Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU-Toledo Post-Game Quotes
January 21, 2004 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 21, 2004
TOLEDO, Ohio -
BGSU COACH CURT MILLER
(On BGSU's last three baskets of the game coming from three different freshmen)
"The freshmen add so much character. The one thing that I continue to stress is that they hate to lose. They haven't lost in their high-school careers, so they don't have any kind of sense of 'here we go again.' We called plays for freshmen down the stretch. They've made big plays for us throughout the year, and I was confident that, freshmen or seniors, we were going to find a way to score."
(On the final offensive possession, which turned out to be Ali Mann's layup)
"We ran a play that we thought could be a back-breaker. We ran a play for a three-point shot, to try to get up by four. But, if they made a switch, we wanted to try to pound the ball inside against that switch. They switched it, and it took us longer than I was comfortable with, but we eventually got the ball inside to Ali Mann, posting up against their guard. It was a very good pass (by Stefanie Wenzel), and the kids were very patient to make that play work."
(Did you do anything different on defense over the last few minutes?)
"I felt like, in the entire second half, we competed harder. I felt like we were annihilated on the boards in the first half. We missed some shots we were capable of making. A lot of that went back to intensity and effort. They were winning the battle of the little things; loose balls, rebounding. When we fought back, and finally decided that we can play with this team, I thought we gained an air of confidence. We felt like, 'we can battle with this team.'"
"Stefanie Wenzel put us on her back at the start of the second half, and helped give us confidence. But, the later in the game it got, it was like a heavyweight fight. You've survived the first 35 minutes (despite) not playing great basketball. It wasn't a pretty game by either team, but we just kept fighting and fighting. Once we got the game under the four-minute mark, and we were still in it, the Savage Hall crowd -- which is absolutely fantastic -- isn't as big a factor. Because, you've hung in there, and it's no longer a 40-minute game. It's a three- or four-minute game, and the team that plays the best is going to win."
"We wrote the score on the board in big letters at halftime. 30-26. (We told them that) you're down by four. You've been annihilated on the boards. You've shot 31 percent from the field. We are the only team in the entire MAC with a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, and we're throwing the ball all over the place. And we're down four. We just sat there, took a deep breath and looked at each other and said, 'We should be down 20. We are very lucky to be in this game, but we survived.' We said to go out, play BG basketball and see if we can steal a win."
(What does this win mean to your team?)
"Well, the (conference) start is huge for us, because we needed confidence. We have had a good non-conference record two years in a row, but we haven't always taken that into conference play. This is a team still learning how to win, and that start has really helped us. Our February schedule is murderous, but this start gives us confidence that we can play with teams. We have now won in DeKalb and Toledo -- in my opinion, two of the toughest places to play in the conference. Our kids have got to have more confidence that they can go and compete. We're a last-second basket away from being undefeated in this league, so our kids are playing with confidence."
BGSU SENIOR STEFANIE WENZEL
(On her hot-shooting start to the second half)
"I played a bad first half, and I felt like I let the team down in the first half. We didn't play very well, offensively, as a team. I was just happy my first shot went in, and I just went from there."
(What did you tell the freshmen to prepare them for this game?)
"We told them what a big rivalry this is. But, we didn't want them to be intimidated. Our freshmen are very confident, and a lot of it is because they don't know who to fear. We came out telling them that this is a huge game, and they knew it. We just wanted to be confident and ready, and not intimidated in this atmosphere."
"We got outrebounded, 27-14, in the first half, which is awful. (Coach Miller) told us that we've got to rebound, and stop playing soft. They were more physical than we were, and taking advantage of us, and yet we were only down by four. So, we knew if we could pick up the rebounding, pick up the offense and be tougher, we would be just fine."
BGSU FRESHMAN ALI MANN
(On the final basket, were you calling for the ball?)
"Yes, I was. I knew the shot clock was running down, and coach had gotten on me the game before. He pulled me out after I didn't post up on a smaller guard. I recognized the switch, took (the defender) to the block, and I just wanted the ball in that situation."
"We were absolutely demolished on the boards in the first half. Like Stef said, we talked about rebounding being a big key (at halftime). When we came out, I think we just had more intensity on the glass. We worked harder on the glass, and we had our guards crashing, both offensively and defensively, which was a big help."
