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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Tuesday's Post-Game Reactions
November 30, 2004 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 30, 2004
Recap | Final Stats
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team opened the home portion of the regular-season schedule with an 83-61 victory over Youngstown State University Tuesday night (Nov. 30). Some thoughts from head coach Curt Miller and freshman guard Kate Achter after the win...
BGSU HEAD COACH Curt Miller
"Tonight was a big game, for a lot of reasons. They (YSU) had beaten us two years in a row, and we looked at last year's loss as the loss that kept us out of the postseason WNIT. And, the fact that we're getting ready to hit the road for three consecutive weekends. So, the game had a lot of subplots, but the bottom line was that this was a very important game to us. We're very excited to come out and get a win."
"We had not been shooting the ball well from the three-point arc, and we continued that trend. But, there was a concerted effort to get the ball inside and score points in the paint, and we won that statistic by a large margin. (Note: BG held a 48-8 advantage in that category.) In fact, we played the first 20 minutes of the game without giving up a basket in the paint. I was really pleased with our inside play, and our ability to penetrate and get shots in the paint."
(On the Falcons' defense, particularly in the first half:)
"We had been kind of a low-pressure team this year. In practice this week, we really challenged each other to pick up the defensive pressure and intensity. It really showed tonight, and it had Youngstown State out of rhythm. As well as they shot the three-pointer early on, the pressure didn't allow them to pound the ball inside, which they had been doing very efficiently and effectively early on this season."
(On Kate Achter's play:)
"Kate was phenomenal tonight. People are going to read her points total in the paper tomorrow, and she was tremendous offensively. But, as a coach, I was proud of her defensive intensity on the ball. I felt like she really dictated the tempo and bothered their point guard. I just think we're seeing the growth and the learning curve of a freshman point guard in our system, and it is really fun to see. This is who we recruited, this is the potential we saw in Kate, and I really feel that we all will watch Kate grow into a very, very talented player. She still has a long way to go, but I think we saw glimpses tonight of how special Kate Achter can be for the Falcons for a long time."
FRESHMAN GUARD Kate Achter
"We knew we really had to defend their guards. They have such a tough inside game, and we wanted to make it hard for them to get the ball inside. I thought we did a good job of defending their guards, particularly at the end of the first half. We didn't allow them to get points inside, which was our goal."
"Our defense definitely helped create our offense tonight. We went to the (BGSU men's basketball game vs. UIC last week), and they really fed off of their defensive pressure. Every time you get a steal, you get a little more pumped up. You want to convert off of your hard work, and that was our motivation."
(Do you feel like you're getting more comfortable with Coach Miller's system?)
"Definitely. The more I practice, the more comfortable I'm going to become. It's going to take time for me to learn it, but -- slowly but surely -- I feel like I'm getting the hang of it."
