Bowling Green State University Athletics
From the Media Room
February 23, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 23, 2005
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Quoting the participants after Wednesday's game at Anderson Arena, a 73-62 win by the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team over Marshall University...
BGSU HEAD COACH CURT MILLER
"This was a big game. Obviously, we are still leading the West Division. But, we don't win any tiebreakers with Eastern Michigan, so this was a big one. This win not only keeps us in first place in the West, but moves us into a tie for first overall with an edge in the tiebreaker. We control our destiny, which is right where you want to be. This game had a championship feel to it, and now, with two games to go, we are in first place. You can't ask for a better position than that."
"In four years, I'm not sure if I've ever challenged our team as much as I did tonight. I was very hard on our team tonight. You just never know if you will ever be in a position to play for a championship ever again. There are no guarantees, and I was very demanding tonight. I challenged individual players more than I normally do, and to their credit, they didn't cower or fold. Our team really hung together as a family, played hard and did what they needed to do."
"Rebounding was a huge stat tonight. Marshall is a tremendous rebounding team, and we had a great night on the boards."
"Our kids never quit, and I thought our emotion and fight was tremendous tonight. Our loyal fans who are here all the time really helped us get to the finish line tonight."
"I have a lot of respect for the Marshall program. Four years ago, he (Royce Chadwick) took over a program that was in disarray. I got here (to BG) four years ago, and both programs have rebuilt through recruiting and a lot of hard work ... we have gone about it in different ways, but to our and their credit, both have had a winning formula. They are very good at what they do, and we are very good at what we do. And tonight, fortunately, we came out on the winning end."
"Again, the offensive rebounding was the single biggest category tonight. I never would have believed that we could struggle like that from the arc, with all those open looks. We have had some nights where we haven't shot the ball well, but tonight, we missed a lot of open looks. We haven't won many games when we are outshot from the field, and it is a credit to our team that we didn't quit, and made an effort to get to the offensive boards."
"Even though we weren't shooting the three, I thought we stayed very aggressive trying to get the ball inside -- either off the dribble or off the pass. With that game plan, in turn, we got to the foul line tonight. Even without the technical fouls, we did a good job of getting ourselves to the foul line."
"I am looking forward to seeing a huge crowd on Saturday. We play our arch-rival, of course, and it should be a tremendous BG-UT game. Also, though, this senior class has been here for my four years. Kelly (Kapferer), Tene (Lewis) and Sakima (Smith) deserve to have a big crowd in attendance for their 'Senior Day' game, and it is a game that means a lot for us. I am really looking forward to hopefully seeing a large crowd turn out for Saturday's game."
BGSU FRESHMAN POINT GUARD KATE ACHTER
(On the Falcons' rebounding advantage)
"We valued every possession. We wanted to get ahead, and we wanted to be able to get second-chance points (when we missed shots). By crashing the boards, we knew we could get some putbacks and second-chance points, and that motivated us a lot."
"We are definitely growing as a team, and we realize that we have a chance to accomplish some big things in the next few weeks. We are definitely coming together."
"All season, Coach Miller has stressed 'get in the gaps, make two people play you and hit the open person.' We knew they would gamble defensively at times, so we were able to make two people play us, and we got a lot of open layups. Some of them, we converted; some of them, we didn't. But, we were able to get on the boards, get some putbacks and draw some fouls."
BGSU SOPHOMORE CENTER LIZ HONEGGER
"At halftime, coach Miller talked about (the fact that) we were getting open shots; we just weren't knocking them down. Even in the second half, I missed wide-open layups I don't know how many times, and I couldn't hit a three tonight. But, we just kept pushing. Coach Miller begged us to keep playing hard and keep fighting."
"Every game is a big game, but this was a championship-caliber game."
"We haven't lost back-to-back games in a long time, and I think that was another motivating factor for us tonight. We wanted to rebound (from Saturday's loss at Eastern Michigan) and come back and get a win."
MARSHALL HEAD COACH ROYCE CHADWICK
"I thought Bowling Green played an excellent basketball game. They did all the things that they needed to do to disrupt us. Twenty-two offensive rebounds, nine offensive rebounds from one post player (Liz Honegger) ... that, along with the free-throw line, was the difference in the game. We were trying to attack and do some things at the free-throw line, but when we got the opportunity to go to the free-throw line, we didn't knock them down. Offensive rebounds and free throws were the difference in the game."
(On Marshall's first technical, which came with the Herd leading by a point)
"Any time you get the lead, you want to try to build on it. And, anything that comes along that changes the momentum is something that you have to fight through. We made a mistake, and you have to overcome it. We were unable to overcome all the mistakes that we made tonight."
"When we blocked out, we played much better on the offensive end. But, it's very demoralizing to have them shoot it, rebound it, shoot it, rebound it, shoot it. Then, you've got to go try to play offense. The difference in the game was offensive boards, and then they were at the free-throw line all night. I thought we did a good job when we played defense; we just didn't finish it with the right block-out, and that's to their credit. They were crashing the boards and making it happen. It's a tough thing to play 25 seconds of defense, then have them shoot the ball and get it back, and now you've got to play another 25 seconds of defense."
"Our offense wasn't very good tonight, but a lot of that had to do with Bowling Green's defense."
"We've got a WNBA-type of schedule. We've got three games in seven days in three states, so it will be a test for us, to see if we can rebound and play well on Saturday (at Eastern Michigan)."
