March 26, 2008

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Head Coach Terri Mitchell

Opening Statement:
"What a great game. We knew Illinois had been playing extremely well. I love that our team came out with a lot of fire. We talked about it at halfimte, that every team makes runs. When you're at this point of the year, when you're at post-season, there isn't a team in the country that doesn't make runs. We talked about how they made that run and what we needed to do to settle down. In the second half we came out very confident, we worked together, our defense generated our offense, we pushed the ball and found the open people. I was really pleased with our defense. We held them to three offensive boards in the second half. I think Jolette's done a great job with her team and we're just happy we get to keep playing."

About what was said to the team at half-time:
"We talked about that 20 minutes is a long time and we had that lead and we settled. We had the lead and I don't know why we got away from that lead. Our defensive intensity went down, we stopped getting the ball inside. Even in the inside players aren't scoring you draw the defenders in to kick the ball back out, so really talked about making the defense work. We were letting them off the hook by taking quick shots. They were turning the ball over. If you look in the second half we only had five turnovers, we handled them on the boards, and we really went to our sets and made the defense work. We got that initial surge with the turnovers and set us running, then we really settled down in our set. I think Krystal and Angel did a good job of leading the team."

About other players besides Krystal Ellis scoring:
"You never know on this team about the No. 2 option. We know that Krystal is the No. 1 option and all the opponents know that as well. The last game Krystal scores 9 and we win, that's a great game for us because hen other people are looking to score. Today, Krystal had a lot of opportunities to shoot. We are a good team when we can get into the paint. Between her assist and getting to the hoop I think we had a good game. Krystal and Angel had 11 of our 16 turnovers, that's what you want out of your point guards.

About the play of Jenna Smith and holding her six rebounds below her average:
"I think she deserves a lot of respect. She is first team All-Big Ten, and on any given night she can put up a double-double. You knew that every time she got the ball we were going to double her. Every time the ball went up we were going to do our best to keep her off the boards. I give a lot of credit to Svetlana Jocelyn, and Kelly Lam. We were rotating players. We play a deeper bench them they do. They played seven people tonight, they usually only play five. We were just going to keep throwing as many people at her and keep wearing her down. I was really pleased with our defensive effort.

About the overall play of Illinois:
"We have a lot of respect for what they do. We're very aware of their style of play. Part of why they have low turnovers is because they manage the game. They don't foul, they're very controlled. She (Jolette Law) comes out of a great system in Rutgers and Vivian Stringer. They have that tempo and they push and do all those things, but for us, we're generated by our deflections. I know how our team is going to play when I look up and see our team getting into passing lanes. When we get ourselves going, we have a lot of quickness out there and we kept forcing them out further. Did I know we were going to cause that many turnovers? No. Am I pleased that we did? Yeah. The way we started the second half I had a lot of confidence in how we were going to finish the game. That's how we should be playing this time of year.

About what was said in the locker room at halftime:
"At this time of year, I don't let them have it. All I said was that I want to keep coaching. I said when we work together we win. When they made their, run we wanted to go right back at them. The way to go back at a team is to make the extra pass and make the defense work. Once we got that into our heads, we were fine. They have to want it as much as I do, and they do. I knew in the locker room we just needed to get a few things straight and once we did, we were fine. We think it's a great opportunity to play at Kentucky in front of a huge SEC crowd. We want to play as deep as we can into March.

Junior guard Krystal Ellis

About letting Illinois back in the game late in the first half: "We just weren't running our sets right and we were giving turnovers. We weren't composed. We had the lead and we weren't playing like we had the lead. We had to come back and get it together."