Quotes

Jan. 22, 2005

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Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson
On the game:
“I am very happy for our players. They are all very excited about this win and they should be. The seniors are ecstatic in the lockerroom right now. We came out and played with a lot of energy tonight. The crowd was great tonight and that gave us a lot of energy. Our players fed off of it.”

On the second half start:
“I thought we did a great job defensively by limiting their touches. Offensively, we went to Crystal (Kemp), who had a good night. She had great elevation, great body position on the catch and she was finishing very strong. We knew after the Texas A&M game that if we didn’t box people out and get rebounds, we wouldn’t win a game in this conference. Tonight we won the battle of the boards and that was critical for us. “

On Crystal Kemp:
“She has told me that she feels like she isn’t contributing when she gets double-teamed. I told her that she had to run in transition and be a rebounder. I thought tonight she had great movement and was able to get rebounds that were outside of her reach. She just played with an athletic position and was real strong. She was solid and finished her shots all night.”

On building off the win:
“It’s our first win in the league, so we will definitely build off of this. We’ve been building off losses by recognizing what we’ve done well even though we haven’t been successful as far as winning the game. There will be things we need to improve on because we didn’t play perfect tonight, neither team did. We will learn from our mistakes and build off the positives. I thought our offensive execution was solid and our defense was really, really good for the first eight minutes, then we got kind of soft, but turned it on to finish the second half.”

Junior Forward Crystal Kemp
On the team’s inside performance:
“It was a matter of us being strong and executing. When we started hitting a few three-point shots, our inside game really opened up. A lot of times I ended up on the perimeter when the outside shot was taken. I would go in hard for the rebound and nobody was really guarding me. That made it easy to get offensive rebounds.”

On her offensive performance:
“I was very aggressive down low, and they (Missouri) didn’t double team me too much, so that opened things up for me. Once Erica (Hallman) started hitting outside shots, it really made things easier for me and she deserves a lot of credit for our inside game.”

Senior Guard Aquanita Burras
On the team’s halftime adjustments
“We told ourselves we had to come together. Missouri made a nice run at the end of the first half, and we had to answer them. At halftime, coach told us we had to get more offensive rebounds and that was our main focus.”

On the Border Showdown rivalry:
“People try to make it a bigger deal than it is. To us this was just another game that we really wanted to win.”

On Crystal Kemp:
“She performed really well tonight. Hopefully, she can continue to be a machine like she was on rebounds tonight. Nobody can stop Crystal when she gets going.”

Junior Guard Erica Hallman
On the game:
“Everything was clicking offensively. We ran our sets well and got some easy layups. We got some looks on threes and everyone was knocking their shots down. We played hard for forty minutes. I was able to hit a couple of shots and I had some good assists that led to layups. People stepped up down the stretch and made some shots. “

Missouri Head Coach Cindy Stein
On the game:
“It was probably a great game for T.V. It was a well played well fought game and unfortunately we came out on the lesser end of it. The key was that we gave them (Kansas) too many offensive boards. Kemp (Crystal) was incredible on the offensive glass and we did not have an answer for that. Hats off to Kansas.”

On Kansas’ offense:
“I think that defensively, we have to continue to work harder. (Kansas) makes it tough though. The sets that Bonnie (Henrickson) runs makes it hard to play weak side defense. Where the help is coming from causes key matchup problems for everyone.

On Crystal Kemp:
“She was incredible. She was running the court much better than last year and she was more agile. She has great hands. It is like she has suction cups on her hands for rebounds. She is tough, and she is tenacious when going after rebounds. She is really turning into a great player.”

On the rivalry:
“Kansas has great tradition on the mens’ and womens’ side. I have a lot of respect for that. This is a great rivalry. It was a great game, but I wish I was on the winning side. It was a really good game for the fans and it was well played.”

Sophomore Guard Tiffany Brooks
On her final shot attempt:
“It was a great opportunity, I just couldn’t knock it down.”