University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn 117, Holy Cross 37
11/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 14, 2010
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UConn Player Quotes
On if how she needs to be more of a leader on the team this year was on her mind when the game started
"Yes it was. As we were preparing for this game and this team, I was trying to tell the freshmen that we need to be prepared and play UConn basketball, and that's what we did for the most part."
On her play in the first half
"It was just great screens by my teammates and hard cuts. Whoever it was passing me the ball, being able to find me, so it was really a team effort. Great passes, great screens, great cuts. We worked on that in practice and we got it done in the end."
On her thoughts in the locker room at halftime after scoring 30 points in the first half
"Don't let up. We've been working on that the past two games and this one. Just make sure you come out in the second half with the same intensity, not give up and not let up easy shots and stuff like that. Basically we didn't want to give them more than what they got in the first half, and we did that."
On what it was like to play in a game with such a large point differential
"It feels amazing that we got the job done. It was a good win for us. It was a team effort, so that's always a good feeling."
On the contributions that Tiffany Hayes gave the team today
"One of the things that we have to have from her this year is stepping up, not only scoring, but leadership, being vocal, bringing energy, and she did that. We get so excited whenever she comes to play. You can see the whole level of our team rise when she is playing well and she's into it, being her and being her best. I'm really proud of her."
On what you can get out of a game like this one heading into Tuesday night's game against Baylor
"Anytime you're on the court, you are either making good habits or making bad habits. I think our team does a pretty good job of staying focused the right amount of focus you have to have for the 40 minutes of a game. You're either focusing or you're not. So if we can play game after game, regardless of score, and be focused for 40 minutes, making good habits for 40 minutes and we go to a game where the score is closer, we are going to be just as confident, just as ready, because we know we practiced those good habits, no matter who we are playing."
On the defensive intensity in the second half
"We came in at halftime and were pretty frustrated with how we played defensively. We talked about how we're not executing what we worked on in practice, how we're not getting the stops and not talking. That's one of the things with our team, we have to communicate well, and in the first half we didn't do that. So, coming out the second half those were some of the points that we wanted to try to step up and I think we did that."
On watching the 2010 National Championship banner being unveiled
"It's a little bit different than last year, because last year I wasn't a part of that. I was excited for everybody on the team, I was proud of them, but this year was a little bit different for me because I was part of it and able to contribute. Seeing them pull that down just brought back memories of last year and the feelings of the buzzer going off and that we had made our goal and won the championship, so it was a good feeling."
Head Coach Geno Auriemma
On what it means to have Tiffany Hayes hit 3-pointers early in the game
"That's kind of been the way Tiffany operates. She feeds off her own momentum. I've seen her do that a number of times since she's been here, where she gets going early and it's very difficult to get her to stop. One thing that's a little bit different this year, because she's not just standing there shooting 3's or headlong rushes into the lane and knock people down. It's a little more mature, a little more controlled, and she found a lot of different ways to score points today. We talked about that a lot with Tiffany going into the season, that we need her to be a consistent scorer. It's a good start."
On how he decided on his starting line up for today's game
"Yesterday at some point in practice I realized that, I don't know what it was, I just thought our freshmen, I don't know whether they are a little bit nervous, a little bit timid, but they don't practice like they play in games. At some point that's going to catch up to them, so I guess I'm just preparing for sometime down the road for when it does catch up with them. I might as well experiment with as many starting lineups as I can and see where that takes us. At some point you have to figure out if Heather Buck can play a little bit, and sitting her on the bench until mop-up time is not going to tell us anything and the same with Lorin (Dixon)."
Thoughts on both Heather Buck and Lorin Dixon
"All right. They were all right. I thought Lorin was much better. When the games full court and fast paced, the faster we can make it the better for Lorin, and she did a great job making it that way for us tonight for the most part. If we can get Lorin to make some shots and feel really good about herself offensively, that changes everything for her and everything for us. No turnovers and four assists, that's not bad."
Holy Cross Head Coach Bill Gibbons
On how his team played:
"I thought we really played well in the first half. I thought our freshman showed some good things, some good signs. Defensively we weren't great, we didn't communicate. I spent the whole halftime telling them that they were going to play zone in the second half. It was the same defense we played against in the first half and we all of a sudden lost our composure. I guess it's a good lesson from that stand point."
On his team's defensive play:
"I'm disappointed with our defense because we decided we wanted to play a man to man but we played a little bit zone to sprinkle it in, and in our man to man defense we didn't talk. We aren't going to beat anyone if we don't talk and communicate and have five people playing as one and that's the biggest disappointment."
On his team's second-half play:
"For the first time I blasted them, I didn't think we competed in the second half, regardless of the blowouts I think we've always competed. We competed in the first half and our young guys competed, but I thought we went into our shell a little bit and lost our competitive nature and that's not Holy Cross Basketball. We have to have amnesia on this one and go down to Quinnipiac and get a win because we played well against Yale and then just lost our composure and made some freshman mistakes and tonight we did the same thing and didn't compete. I'm just going to try and just keep our freshman with us, Geno even said our freshmen are going to be good and I do believe that but we need some leadership from our older guys in letting them know that we have to talk and make five players one in the offense and defense if we're going to get to where we want to get. I still think that we'll get better as the season goes on."
