Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU-Oakland Post-Game Quotes
December 13, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 13, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
BGSU HEAD COACH CURT MILLER
"We did a lot of good things today. We contained Jayme Wilson; for her to get only 15 points, I was happy. We were really worried about Petra Manakova, and about Nicole Piggott off the bench. Those were three players that we really concentrated on, and we held them to 21 points. But, to their credit, (Amanda) Batcha and (Anne) Hafeli really stepped up and played good games for them."
"I was disappointed with our rebounding. You can't get outrebounded by 12 and win games. On the stat sheet, you look at a lot of things, and you would think we won. But the one thing that stands out is that they beat us on the boards. They trapped our ball screens, and we went to a more open post offense, which we were more successful at running. But, it is a difficult offense in which to get offensive rebounds. It's a give and take, and some of the rebounding numbers are skewed because of the offense we chose to run."
"We led by four points with just under 12 minutes to go. I felt we had worked very hard for that lead, and momentum was on our side. I think a huge key in the game was that, from then until the 10-minute mark, we missed four-straight free throws. That was a momentum-killer. I have all the confidence in the world in our kids at the line, but we did not shoot foul shots well today, and that was a disappointment. Those four missed free throws changed the whole momentum in the game, and we never recovered."
"We could never get the lead in the last 10 minutes. We were within one on multiple occasions, and I felt like we had momentum and were a possession away from getting over the hump. This (Oakland) is a team that has lost two close games, to Boston College and to Florida. I felt like, if we could have gotten a lead late in the game, that they might think, 'Here we go again.' We worked so hard to put ourselves in position to take the lead, but we just could not get over the hump."
"I'm really happy with our defense today, for the most part. Even though we had 23-point wins over Bucknell and IPFW, we were a better defensive team today, and for most of the night, we executed the game plan the way we wanted to. So, we're getting better, and that's encouraging as we get closer to conference play. Stopping (Manakova) was a big deal, because she's as good a center as we'll play. That was a big accomplishment, but we've just got to put a whole game together, and find a way to win a close game with young players."
"We came into the game as the MAC's leading team in field-goal percentage, three-point percentage and three-point field goals made. They worked really hard to keep us from getting those easy looks. I expected to pick up the stat sheet and see that we struggled in the paint. Ironically, we outscored them in the paint. They defended us well at the arc, and we just could not get going. We also missed some three's that we're capable of making. We're still going to shoot a lot of three's, and there will be nights when we have great percentages and nights like this one, but we have to find ways to win when our three's don't go in."
"Liz (Honegger) had a good game. Obviously, everyone will look at her points and rebounding totals, but she had the defensive assignment against Manakova. She got us going, when we were struggling early. She scored our first seven points, and really set the tone. I know she'll beat herself up over some of the shots she missed, but she played a big game for us. She continues to improve, and you can see her confidence growing every day. She's so long; she's got 'Go-Go-Gadget' arms."
"This was a great home-and-home series for us. I scheduled this series for us when I got here. We won at their place by one (last year), and today was another similar game. Despite it being a seven-point game, I felt like it was one possession away (down the stretch) and either team could win it. We are not scheduled to play next year, but both coaches agreed that we will get each other on the schedule again down the road. I have a lot of respect for their program, and it was a great series. You couldn't ask for two better games."
OAKLAND HEAD COACH EILEEN SHEA-HILLARD
"We talked to our kids about (the fact that) sometimes you have off days, but you have to make plays. Down the stretch, we did some good things to win, but we also gave BG some good looks, and were fortunate that they didn't hit some of the shots. I'm not gonna take the credit for having great defensive stops, because they weren't. We were giving the right people, for them, good looks at the basket; they just couldn't knock them down."
"We've talked before about good teams finding ways to win. It certainly wasn't pretty, but we'll take it."
"Our defense has been pretty good. That's been an emphasis this year, and we're leading our conference in field-goal defense right now. At times, we struggle to score, so our kids know that we need to keep the defense going until our offense comes around. I thought we did a pretty good job of that, although we still made a lot of mistakes. The irony was that we gave them good looks at times, which hurt us because we could never break away. But, when it came down to them hitting the big ones and really sticking it to us, they couldn't put those in. Curt and I kind of laughed, because last year, it was the same way."
(On BGSU's play against Oakland's full-court press:)
"They handled it well enough early that it became a non-factor after that. We didn't do a very good job of preventing penetration up the sidelines, and my two people in the back didn't do a very good job. But, maybe that's to their credit; they did a good job handling it. hey're a harder team to press than some, because they have five people that can handle the ball."
