Feb. 12, 2003
Missouri head coach Cindy Stein
On the game:
"I'm proud of this team. This is the first time that we have swept ISU [in Stein's five years at MU], and any time you can do that in this conference, it gives you a heads-up on some things. I just liked the way we played. It wasn't real pretty at times, but we won, and we gutted it out. We had some great plays. We had great defensive play by Tracy Lozier. She did a great job on (Iowa State's) Lindsey Wilson, who is a great player, and then I thought Evan hit some big, big shots for us when we really needed them."
On Missouri's defense:
"We were playing so hard defensively, I think that sometimes that takes away from our offense, and granted, they were playing a little bit harder than we were at that time. We kind of relaxed, got a little timid and weren't doing some of the little things. Evan hit that big shot, and we regrouped and got going again."
On the team's improvement over the past two months:
"We're taking a lot more ownership throughout the whole team. We were still trying to get a good feel for each other (in December) of who could do what and who could step up and help in these scenarios. We knew we were getting better; it's just a matter of that emerging. It took longer than anybody wanted, but the key is that we're getting it done right now."
Missouri junior forward Evan Unrau
On playing in the post against smaller players:
"It's looking at the match-ups and who's guarding who at that time. Sometimes I'm up against a smaller player, so I like to fill the gaps."
On Missouri's success:
"Everybody was really confident, especially in that first half. We had a really good inside-out game. If the post got it inside and got double-teamed, we'd kick it back out and then get it back in there. We really played well together today."
Missouri junior guard Tracy Lozier
On defending Lindsey Wilson:
"We were just trying to wear her down, so I was trying to pick her up full court and not let her get the ball in and keep pressure on her."
Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly
on Evan Unrau:
"I thought Unrau was tremendous. She made big plays at both ends when they really needed it - whether it was a rebound, a steal or a big shot. She played as good an all-around game as I've seen anyone play against us in a long time."
on a loss:
"Obviously the game was decided in the middle ten minutes of the first half. We made some glaring defensive mistakes that they made us pay for. The Achilles heel of this team has been when we just can't make a shot. If you shoot 34 percent in the first half and give up some of the looks that we gave up, that's just too big a lead to overcome. We're not a team that scores a lot of points."
on Missouri's pressure defense:
"They came up and guarded us but we also made some bad decisions. When you throw the ball out of bounds and there's no one near you, I don't know if that's pressure defense or a lack of focus on our part. We weren't able to make shots consistently, and that put us in a hole."
Iowa State sophomore forward Mary Fox
on Evan Unrau:
"She's very hard to guard because she's a great outside player. She moves around really well. They've got a lot of good shooters on the team and we have to get out on all of them. Sometimes we second-guess a couple people. She's tall and a good outside shooter and you don't see that very often."
Iowa State sophomore guard Anne O'Neil
on a loss:
"They attacked a lot more in the first half. Right from the start they pushed the ball up the floor. They shot 54 percent in the first half, and that's really hard to guard. We let them get some offensive rebounds. Defensively, we didn't click like we need to. We didn't get into transition very well, and that's something we need to do."