Washington-UCLA Postgame Quotes
January 09, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2005
HEAD COACH June Daugherty
On lineup changes in the first half: "We rotate a lot of players. When you watch out there and you see people not being able to get back in transition or you see them not reading the switch calls, to me it is a fatigue situation and we just have to get them out. Then at the same time I feel very confident in the bench that we have. People like Dominique Banks and Jill Bell are going to respond off the bench and I think they did very well tonight."
On game performance: "We just have to put two halves together. Obviously UCLA is a very good team and in the second half I thought our play was extremely effective. I am excited about that and as far as the officials go there's not much I can do beyond reviewing the tape and sending it into the Pac-10 conference."
On coming back within three at the end of the game: "I thought we showed great poise. This is a group that is never going to say die and keep competing and that is great to see that kind of character from this group. I think we've done that all year. Kristen O'Neill had the shot to tie it and it looked good but it just didn't go in. The good news is that we showed an incredible amount of poise and we fought back on defense. To me that's a real positive."
On the maturity of the offense: "These kids are working hard and we believe in them and know that they of capable of more then they are out there able to accomplish. Now we have an opportunity to get back into the gym after these last 13 days and make some improvements. They are getting better at a lot of things, and we just have to keep their focus on that instead of the wins and losses."
GUARD Kristen O'Neill
On improvement on offense: "This group is looking to improve and we know the potential that we have and are trying to reach that. Each game that we come out we are looking to pull the trigger and get better so it was nice to see some of those shots start to fall. We aren't concerned with our poor shooting percentage, we're just trying to improve and each new game is a chance to improve. We want to continue to go out there and try to get better."
On team shooting: "It is a team game and I get fired up when I see one of my teammates' shots fall. It is nice to finally have them go through the basket. I guess you can say it is contagious, but more than anything when we start moving the ball around on offense we get good shots and that comes from everyone. We're hard to stop when everyone's moving around."
On her three-point shot to tie in the second half: "I felt good when I released it but unfortunately it hit the front of the rim. Jill Bell had a great pass to me and it was a good look so hopefully the next time I will knock it down."
