Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green 73, IPFW 57
November 29, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
BGSU HEAD COACH CURT MILLER:
"Tonight was a confidence booster, and we really needed the win. We put pressure on the players for (a win) tonight, and we wanted to see how they would react to that pressure. It was a game where we needed to come in and hold serve on our home court. We've talked a lot in the last 48 hours about how we have to make our home court a tough place for people to come in and win, and that they have to beat us, we're not going to just lose the game.""I think we came out with intensity, knowing that the light at the end of the tunnel is now upon us. The (large) amount of games in a short period (the IPFW game was BG's fourth in seven days), and we'll get more time to get back to the drawing board and correct some things. Tonight, they could see that light at the end of the tunnel, we won't practice until Saturday night, and we don't play again until Tuesday, which seems like an eternity for us."
"Our kids played hard at times, and we challenged them with our one major goal as a team this year: to be the hardest-working team in the MAC. I don't think we're there yet, but we are finding more and more effort on the floor at all times."
"This win was an important confidence-booster. We needed to prove that we could step up and get a win without Pam (Brown) and Francine (Miller). And, I'm also encouraged that we won with those two starters out, and Lindsay Austin -- who has been our most consistent player so far this year -- struggling shooting the ball tonight. Kim Griech found her touch, and we got a very pleasant contribution from Stefanie (Wenzel) tonight. In Fran's absence, we've tried a number of different players at that 'three' position. If we can find someone to contribute at that position until we get Francine back, that will only make us better."
"(IPFW's) Kathy Hay was very highly-regarded out of high school, and we realized that she was their one legitimate kid with size. For a night, we were the team with the size advantage, so we wanted to pound the ball at them early and often, and see if we could get Kathy Hay in foul trouble, and see if we could get into the bonus in the first half. Also, we haven't shot as high as 40 percent this year, and we wanted to see if we could not be so trigger-happy (from three-point range) tonight, and pound it in. There were times when we were trigger-happy, and there were times when we made some poor decisions inside. But, (getting the ball inside) was a big part of our game plan tonight."
"I hope the team is excited about the win tonight, but I also don't want us to be satisfied. I'm not sure that we played as well as we can, and I'm not sure that we played a 40-minute game. But, I want them to enjoy this win, while realizing that we still have a lot of work ahead of us."
(On Stefanie Wenzel):
"Stefanie is, without question, the most well-conditioned athlete on the team. She can run for days, when we're on a road trip, she asks permission to get up early and run. When we get done with practice on the road, she'll go in the workout room and ride the bike. We always get hard work out of her. Sometimes we ask Stefanie to slow down and just hit shots. I think she can be as good a stand-still shooter as there is in the conference. When we can create things for Stefanie -- with dribble penetration and kick-outs, or with her coming off screens -- if she'll slow herself down and shoot 'three's', I think she can be one of the best spot-up shooters in the conference. But, there are times when she will pass up shots because she's so anxious to dribble penetrate. I don't want her to lose the aggressiveness, but I want her to stand there and hit shots. But, we always get great effort out of Stefanie. You could see her confidence gain as she started to make shots. She made some open shots, and then she started making some tough shots in traffic. That's a sign of confidence, you feel like you're hot, and you want the ball more."
BGSU SOPHOMORE STEFANIE WENZEL:
"I was getting the ball and I was open, so I shot it. And, I finally started making my shots. I passed up some shots, and I made some stupid turnovers."
"I just tried to crash the boards and make things happen. Everyone did well tonight, we started running the floor better, and I was able to make some open shots."
"We talked about the fact that everyone needed to step up. Obviously, two of our starters are out, and (senior) Fran (Miller) is our best player. We've been struggling without her. We all know that everyone needed to step up, and I guess tonight was just my night to step up. Everyone played very well tonight, it wasn't just me."
IPFW HEAD COACH BRUCE PATTERSON:
"We shot 20 percent in the first half. It's pretty simple, you shoot 20 percent and you're down 19 points, and the game's basically over. You can't shoot that poorly and expect to win a game against a team that's reasonably disciplined."
"We shot airballs from kids that are better than that. This started at Ball State Tuesday night (in 94-50 loss) ... we had breakaway layups, and we ended up walking. You can't just give away points like that."
(Did you see any positives in the game?)
"We had a chance to actually get back in the ball game (in the second half). We were down 15 and had the basketball, and we made a dumb turnover. They came down and hit a 'three' on us. We're going to try to steal any positives we can, but if you find a positive from this game, send me a note, because I need all the help I can get right now."
(On Stefanie Wenzel):
"We made an All-American out of her. She was making the flex cut across the baseline, and we were letting her come loose underneath. Then, she hit a couple shots. Any time you let a kid start scoring, they get excited and start thinking they can score any time they want, and she did that tonight. I congratulate her on that. I didn't mean that first comment in a derogatory way at all, I just mean that we, defensively, let her make some cuts that we're supposed to step over and stop. We were a confused basketball team tonight."
