Washington-Arizona State Postgame Quotes
December 29, 2004 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 29, 2004
Washington Head Coach June Daugherty
General Comments: "Two nights ago I sat in here and told you that we're getting dangerously close, and that these kids are really playing hard and playing with great intensity defensively. Tonight we were able to really mix it up in both our zone, our man, and our pressing schemes and to force those kind of turnovers against a veteran team like Arizona State was the difference."
On game's intensity: "Hard-fought game both ways. It was just physical Pac-10 basketball all the way. It was kind of who could survive it, and fortunately we were able to get the 'W'."
On defensive pressure: "One, we're a pretty decent team pressuring defensively. We go against it every day because we've got the athletes to do that in this program. So hopefully every day gets us ready for the type of pressure the Sun Devils throw out there. You've got to look back at the preseason we played. We played a lot of teams that were ranked higher than these guys and D up that way, so we've been working on it and getting better. We were able to get the penetration and get to the line and that's what it takes to get that kind of defense."
On getting to the free throw line early: "That was by design. We feel like we have kids who can handle the basketball and they're athletic and if they have a seam they're supposed to go and they were able to do that."
On consecutive strong performances: "It's exciting. We said it was a new season with the Pac-10. We learned a lot in the preseason, there's no doubt about it we played the toughest preseason schedule of anybody in our conference and these kids knew it was going to come back around to help them. It already has, even before we won this game tonight. They're understanding what we have to do to compete at this level. So it's a great step for us and we just ask the kids to build each day in practice and games and that's what we see them doing."
On Kayla Burt: "At the end of the game playing against this type of pressure, we want to face up and we want to take it off the dribble. We're athletic enough to do that now at every position. And Kayla, coming off the Arizona game, she was disappointed. She felt like she might have let the team down which was not the case. But one of the things that was mentioned to her was just relax and go in there and get what you can get. Everybody knows that Kayla can penetrate with the basketball with the best of them and she's getting more and more confident doing that. She's like a little bolt of lightning on the left side when she goes because she's got some unbelievable talents. I think the other thing with Kayla is she's just so passionate about the game and she's so happy to be back playing with this group and being able to perform that every opportunity she just glows, she's excited about it. She wasn't going to be down very long after the Arizona game. I think it took her about 10 minutes and she's back in the locker room talking to these guys and telling them how proud she was of them. She was skipping around practice today, she does a lot of things to get these guys to relax and believe. I don't know, I think we ask too much of her but she's a special person."
On not making a three-pointer: "I don't think that's ever happened. But the game plan was trying to get penetration and spread the floor and take advantage of our athleticism and we were able to accomplish that. And when you do that you're going to go to the line, and it's good to see that."
GUARD Emily Florence
On nose injury: "The shot went up and I tried to box out one of their bigger girls, a 4 or 5, and I got the rebound and then got an elbow right in the nose."
On up-tempo game style: "I like the running game. Arizona State put a lot of pressure on us, but I think we handled it pretty well. We put a lot of pressure on them too. It was a fun game with lots of transition, I like that style of game."
GUARD Kristen O'Neill
On win: "It's great to get a win. We've had a couple of heartbreakers that have not gone our way. We are very confident though because we continue to improve and that's our goal every day, to get better."
On team's progress: "We're not dwelling on mistakes as much as we were. We're looking more at the positives and continuing to build on the positive. We're going to still make mistakes, we're young, but we're getting experience. I'm not using that as an excuse, we just continue building and continue to get confidence in ourselves and each other."
FORWARD Jill Bell
On game plan: "We followed our own game plan and tried to play hard. If you keep that emphasis, then good things will follow. Tonight we fought to the very end and that style of basketball I like to play."
