Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Tops Iona, 81-62
November 24, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 24, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Some post-game thoughts from the players and coaches after Bowling Green's 81-62 win over visiting Iona Sunday afternoon...
BGSU HEAD COACH CURT MILLER:
"Going into this game, against a Tony (Bozzella)-coached team, you know they're gonna play hard, and they're gonna be well prepared. Going into the game, I didn't know exactly what he was going to do with this new group. He's one of the better 'unknown' coaches in our game right now."
"We told the team that we needed to come out of this game with a win, but there was no doubt in my mind that this could be an ugly win. I'm no prophet, but that was an ugly win. But, it was two teams scrapping and clawing. The execution was not always great, but you saw 10 kids on the floor giving a lot of effort at all times."
"I said this last year, and I jinxed our team, but I feel like we have the ability to be one of the best free-throw percentage teams in the country. With our attacking offensive style, off the dribble, with our high-screen and rolls and a lot of pick-and-rolls, we have to be able to get to the foul line. Because there are nights where your 'threes' are just not going to fall, and after two games, we have not shot the 'three' well. If we aren't able to get to the line when we aren't shooting the ball as well as we would like, we are not going to have success. That (free-throw shooting) was a huge key today."
"I feel disappointed that I'm not able to play some of the younger kids more -- they work their tails off in practice, and deserve minutes. But, I feel really comfortable with our veteran group right now. I'm very comfortable with our four seniors. You'll see me with Francine (Miller), Kim (Griech), Megan (Jerome) and Karen (Stocz) on the floor a lot, because of that. And, when we get Lindsay (Austin) back healthy, Lindsay and Stefanie (Wenzel) are veterans that I feel comfortable with. But, getting scoring production off our bench will be key throughout our season. I think you'll see our freshmen score at a high percentage, and their ability to play hard, play good defense and rebound will keep them on the floor."
"We (coaching staff) challenged them at halftime. It was not a quiet lockerroom at halftime. I wanted them to know that only being up seven on a team that's trying to find an identity gives that team all sorts of confidence. So, those first five minutes (of the second half) were huge for us. We challenged them to come out of the lockerroom and play hard, because we weren't going to have anything given to us; we have to go out and earn it. Even though it didn't put the game away, that start gave us a lot of confidence."
"(Francine and Stefanie) are our one-two punch. We run a lot of plays for them. Francine's had two great games, and is still not one hundred percent, but she's shooting a very high percentage. Stefanie's still not shooting the ball well, but I can count on Stefanie to find other ways to score. Despite not shooting the ball real well, she's averaging 15 points a game. When we get that kind of production out of them, it takes a lot of the pressure off of the role players."
IONA HEAD COACH ANTHONY BOZZELLA:
"Twenty-three to one, they outscored us from the line in the second half. A lot of coaches would complain about the officials; I actually thought the officials were good. I'm very pleased with the officials. I'm just saying, they (BGSU) got to the line a lot, and that hurt us. You've got to give credit to them."
"Francine (Miller) did a wonderful job. One of the things that hurt us is that we were never able to see Francine on tape. We only had tape of them from last year, and they were two games that Francine was hurt. She's an excellent player. Coach Miller's progress in the program probably didn't feel so good last year, but it's probably a lot better this year, having his best player, an all-conference talent, back. She took over the game. If she didn't score, she was creating."
"I really have to give a lot of credit to Bowling Green. I thought they saw a weakness in Iona and exposed it. His kids play very hard, they're ready to shoot the ball, they run some creative things to get them open, and they run them correctly. That's the mark of a good coach and a good coaching staff. I wouldn't want to play this team in two years, because they're gonna be a really, really tough team. I can tell you, as a coach who has done two rebuilding jobs and is on a third, coach Miller and his staff are well on their way to having a real good program."
BGSU JUNIOR STEFANIE WENZEL:
"It feels good (to get the win). It was a very ugly win; it wasn't our best game. But, we pulled it out, which is all that counts. It's good to be 1-1."
BGSU SENIOR FRANCINE MILLER:
"We kind of got refocused at halftime. We came out more energized in the second half and started making buckets and doing the things we should have been doing all along."
(On her injury):
"I felt a lot better than the previous game, and last game I felt a lot better than the game before that. I don't know if it's just a mental thing, but I felt OK out there today."
