Posted: June 1, 2004

MERCURY HEAD COACH CARRIE GRAF: “It is never easy in this league, so we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. Obviously, it was a great win tonight. Anytime you can beat a team that has as much experience as the one we just played. The signs are good, but we have a long road ahead of us. We are in the beginning stages right now. It was a hell of a win tonight, but we have a long, long, long way to go.

“Shereka Wright played great. Who said she couldn’t hit the three? Brian (Agler) did an awesome job in drafting her. She is a hard worker and I believe she could become a world class defender. We already knew she could get to the rack, but we told her just this last week that if she hit the three point shot, that she would be pretty hard to defend in this league. So for her to come out tonight and go four of four in three pointers, is making a pretty big statement in this league. We can hit the perimeter shot, but we need to get it inside as well.

“To hold Swoopes to only 6 points was a phenomenal effort. I have to give Nikki McCray credit. It was a fine team and individual effort.”

MERCURY GUARD DIANA TAURASI (13 PTS, 6 ASSTS): “We played really well, we played a great team that over the years has dominated. Every win is a big win for us.”

(On playing in the Olympics)
“I spent a week with the Olympic team, and I’m nervous going into it because you’re coming in and you’re going to play with Tina (Thompson), Sheryl (Swoopes), Lisa (Leslie), you know, people I grew up admiring. Just to have a chance to go to the Olympics and play for Van (Chancellor) and to play with those guys, it means the world.”

MERCURY GUARD SHEREKA WRIGHT (16 PTS, 4 RBS): “It just came out very well for me today. I was looking for my shot. That’s something that Coach Graf and Brian have been working on with me and it came out tonight. It was a great win for us. I was happy to come out and contribute where I could.

“We played a lot of players tonight, everybody contributed and that’s what we wanted to do tonight. Houston is a great veteran team, and we needed to come in, everybody contribute and we did well tonight.”

COMETS HEAD COACH VAN CHANCELLOR: “That has got to be the worst coaching job that I think anyone has ever done in the WNBA. Phoenix just completely out-coached us tonight. They had a better game plan. They did a better job. They played really well tonight. They had a great plan.

“(Shereka) Wright had a real coming out party tonight. (Diana) Taurasi and (Penny) Taylor did about what I thought they would do. We’re not getting enough shots, we’re turning the ball over too much.”

(On Taurasi)
“I think she’s a great player. She makes a lot of things happen. I mean A LOT of things. I mean a lot of great things.”

COMETS FORWARD TINA THOMPSON (19 PTS, 4 RBS): “I think that our rotation on defense needs to be more consistent. We are doing pretty good on the second rotation, but on the third and fourth pass they were getting wide open shots. I think that is going to be an area of emphasis.”

(On Shereka Wright)
“I thought she stepped up big. Our game plan was to not let Diana and Anna beat us tonight; let the other players beat us. Shereka went outside of her game. Usually she’s a driver and a slasher, but I think she hit three or four three-pointers tonight. She stepped up big when the leaders of her team weren’t necessarily in their comfort zones.”

COMETS GUARD SHERYL SWOOPES (6 PTS, 6 RBS): “I think offensively we didn’t execute. Defensively we stopped our man and had a little bit of help-side, but we never got the full rotation in. It just seemed like they wanted it more then we did. They were a lot more aggressive than we were.”

(On Shereka Wright)
“I thought she played well. She stepped up and hit some big buckets for them. I don’t think it was just her who hurt us. Overall I think they played well as a team.”