Jan. 19, 2002

Recap?|? Final Stats?|? Notes

Missouri senior guard Natalie Bright
On Baylor's defense:
"They did play extremely good defensive players, I had a hand on me the whole time. I wasn't getting any open 3-pointers like I usually do. It's hard, I just have to knock them down. They're a great defensive team."

On the play of Baylor's Sheila Lambert and Danielle Cockrom:
"Every team from now on has a player like a Lambert, like a Cockrom. We've got (Iowa State's Angie) Welle. We've got a lot of big players coming in. We have to contain them. Make other people score, that's what we have to do. We also have to attack our game plan, then I think everything will fall into place."

Missouri junior guard Kerensa Barr
On Baylor's defense:
"They're a great offensive team and they run the ball up and down the floor. Definitely, our defense could have been better tonight, but that's the pace that they like to play at."

Missouri sophomore forward Evan Unrau
On Baylor's defense:
"They read passing lanes really well and got a lot of steals. They played strong inside, picking up a lot of loose balls. They're physical players, really physical."

Missouri head coach Cindy Stein
Opening statement:
"We threw a lot of different things at them, a lot of different people. I think you have to credit Baylor. They came ready to play and unfortunately, we got knocked on our heels a little bit and we didn't respond well. Our kids came back fighting and I don't think we ever gave up, but at the same time, from an execution standpoint, there were some things that our team needs to work on."

On Sheila Lambert:
"She has incredible speed. The other thing that makes her so good is she is an incredible ball-handler. She can create any opportunity, she's a very good ball-handler. I was tempted to get someone in there to knock her out, but that's not my style. We messed around with a little zone but they were ready for it and knocking 3's down. Every time we tried something different, they had an answer and you have to credit Baylor for that."

On Missouri's offense:
"What you saw is that Natalie and Kerensa were struggling offensively and when they struggle, you have to have somebody that's going to step up. And we didn't have that tonight. We have to find that piece of the puzzle and I think when we do we'll be pretty strong."

On defending Lambert:
"I thought Wannette Smith did a really good job on Lambert for a little while. Then she got a little timid in the second half and you can't give her any room. You have to make her go east and west and tonight we let her go north at full speed and that's not a good way to handle that."

On the play of the Missouri bench:
"At times I thought our bench played well. I didn't think our bench played well the first time they got in. I thought it took a couple rotations for them to feel a little bit more comfortable and then we started clicking a little better, but we needed to click right away."

On learning from the loss:
"We still have to maintain our style of play. We still like to push the ball up the floor. We just have to be a little bit more controlled. I don't think we had a lot of patience but our philosophy is to attack under control. Offensively, we weren't into it. We were moving before the screen, we were not setting a screen, it's a whole collection of errors and against a team like Baylor you cannot do that. Our youth showed in those kinds of situations. We go back to the drawing board, we work on it, we get better. Now we have Texas and we have to be ready and see if we're up to the challenge."

On Baylor:
"When you have a physically dominant team, defensive positioning is huge and patience, being able to do something with a screen, you can take advantage of those. We lacked the patience on the offensive end and defensively we weren't in good position and there's time that we were in great position. We were in Lambert's face and she blew one right by us. We'd get position on Crockrom and she scored. That's a great team right there. I'm not going panic at this point because we have way too many games left. The other thing is, they're a very good team. We just have to learn from that and keep going."

Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson
On the game:
"I thought our defense was very good tonight. I thought we contested a lot of shots, I thought that when they shot, we didn't give them open looks. I respect their perimeter shooting and we never gave them an open look. They got some, but that was our game plan-no open looks. And every missed shot was our rebound. I thought the production from our bench was outstanding. We almost had 30 points off the bench. We made a lineup change with Jessika Stratton coming off the bench and she played very solid and gave us nine big points, and I think Stephanie Blackmon is one of the top rookies in the Big 12. It was a great defensive effort."

On Crockrom and Lambert:
"Sheila can score, Danielle can score. The thing about those two ladies is that they're unselfish. If you get open, they're going to deliver the ball to you."

Baylor guard Sheila Lambert
On the game:
"I just want to come out with a win. We go out and work hard and play hard. I think the scoring comes naturally, what we improved on is the defense."

On her high-scoring game:
"I don't really look at how many points I score, I look at the assist-to-turnover ratio first because that's a big part of me being a point guard. I think the scoring come naturally if I'm open or allowed to shoot."