Silver Stars 106, Mercury 89

Postgame Quotes: Mercury at Silver Stars - Aug. 15, 2009


Corey Gaines
Cappie Pondexter
Diana Taurasi
Dan Hughes

Ruth Riley
Becky Hammon

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Mercury Head Coach Corey Gaines

“Well you know they shot well, San Antonio water, home cooking, I don’t know they just took care of business and played well. We usually have six players in double figures but that wasn’t the case tonight and that definitely didn’t help our cause.”

(On turnovers)
“We had 19 turnovers and it absolutely killed us. Last game I think we had six and they had 13 or 14.”

(On the impact of this loss)
“You know we may end up seeing San Antonio in the first round, you never know. I’m not worried about our placement, we will still hold down the number one spot, but it will be a dog fight for the rest of the conference with Minnesota, LA, and San Antonio.”


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Mercury guard Cappie Pondexter

“We came out a little flat and they came out strong and we never were able to recover. Even after we went on a run, they came right back. When you are on the road you have to bring energy and I don’t think we did that for four quarters.”

(On the team’s offense)
“Having only two of our players in double figures was definitely a factor. You have to have a team where everybody is contributing and we just couldn’t get in a flow offensively and we were always on our heels. We have to credit their defense; they did a good job of doubling and forcing turnovers.”

(On second half run)
“The plan was to come out in the second half and get back in this game but we started to put them on the free throw line a lot which didn’t allow us to get out and run. It slowed the game down and took us out of our rhythm because we are a running team.”


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Mercury guard Diana Taurasi

(On nose injury)
“It was just one of those plays when you go up for a layup and have people jumping up and down. Sometimes you get the worst of it. We couldn’t get stops so the game turned pretty physical.”

(On Silver Stars season high 106 points)
“You know a loss is a loss whether you lose two-four or 200-400.”


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Silver Stars Head Coach Dan Hughes

“Just a good team victory tonight. I thought that we got good play at a lot of places. I thought that defensively; I know that it’s odd, you give up 89 points, but defensively we were better in a lot of ways that we’re striving to be. Just got some outstanding play. Sophia Young was really just incredibly consistent throughout the basketball game. Becky (Hammon) got it going late and I loved watching kind of the development of Ann (Wauters) and Sophia play the high-low game with each other. I thought that was really good. Ruth Riley again gave us a great presence inside when she came in, that really helps; getting Ruth into that situation. Fine play off the bench; I thought that Erin (Perperoglou) gave us the type of energy we need. I thought that Megan (Frazee) was very, very aggressive on the glass. Good guard play from Helen (Darling) and Edwige (Lawson-Wade) as well at the point. Just a good all-around game for us.”

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Silver Stars center Ruth Riley

"I think that this was the best game we’ve played all season. We played really well together. It’s encouraging. A step forward for us.”

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Mercury guard Becky Hammon

“We were just enjoying ourselves out there. We don’t know about all those records; we let you guys (media) deal with that. But I thought that we shared the ball well, which is great. Defensively, I thought that we executed our game plan. That’s always key for us. Good to see everyone share the ball. Everyone came in, competed. Just a great team win.”

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