UCLA at Washington
January 04, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 4, 2001
Washington vs. UCLA
January 4, 2001
Game Notes
WASHINGTON HEAD COACH JUNE DAUGHERTY
(On allowing Greco to get hot in second half): "I thought we did a pretty good job in talking in our zone tonight and being aware of where she was. She is such a good competitor and we reminded the team at halftime that she was going to get going and she did. I would have liked to have done a better job on her but that is something we are going to have to get better at."
(On depth): "I thought the entire bench contributed. One of the things we have said all year is that we are 3-4 deep at every position and everyone is pretty healthy. We are ready to go. We have had competitive practices all year because people put a lot of pressure on themselves to stay in their starting role or whatever role they are in. I trust the bench and they did a great job tonight. The freshmen are fearless. They just want to get out and play. They have a lot of intensity but they also want to have fun. That kind of chemistry is contagious for the rest of the team."
GIOCONDA MENDIOLA
(On starting the Pac-10 season): "I think everyone realizes what a good team we have and that we have the potential to win the Pac-10. I think we came out a lot more focused for the Pac-10 season and we are ready to try and take the ring."
(On the recent trend of both Mendiola sisters on the floor at the same time): "I love it. I prefer to play with her because we have played together all these years. When we play together those are the best times because we know each other so well. When I get to play with my sister I get fired up and I think she does too. When we are both fired up I think the rest of the team gets fired up as well."
MEGAN FRANZA
(On difference between this year and last year at this point): "What we have done in the pre-season and what we have come to expect of ourselves is so much higher than it was last year. The confidence that we have is the difference. When you can outrebound any team in the Pac-10 by 20 then that is huge. We have been focusing on that and we know that is what we need to do if we want to beat teams."
UCLA HEAD COACH KATHY OLIVIER
(On this year's Washington team): "They have more experience. June Daugherty has done a really good job. They were very young last year. Even though they were young and getting beat, they kept their heads up and stayed together. This year is going to pay off for them because they had that much more experience."
General remarks: "We are pleased to start the Pac-10, I call it a marathon because it is so tough and so long. I thought we came out ready to play and that is something we felt like we had a little slippage in our last game and we felt it cost us the game. We were excited to come out ready to play. We were able to work a lot of combinations tonight defensively and I was pleased with how effective our press was. Holding them to 36% total and being plus 20 on the rebounds really speaks to how hard these guys are working on the defense and taking care of their responsibilities on the glass. We got a little sloppy in the second half and that is something we need to work on because if you make those little miscues in the Pac-10 things can change quickly."
General remarks: "We talked about this all year as a team -- that we were a little inexperienced. We try to warn everybody about the Pac-10, but I think they got a very good taste of what the Pac-10 is going to be like. Washington was aggressive on the boards. They had a very productive bench, they played a lot of players. We just didn't come out well in the first half. If Michelle Greco is not hitting her shots that hurts us a lot. I think we just had our confidence down. We really struggled in the first half."
