's tough. It's almost like a playoff series. We know their plays and they know ours. We've played this team five times already in a month. We know them, they know us. It's not an excuse. You've still got to execute. That's what it boils down to. They ran their plays, we've got to run ours. Whoever executes the best in a situation like this when you know a team like that, is going to win the game, and that's what they did the first five minutes."
On the game:
"We keep putting ourselves in a hole. We expand so much energy trying to get back, that when we do, we don't have anything left. We just have to learn to get off to a better start. We do this all the time. We get off to a slow start and have to waste all of our energy trying to get back in the game, and when we cut it we ran out of energy. We're too good of a team to continue to come out to these slow starts. The only good thing about this loss is that we get to turn around and face them again on Saturday.
"I know myself and the rest of my teammates are going to be ready
to play them. We just need to figure it out. We need to start playing the
way we're capable of playing before it gets too late. We ought to be happy
right now that everybody else in the western conference is playing just as
horrible. Everybody is three and four or three and five. We need to get it
done. We need to start fixing our mistakes. Bottom line is we need to get
off to a better start. It's hurting us big time. If we can fix that, it's no
telling what this team is capable of doing."
On the game:
"It seems like we play better through adversity. I don't know what that is, instead of coming out like we're supposed to in the very beginning. We're just going to have to find out what that is that's keeping us from coming out at the door. We're too good of a team to keep getting ourselves in a hole. We came back, but at that point it's tough. Then, everything's got to be perfect, and it's hard to play a perfect game. We definitely know how to come back. The proof is in the pudding, but we've got to come out with a better start. We have a great team and a great coaching staff. I've just glad we're taking the bumps and bruises in the beginning and learning how to win, learning about each other, learning what makes each other tick. We've got them again on Saturday, so we can't hang our heads about it. It's one to one now. We're going to head back to San Antonio and work on the things we need to work on."
On facing Houston again Saturday:
"It's like we're playing them in our sleep. It's great though. It was a great game and great competition. The score was low, but that's indicative of the defense that was being played. We've had competitions with Houston ever since we were in Utah. It's unfortunate we didn't come out on top tonight, but we play them again on Saturday, so we've got to look forward to that."
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
