Head Coach Don Zierden

“That was just a good old-fashioned butt-whoopin’. Seven points (difference at the end of the game) doesn’t really tell you what the game was all about. They played much harder than we did right out of the gate.”

On jumping out to a big lead early
“They played harder, and they made shots. That’s what this game was all about.”

On playing from behind for most of the game
“We got down big…I think we were down by 22 at one point. I have to credit my girls...they kept fighting back and we got it down to eight at one point with a few minutes left. You just can’t dig yourself that big of a hole against a good team. They’re a veteran team. We’ve got five rookies on our team and they’ve got a bunch of veteran players with experience. You CANNOT dig yourself a hole like that.”

On what they take from a game like this
“You hope that you learn. You hope that you learn how to approach every game. You also learn that you have to keep learning throughout the course of the game.”

Guard Seimone Augustus

“It was a good game. I think San Antonio came out and executed well in the first half which gave us a huge deficit to make up and we just couldn’t get back in it. My hat’s off to San Antonio for playing so hard and executing when they had to. I also want to take my hat off to my teammates who fought back and cut the deficit down to eight with a couple minutes left. It’s just a game that we didn’t start well, and they did.”

On playing from behind
“It definitely puts you in a push position, where you feel like you have to make plays and like you get stops. Instead of playing in your comfort zone, you’re in more of a push situation where you need to be more aggressive…get to the foul line and things like that. Our mindset changed in the second half to what it should have been like all game.”

On San Antonio’s performance
“They played San Antonio defense. It was a matter of execution. My hat’s off to them. They were aggressive from the jump until the end (of the game). They made us work for every shot we took and then kept us off the boards as well.”

Silver Stars Assistant Coach Brian Agler

“The team got off to a good start and they had a lot of energy. We know they (Minnesota) are a team that can ring up points in a hurry, which they showed down the stretch. They are also a team whose record is deceiving, especially considering the quality of team they are. They’ve had some real good wins of late and we talked about that.”

(On Sophia Young)
“She’s a heck of a player and an excellent competitor. She’s a little undersized for her position, but she makes up for it with her quickness and athleticism.”

(On having a week off…what did it do for them)?
“We had a chance to practice and got down to basics. We worked on things and spent time on them. We got our legs back under us. Now we’re going to get back into the grind because we have two games this weekend.”

Forward Sophia Young

“We came out aggressively. We have to jump on teams like that. They were on a two game win streak and that was good for us. We need to keep that up.”

Guard Becky Hammon

(On Coach Hughes being out)
“We had a week to prepare for them. Whenever something traumatic happens you rally when your leader is down and that’s what we’re doing. The assistant coaches have done a great job communicating and getting us prepared. We play hard whoever is out there. That’s our job.”

(On the aggressiveness)
“We’ve been emphasizing that in practice and in the huddles. We just need to get off to a great start and the last two games we’ve done that. That is crucial for us. It’s big for us to continue to get our of the gates quickly.”