Missouri Quotes
12/30/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 30, 2001
Recap?|? Final Stats?|? Notes
Kerensa Barr on the Tigers' pressure, trapping defense:
"I think not only does it make us play better full-court defense but it also picks up our half-court defense and speeds up our offense. I like to trap and think most of us enjoy pressing. We like to mix it up. I don't think we're going to look to press 40 minutes a game and I think we're going to look to press a lot more."
Barr on her 3-point field goal to give the Tigers a 75-72 lead:
"I thought it was a pretty big '3' I hit to put us in the lead but I thought we had a pretty balanced attack all night. Angie Carter came in in the first half and gave us a huge lift defensively. Tracy (Lozier) came in got some steals and hit a big shot ... I know Nat (Bright) hit a clutch shot. I thought Melanie (Fisher) did a great job at the start of the second half developing a presence inside. I scored at the end but we had a number of people step up to keep us in the game."
Barr on the pressure of the game:
"We had to win this game. We are really looking forward to conference, the challenge that lies ahead. It was a big win for us."
Tracy Lozier on 3-point field goal which was the start of a 14-2 run to give MU a 68-65 lead:
"I think anytime the shot clock is going down, it's good to hit a big shot. After that (shot, a 3-pointer), our shots started falling and we played better."
Natalie Bright on the upcoming Big 12 Conference season:
"It's going to be a long stretch (in the Big 12). It's like facing an Illinois or a South Carolina, the two teams we lost to, every night. It's going to be a battle every game. Our non-conference season helped us prepare for the type of conference we have. I think we're looked forward to it. It's like playing an NCAA tournament game every night. It's really tough on you. If we can win all of your games at home and steal some on the road, we'll be in great shape."
Missouri head coach Cindy Stein on UW-Green Bay:
"They're a good shooting team. We were looking at the stats -- they're shooting 70 plus (percent) on free throws, 45 percent from the field and 33 percent from 3-point -- those are good stats. We knew we would have our hands full. Wisconsin-Green Bay is notorious for lighting it up and knocking what you call `bigger' teams. They're a very good team."
Stein on the game's importance:
"We told our players in the locker room that this was a must-win game for us. We were very upset with our play against Illinois. After the South Carolina game, we wanted to be 10-1. We missed out on that goal. I told them there were no exceptions, we have to be 9-2 going into conference play since the conference is so tough. We had our `state of the union' address of what we needed to do and what we needed to get accomplished. I'm proud of this team. They beat a really good team today and we knew it was going to be hard.
What we talked about with the team was the RPI, the strength of schedules, what teams are ranked in the top 25, how we position ourselves every single game for the NCAA Tournament and the Big 12 Tournament. Some of the young kids don't realize that, they don't even know what the north and south divisions are in the Big 12. We're kind of laying it out because the Big 12 hits and we have to have all of our ducks in a row, make sure we're getting better every game and making the right adjustments. I feel our team is responding to that.
Stein on the Tigers' defensive pressure:
"I felt we threw a couple of things at them to keep them off-balance but yet come back with that full-court pressure. We can do full-court pressure, but with eight kids -- that's what we played tonight -- with the speed that could compete against their speed, I felt we needed times when we needed to make them to stand back and look at things because they were ramming it home and ramming it home so we could throw off their momentum. Angie Carter was huge on some key defensive stops in the first half. Tracy Lozier did that in the second half. When you put the pressure on them a little bit if you can have a good full-court defense."
Stein on the Tigers' progress through 11 games:
"We're a lot smarter than what we were but we're not smart enough yet. We still have some brain detoriation at times, some game slippage, but at the same time I feel like we're gaining confidence and our work ethic is getting better -- it's not where it needs to be but it's getting better. And we're getting some better play from people like Wannette Smith, Tracy Lozier, Terianne Wolford and Angie Carter. When those kids are coming in and providing those things, victories come easier."
Stein on the team's success this season, one that many picked to be a rebuilding one:
"I hope we position ourselves for the NCAA Tournament every year. If I have to sit up in front of my team and tell them `let's just try as hard as we can and get through it,' get rid of me. I recruit players who want to win and I want to win so that's our goal every year - the NCAA Tournament."
Stein on Kerensa Barr's play to end the game:
"If you usually watch Kerensa play, you'll see she kind of picks her spots and she usually doesn't force anything. She felt she's been forcing a lot of shots so I think she was a little more selective tonight. Her and Natalie (Bright) have hit some big shots every year for us. They know they need to step up and they did."
UW-Green Bay head coach Kevin Borseth:
"I thought we did a very good job of scoring with them, because we had to. We came out with that intention and that may have led to our shooting.
We had some lapses on the defensive end. This was a physical game and we got beat on that end. We got bumped off loose ball. We were not ready for that level of physical play tonight.
We know that we can play with some teams. Tonight capped off a very tough non-conference season. We learned some hard lessons in our losses, including tonight.
Turnovers were the game. That cost us the game. We gave up a nine-point lead and we can't do that."
