Kansas 60 - Nebraska 67: Postgame Quotes
Feb. 10, 2010
Recap | Final Stats | Notes |
LAWRENCE, Kan. –
Postgame Quotes
Kansas 60 – Nebraska 67
Feb. 10, 2010
Kansas Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson
Opening Statement:
“I thought the start of the game was fantastic, I thought we had a little bit of a lull in the middle of the first half, but to be that aggressive and to attack out of the locker room in the second half; I think we were 10 for 10 and then 10 for 12 and give them credit, they turned up the heat and forced turnovers. We got passive and weren’t as aggressive as we were to start the second half. In a game where you’ve got an opportunity to beat a ranked team and an undefeated team, you’ve got to find a way to finish and find some toughness. I think we are talented enough, we’ve just got to find some toughness to finish games.”
On what she said at halftime:
“You’re either dead or dying. If you’re dying, you’ve at least got breath. You’ve got to fight and be aggressive. You can’t expect to be in a game of this magnitude and wonder what you could’ve done better. You need to just lay it out and play aggressive. I thought we weren’t very aggressive early, but talk about a complete change in a second half. We got them to rush shots and pressure some shots. We were able to scramble out of some plays too. They got us on the boards. It was our turnovers and our inability to get rebounds that got to us and made us play a little soft at times.”
On whether she sees the glass as half-empty or half-full:
“It’s a missed opportunity. It’s gut-wrenching. It’s a missed opportunity where I thought we beat ourselves and they attacked us and we didn’t respond. We’ve got to believe that we’re talented enough, but we also have to find some toughness. We’ve got to be able to do that to get a win on Saturday.”
On LaChelda Jacobs:
“I thought she played inspired, I thought she did a good job. She hit a tough shot in the corner in the second half. I thought she handled the game well and got us into some good half court sets.”
Senior Guard Sade Morris
On what the team can take away from the game:
“We learned a lot about what we have to do better. We have to handle the pressure and we have to be able to take care of the ball.”
On the halftime speech:
“Bonnie asked us if we were dead or if we were dying. We said that we were dying but not dead. We knew that we had to come out and that we had enough energy get the win.”
On playing Nebraska close:
“It felt good. They made it hard for us to catch up and then made us work hard to get the lead. They did a great job fighting back and had an appetite.”
Freshman Guard Monica Engelman
On playing Nebraska:
“All five people (for Nebraska) on the court play together. They pressure the ball non-stop. They also keep firing, if we made a run they would come right back.”
On what the team needs to do to improve:
“As a team we need to just take care of the ball.”
Freshman Forward Carolyn Davis
On playing Nebraska close:
“It helps us with our game Saturday. We have a lot of confidence in ourselves knowing that we can stick with Nebraska. In that case we know that we can definitely beat Texas if we just play the way that we can play.”
On missing Danielle McCray:
“I feel like we got over the fact that she is not going to play anymore and we just have to focus on what we have to in order to play well.”
Nebraska Head Coach Connie Yori
On the game overall:
“Kansas played very well and I think that’s a great credit to their coaching staff. With all that they have been through, it’s been difficult for them, and yet they gave us a great game. They had every opportunity to win that game and that’s a credit to their coaching staff and their players. Their young guys were making a lot of plays. That’s what they did in the second half. They had it going on offense. I thought finally about that 5 or 6 minute mark, we had to bear down and we finally did. That’s a lot about having a veteran team and that’s a lot about having been there and done that to a certain degree. That is what happened in that game. We’re a team that has a little bit more experience and we just kept telling our kids we have to find ways to get stops. We can’t just hope they miss. We have to make them miss. That last 6 minutes we made them miss or turned them over.”
On Nebraska making crucial stops late in the second half:
“Sometimes you have to get a little more aggressive. This is a young team to a certain degree and we just had to get out there and make them miss. They had it going. They hit everything. It’s not because of luck. It’s because of execution and getting shots within their offense and knocking them down. It’s a credit to them for making a lot of 15-footers. I thought they did a really good job of getting the ball into the low block. We had to find a way to make them miss.”
On overcoming poor shooting:
“We had 20 offensive rebounds. We did not shoot the ball well, but we sure went after it when we missed it; particularly in the later stages for the game. We really didn’t have a lot going in the offensive end, but we did a pretty good job of rebounding. We out rebounded a team that had been plus seven on the glass. Our defense was okay, but it needed to be cranked up a little bit later in the game.”
Senior Forward Kelsey Griffin
On Kansas making a run to take the lead in the second half:
“Kansas did a great job executing their sets throughout the game. Our coaches prepared us for them and they were still able to execute them. We tried to play hard defense, but they were just making shots. Everyone is going to bring their A-game in the Big 12. I can’t tell you a thing I noticed that they did differently. They were playing the best game that they could.”
