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Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU-Akron Reactions
January 15, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 14, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
BGSU HEAD COACH CURT MILLER:
"The first 10 points of the game (for Akron) were scored by their 'four' and 'five' players. Obviously, we quickly found that the game plan for Akron was to pound the ball inside. We had a lot of respect, going into the game, for (Cassandra) Martin, and she and (Kimberly) Larson put us on our heels right away. They drew fouls and completed plays. (Akron) scored 13 points in the first four minutes, and scored 12 points in the rest of the half. Obviously, we made some adjustments, and we got really, really good contributions off the bench from Sakima (Smith) and Pam (Brown). Both played tremendously, not only offensively, but also rebounding well and playing good post defense."
"We played our starters a lot of minutes (against Buffalo) Saturday, and we were playing our second game in three days. We talked about our bench needing to play a bigger role in the game tonight. And, when you look at the stat sheet, I couldn't be more pleased with our bench. Megan (Jerome) gave us great minutes, Tene (Lewis) gave us great minutes, Emily's (Pohl's) four minutes were very productive, and of course we got the outstanding minutes from Sakima and Pam. That unit was more fresh and aggressive. We had talked about needing to get a spark from that group. We didn't want to give the starters an excuse, but we knew that they would be a little bit fatigued from the amount of minutes they played Saturday."
"It's great to have Pam back. We challenged Pam in the practices leading up to these two games, we challenged her not to settle into a backup role. She was the starter, and the injury has taken her out of there, but I don't want her to use the knee as an excuse not to fight back for her starting position. We are not set in stone at any position, and they have to continue to earn their starting spots."
"Pam has struggled from the field this year, so it's nice to see her go 50% from the floor. She is taking a lot of low-post moves and shots, and she hadn't been real successful finishing. She had a good night finishing tonight, not only facing the basket, but with low-post moves. It was good to see. I felt like she played with a lot of confidence after she made her first couple shots. You could just see that this was the type of game where she could excel."
"We certainly miss Francine (Miller). Night-in and night-out, you know she's gonna give you points. But, I really like the way the team is playing in her absence. They're playing with confidence, they're aggressive, and they're buying into the system more and more each day. They've got to step up and make some shots, but they're truly buying into our system."
"Lindsay Austin, for playing as many minutes as we ask of her, pushed the ball very hard and made a lot of good decisions. She was very unselfish, she was always looking to set up other players in transition."
"I think we're confident playing in Anderson Arena. We've led all four conference games at halftime, and we let two slip away. But, in the Northern Illinois game, we had a shot to tie or go ahead with under a minute left. We were up a significant amount against Kent, and -- with the exception of a slow start in the second half -- played with them for a long time. This team is very confident that we can play with a lot of teams in Anderson Arena. We have to prove, as a team with a poor record and with some inconsistency, that we can go and play this way on the road. If we are able to gain confidence and play aggressively and without fear, we can hold our own and be a thorn in people's side in the MAC race. But we have to hold serve at home and try to steal some victories on the road."
"We won the game tonight because our bench players were ready to contribute when we needed them."
BGSU SOPHOMORE PAM BROWN:
"We really wanted to win this game. Coach told us that the post players needed to have a big game tonight. We (Brown and Sakima Smith) went out there, tried to get the team fired up a bit, and did some good things in the post tonight."
"I didn't think I would play that much, but coach asked me if I was all right to go, and I gave him the OK. Tonight is the most I've played since I got hurt. I'm a little bit sore, but I want to play, and I can deal with the pain."
AKRON HEAD COACH ROXANNE ALLEN:
"This is probably one of our best efforts (of the season). We still had a lapse where we didn't score, though, and that's way too typical of our play. I thought we did some nice things and made some stops, but then we kept giving up three-point plays. That's youth, we've got so many young players, and with a lack of experience, we're just not making good decisions on the court."
"They're playing hard, they're just not always playing very smart. We've just got to keep playing. We probably competed the best for 40 minutes tonight, but we just need to make better decisions."
"Probably the difference in the game was that BG just had a nice win on Saturday, and played with a lot more confidence than they have been. And, we've played here enough to know that you can't afford to let them light it up in this building, because they get real comfortable shooting here. We probably didn't give up but four uncontested three's, but that's 12 points and there's the game."
