Quotes

Nov. 14, 2007

Postgame Quotes
Kansas 64, UMKC 58
November 14, 2007

Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson
On her 200th career win:
“It means I have been doing this a long time. I am proud for the coaches and players that have been apart of it. You don’t win this many games without great players and a great staff. I have two people on the bench that have been apart of all 200 of the wins. Katie (O’Connor) was a player for me at the beginning and Karen (Lange) was a first-year assistant coach. Those two deserve a tremendous amount of credit as well. It might have been the ugliest win of the 200, I will say that.

On the Jayhawks large first-half lead:
“I am not sure which I am more excited about. The fact that we are up by so much in the first half, but can’t hold onto the lead or that we were able to hold on down the stretch of the game. Give UMKC a great amount of credit they never allowed us to apply the knockout punch. They kept coming back. Our team has to improve on building and growing leads. Nicollette (Smith) struggled and Danielle (McCray) got into foul trouble, but we got some good minutes from kids coming off the bench. Krysten (Boogaard) played a solid first half. LaChelda (Jacobs) played with a lot of effort and exactly how I want her to play. I can’t get a pulse on why we aren’t being able to hold onto leads and it is driving me a little nuts right now.”

On KU’s defense:
“I think we did a good job on (Alysa) Klein tonight. When she got loose and got some offensive rebounds it was because we struggled to contain their penetration. We have to get better at our one-on-one defense. I thought when we dug down and got great pressure that good things were able to happen for us. We struggled with allowing them to go to the free-throw line as they got 24 free-throw attempts. Then we would run back down and jack up shots against their 2-3 zone. We weren’t very patient and aggressive against their zone. Without our defensive effort at times we would definitely had been on the wrong end of this one.”

Head Coach Candace White-Whitaker
On the game:
“I’m really proud of our girls, especially for the last few minutes of the first half and the whole second half. We finally relaxed, played basketball and started to read the defenses. But that is a team that we need to beat.”

On finding her team down by as many as 25 points in the first half:
“It was hard. I just kept looking up and hoped that we could get to double-digits. We just had a hard time scoring. We missed a lot of shots inside and a lot of shots on the block. We were really rushing our shots. I thought when we put Sarah Stewart into the game, she gave us a spark and we were able to make a little run at the end of the first half.”

On Alysa Klein:
“We need her to play. We need her to step up and score inside. A lot of what we do revolves around her putting the ball in the hoop. It is hard to win games and score points when you cannot score inside. We definitely want a balanced attack.”

On Kansas’ defense:
“Kansas plays a tight defense. They were well-scouted, as far as our sets our concerned. We need to be better at sharing the basketball and making the extra passes. Kansas plays the toughest pressure that we have seen so far, so it was a new look for us. We have been better up to now, but it is just a matter of executing.”

Sophomore forward Danielle McCray
On her performance:
“I know today wasn’t my best day; I got myself into foul trouble. Like Coach Bonnie (Henrickson) says, there’s times when other players have to step up and be aggressive and not afraid to take over.”

On her fouls:
“I guess I’m too aggressive on the ball; that’s how I picked up my first two fouls. I was going aggressive to the hole and going over the back. I know that I need to be out there. I need to be a veteran and keep us in the game.”

On Coach Bonnie Henrickson’s 200th win:
“It’s a really special accomplishment to be a part of. Bonnie has earned it. She is a hard-working coach and she has been great everywhere she’s coached. It’s her 200th win; I’m not sure it’s the kind of win she wanted, but it we got it for her tonight.”

On Kansas’ ability to build a lead:
“It is right there. This is somewhat the same thing we experienced last year, where we would grow a lead and then have to come back. This year we have been better about starting out right away, but now we are having trouble finishing and maintaining that lead.”

Senior forward Taylor McIntosh
On losing the lead:
“I think that’s where we need to grow as a team. We can look so good at times and then we look so bad at other times. We need to learn how to keep a lead and grow on it. We can’t settle down and let a team come back.”