Bowling Green State University Athletics
WMU Downs Falcons
February 15, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 14, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
BGSU HEAD COACH CURT MILLER:
"They (WMU) are 9-3 in the MAC, and they just have a ton of offensive weapons. I hope that we contributed to them playing ugly at times, I hope our defense had something to do with that. But, when the game is on the line, they have so many different weapons to go to. He (Ron Stewart) made a great adjustment late in the game, when he went with three post players."
"Defensively, we only gave up 19 field goals in the game, but Western thrives at the foul line. They're a physical team, a team with guards that can dribble-penetrate and get themselves to the foul line. Clearly, a key to the game was not putting them on the line -- and I know that the stat is a little misleading, because we fouled down the stretch -- but they made 15 foul shots in the second half alone. That's a key for them. Only giving up 19 field goals is a great accomplishment for us. We held them in the 60s, and I think they had averaged in the mid-80s over the past few games. Statistically, we did a lot of good things. You would never have convinced me that we could outrebound that team, but we went out there and outrebounded them."
"We met a lot of our goals, but once again, we weren't able to get it done. We only made two field goals in the last 11 minutes of the game. You can't win a game making only two field goals down the stretch."
"The theme of the day, of course, is Valentine's Day, and we talked a lot about heart and passion. And I don't question that we certainly did play with a lot of heart and passion, we just struggle to make big plays when we need them. Sometimes, we are a lot more loose when we are behind. It's hard to play with a lead, you've got to learn to play with a lead. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but we've led all seven home conference games at halftime, and we're 3-4 in those games. Next year and in future years, if you put me in the same spot, and we teach these kids how to win, if we're leading seven times in seven opportunities at halftime, we're gonna have a pretty good record. But, right now, we're still trying to learn how to win those games."
"The bench was great in the first half. Megan (Jerome), Emily (Pohl) and Kelly (Kapferer) all played double-figure minutes in the first half, and we go to halftime with a 10-point lead. But, in that half, we missed a lot of easy shots. So, you're happy with your 10-point lead, and you pump your kids up that you have a 10-point lead. But, as a coach, deep down you're thinking we should have been up 18 or 20. So, there's a little bit of insecurity in the lockerroom that Western, with that much talent on the floor, is not gonna play like that for 40 minutes. But, our bench played great tonight."
"Going into the game, one of our keys was to have more balance and have an inside attack. And, percentage-wise, we're still not shooting the way we should, with the shots that we're getting. But, to get 30 points out of Kelly and Pam Brown in the post, and 21 rebounds -- that's a two-headed monster tonight. You can't ask for anything more than that. I'm glad we took it at them and challenged them. Now, Pam and Kelly will still be disappointed with the amount of shots they missed. But, we realize that there are teams that will try to shut down Stefanie (Wenzel) and Kim (Griech), and that we have to have options inside. It gives me a lot of hope for the future that two sophomore centers, against maybe one of the best post units, can have a game like that."
WMU HEAD COACH RON STEWART:
"We have a tendency to go on the road and find ourselves looking up at the other team at halftime. And then, somehow, we dig out of that hole and play well in the second half. As long as we keep playing well in the second half, I guess it's acceptable."
"It's very difficult to shoot 21 percent in a half. Statistically, if you look at the stats for the MAC games, we're a pretty good shooting basketball team. I think it was a combination of Bowling Green's defense as well as our lack of determination to get the ball reversed, to get the ball inside. I thought we shot the ball much too quickly in the first half."
"I don't know how you can go 21% in one half and 54% in the second half of the same game, with the same people out there on both teams. In the first half, we shot too many three's without testing the waters, offensively. I really felt as though we needed to be a little wiser. Defensively, our focus in this game was to stop Stefanie Wenzel and Kim Griech. We did some things to try to eliminate them from shooting three-point shots, from leading the team in scoring. And, what happened was some other people ended up having some pretty good games. Pam Brown shoots it 20 times, maybe we didn't take care of our responsibilities, total-wise, but we did do a good job on number 10 and number 20, as they really never made any three-point shots."
"(Bowling Green) is a team that has won seven games, but have held their own in the Mid-American Conference, and I personally think -- I'm not blowing smoke -- Curt has done a really good job of getting those kids to play. The fact is, Francine Miller's not out there on that court right now, and those other kids have elevated their level of play. Emily Pohl, a Michigan kid and a great kid, came in there and played her heart out in a substitution role. I think you're seeing a team that's playing very hard, and it's not a team that I would want to play in the postseason tournament."
