NEW YORK LIBERTY | MIAMI SOL

Adubato

Head Coach Richie Adubato
I think we had as a tenacious defense in the first half as we had all year. Determination was written all over the faces of our players. With the pressure that Crystal, 'Spoon and Vickie Johnson and then in the first half we out-rebounded them, I think 19-10 which means we were really attacking the ball going for the ball, playing hard.

Vickie Johnson was surely sensational: 7-for-11, 8-for-8 from the foul line, seven rebounds, six assists, and one turnover. Two steals, 22 points brought up the ball up for us most of the time.

We wanted to get Debbie Black back to the side because she just wears you out and forces turn-overs. Crystal played as hard as she could defensively. We are happy to win. We talked about the home court. The home court held up against us. This time we had to do it.

Johnson

Guard Vickie Johnson
Sunday was a very difficult game for us because we should have closed it out on Sunday. We got too relaxed when we had ten minutes to go in the game and we let down on defense. They made played and we didn't make stops.

So tonight we as team captains, Sue Wicks, Teresa Weatherspoon, myself, we spoke to the team and we let them know the importance of this game and the importance of coming out and playing for forty minutes. It starts with defense and it ends with defense. Don't worry so much about the offense then, it's going to come. We have to make sure we play defense, control their key players, get some easy backs and control the boards.

Weatherspoon

Guard Teresa Weatherspoon
A lot of things are said against us, not believing in us. This team knew that we had it in us. We knew that we gave away on Sunday. We knew that we had to come out and really play defense for forty minutes and that's what we did.

Whitmore

Forward Tamika Whitmore
We had to work the clock down. We're just lucky V.J. was able to hit some pretty good shots, along with Crystal Robinson, Becky hit a few along down the stretch. Everyone was collapsed inside which left that perimeter wide open.

Phillips

Center Tari Phillips
We remained focused throughout the whole game. It was hard to do because there were a lot of distractions out there. We had to keep a level head and keep our composure, especially when things are not going well. At one point in time we were really turning it on the defensive side. I thank God for this opportunity. I'm going to get some rest, get well, and get ready for Charlotte.

MIAMI SOL

Rothstein

Head Coach Ron Rothstein
It was a great season and I've very proud of the girls and very happy for everybody in the organization. I just want to congratulate Richie and the Liberty. We played a great game tonight. They came out in the first half and literally stopped us and stopped us good. I'm not surprised that our ladies came back in the second half. We have some toughness but they were the better team and they showed it. And I wish them nothing but the best.

Brondello

Guard Sandy Brondello
Obviously being 19 points down is always hard in any stadium, but playing against the Liberty in particular that made it even harder. I thought that if we only played like us, I still think we could have won. We came back in the second game basically, but we weren't as far down. All the credit goes to the Liberty. They played a great game tonight. Players stood up and they really knocked down some big shots for them. I think they'll go a long way in the playoffs now.

We just didn't come ready to play with same intensity that New York did. To get down by 19, we just got killed on the board. We just allowed them too many open shots. They came ready to play so I give full credit to New York. I certainly think we'll learn from it. We came back in the second half but it's pretty hard to come back from 19. Particularly in the Garden.

Riley

Center Ruth Riley
This is a learning experience. Very different from college but I felt very comfortable out there.

Sam

Forward Sheri Sam
We had a tough first half. We weren't able to get ourselves out of it. We came out a little slow. We can't do that in a game of this caliber. We learn from it and next time we'll be ready.