Post Game Press Conference

Head Coach Dianne Nolan (Opening Statement): “I thought we did what we need to do. We knew this was going to be kind of a grind it out game, the second game of a weekend. They like to play a half-court game. They hadn’t lost since we had beaten them before in December. We knew it was a fight for second or third. So we though it would be a grind it out game. We turned the ball over a couple more times than I would have liked. I though we shot the ball, shared the ball, I though our defense was pretty good.”

Nolan (On the Importance of the Frontcourt): “It’s huge. We talke about our frontcourt being played by committee.. You’ve got Steph Cziria, Tara Flaherty, Steph Geehan, B, and Shireyll is an undersized post. They just keep banging in there. We can wear on people because we can bring someone in off the bench who can contribute. And Steph Geehan has such long arms. She gets her hands up and blocks and rebounds and thery’e concentrating so much on Baendu that it allows her a little bit of space. We don’t have to rely on only a few people. You can’t run with out rebounds and that’s what we like to do”

Sabra Wrice (On the Importance of doing the little things): “Every day at practice we say it’s the little steps we take on defensive slides. The little things add up to be things which equal a win for us.”

Wrice (On Defense): “Defense is very important to us. We feel like everything starts from the defensive end. We get a stop and it helps us to focus on our offense more because we just got a stop.”

Nolan (On Holding Loyola and Glessner): “I thought that was big. We knew they were going to go into her. But, [Sholokhova] was leading scorer against Iona most recently. She’s a transfer from Pittsburgh that wasn’t eligible until the second semester. We we’re actually more concerned with her. I thought Glessner was going to get her points and sometimes somebody else goes off. I thought our kids read each other very well on the defensive slides in our zone. I thought they couldn’t find openings at times. They knew were the shooters were and they rotated out on them.”

Nolan (On beating Loyola): “I thought that was real big. We’re all fighting for seeds right now in the tournament. A seed can really sway one thing or another since they all depend on match-ups. Now having beaten them twice and tiebreakers down the stretch are going to be really important. It’s nice when you can beat somebody twice because it gives you more confidence depending on who you see in the tournament. They’ve got a lot of respect in the league and this is just going to help us in March.

Wrice (On two big games back-to-back): “Coach tells me that I’ve got to score and do all the little things that help us win. Go out there and play hard everytime and everybody feeds off one another. So if they see me play hard, everyone else is going to play hard. And I see someone playing hard, I’m goning to play hard. A big game for me is a big game for everyone on the team because we all feed off each other.”

Nolan (On Wrice): “Sabra is a scorer and we need her to do that. The last two games her shooting percentage has been where it should be. A scorer takes a lot of pressure off other people.”

Nolan (On the team's depth): ”Its huge. That’s what we just talked about in the locker room. We can wear on people. I don’t think too many teams in the conference have the 10, 11 people that we have, they’re interchangeable. If someone needs a rest, or any match-ups, depending on the night they’re having. I think everyone comes in and can contribute. You can see the look on people’s faces, it’s that tired look. You know, here comes another kid that they know can do something out on the floor. It’s a long season. And when you’ve got to play Friday, Sunday I think it’s huge. You know the schedule, is set up, you don’t have a lot of downtime between games. I think that really plays into our strength. I thought Loyola at times; we wanted to run them because I didn’t think they could keep up.

-Chris Simmons