University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn 87, South Carolina 62 Quotes
2/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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UConn Head Coach Geno Auriemma
On the performance of guard Moriah Jefferson and what it means for the team:
"I think one of the hardest things to do is be the point guard, a guard, with the ball on a team with a lot of scorers because your natural instinct is to keep everyone happy…get them the ball and you kind of overlook your own abilities a lot of times. It is walking a fine line. You want to be able to make sure that the right guys get the right shots at the right times. At the same time you've got to provide some stuff to keep the whole thing working. I thought tonight she had the perfect balance, it was unbelievable. When to shoot, when to drive, when to pass it. She was really spectacular tonight at both ends of the floor. Her defense was great, her pushing the pace, I don't think anybody can push the pace of the game the way she can. Tonight was a perfect example of that."
On the overall performance of your team tonight:
"I don't know that the game played out exactly as I thought. I didn't think that we would be able to keep them off the back board, obviously we didn't, and they had twenty-one offensive rebounds. At the same time we seemed to get every loose ball and made a bunch of shots. Again, the game played out at the pace that I wanted it to play. I didn't want, necessarily, for it to be a half court game. That part of the game played out exactly the way I wanted it to play out. The rest, you know, you don't go in to any game thinking that four of your starters are going to play their "A" game…if you've got two that's a lot, and we had four. When we have that, I don't know, that is a tough task for anybody. South Carolina is a great team, they are hard to play against, really hard to play against, but when you get four guys playing the way those guys played…it's hard to play against us…really hard, especially in the atmosphere we were able to feed off. We fed off our crowd a lot. In the second half, we came out up sixteen and they cut it to ten right away. I remember going to the bench at one point and Breanna Stewart said "that's it…they are done, that's their run," and that's the way it played out…usually Stewart doesn't say anything. She doesn't say anything.
On the scale of tonight's game on the national stage:
"I tell kids all of the time when we are recruiting players this is what they want. This is the game that they want to play in, a game like this. I guess this was a slow night in the sports world because I guess this was the biggest thing on television tonight. The point of coming to Connecticut is to play in these games. Whether its January, February, March, April, it doesn't matter, these are the games you come to Connecticut for, these are the games we practice for, games like today."
Junior Guard Moriah Jefferson
On the player's mindsets for the game tonight:
"We were really hungry, we were really excited to come out and play. I think our atmosphere was amazing with the fans coming out and supporting us. They were excited and fed off our energy."
On how much fun a night like this is for a college basketball player:
"It's so much fun anytime we're in an atmosphere like this.. Our students were so loud I could barely hear myself think half the time. It was exciting and I'm glad I was able to be part of that game."
On number one being UConn's spot:
"We played well, and the game showed that.. Everybody was on good cyclinders, we were passing the ball, and chemistry was great. Kaleena was knocking down three's and getting me the assists… I'll take it."
Junior Forward Breanna Stuart
On what this game showed about UConn's ability to contend with SEC conference teams:
"We want to play the best team in the country. If we could have a schedule where we could play the top 25, we would love to have that. We all have our own conferences, and we have to do as best we can within those conferences."
On how she felt playing the number one team in the country:
"They hung with us for awhile in the first half, and we knew they were going to do that. They're a good team, obviously they've been number one for a reason… But we knew that we had more deciding factors to win the game than they did."
On Moriah's performance tonight:
"When Mo is confident, and in that groove like she was tonight, it makes our team gel even more than we already do just because she has the ball in her hands…She's unselfish, but at the same time able to be selfish if she can get by somebody and get an easy basket. We just have a lot of people who can score in different ways."
South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley
On the game
"We got beat by a really good basketball team. I thought the effort was there. We saw that when you get great positioning you can be really efficient and effective. Hopefully that's a lesson learned from playing against this competition."
On the play of Moriah Jefferson
She's a great point guard. I think she is a great facilitator. She keeps the defense honest because she can hit it from outside and drive to the basket. When you have such efficient shooters around her, it makes her an even better point guard."
On the frustration of her post players early
"If I was her (Alaina Coates) I would be frustrated too. She didn't get the ball as much as she probably wanted to get it. For our team she's go t to continue to work. You can't just give up plays. You have to continue to keep people honest, not just for scoring but for exhausting our opponents. I didn't think we had enough of that."
On not letting this loss pile into another one
"We play in the toughest conference in America. If you aren't ready to play then you'll have some overlap from this game. Our team is really focused. WE have a 24 hour rule. We'll be dejected for the next 24 hours and then we have to move on. We've got to play an LSU team that's playing very well."
