Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU-Akron Quotes
February 14, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 14, 2007
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
BGSU COACH Curt Miller
"It was a great team win tonight. It was just what the doctor ordered. We were able to spread minutes out throughout the entire team, everyone on the team scored at least five points tonight, and -- with some troops a little bit under the weather, and the nagging types of injuries at this time of the year -- I was very happy to be able to spread the minutes around."
"Offensively, we were efficient again the entire 40 minutes. I was very pleased with our offensive execution tonight. We did not play a good offensive game against (Akron) the first time, and I was pleased that we could come back with that offensive performance against an up-and-coming Akron team."
(When did you know that you would have Ali Mann for this game?)
"Yesterday, probably. She is the ultimate warrior -- if there is ever a kid who can get up off the mat and play, it is her. She and Liz (Honegger) -- knock on wood -- have not missed one game in their entire career between the two of them. I knew if Ali was at all able to breathe, she would give it a go. I am really proud for her. Fortunately, we only had to play her five minutes in the second half. That was a big rallying cry at halftime, to be able to get the people out of the game that we needed out of the game early in the second half."
"We haven't always finished games strong; we've given up some leads .. tonight there was a real urgency to finish strong, and we really executed down the stretch. We had two plays run that are not in our playbook, that we drew up in timeouts. Nothing excites a coach more than (when) a team can take a play that they've never run before, walk out there as a unit and execute it to a finish. That was very exciting. Laura Bugher's basket was a sandlot, 'draw-it-in-the-sand' kind of play, and they executed it perfectly."
(On Tara Breske)
"She got every single rep (in practice) yesterday with the starting unit. I think everyone on our team thought that Tara was going to start tonight. ... She has played very well in practice the last few weeks, and I told her her time was coming. Tonight, you saw Tara Breske ... she has a chance to really help us down the stretch. She is getting better and better, and more confident. She missed most of her junior and senior years with a knee injury in high school, and she is just games behind a lot of people. She is a physical specimen, a great athlete, and her best days are ahead of her."
BGSU SENIOR Ali Mann
(How are you feeling?)
"Great. We just won; I couldn't feel any better."
(Was there ever any doubt in your mind that you would play tonight?)
"Last night when I went to bed, I just felt like, 'I hope this goes away a little bit.' I woke up this morning, felt a little bit better, then went to shootaround and felt OK. So, I figured I'd get a few minutes here or there tonight."
(Do you feel you have a high pain threshold?)
"I just love this game, and I love to play. I'm going to be here for my team night in and night out, no matter what it takes."
"Tara Breske and Laura Bugher are going to be great post players in this conference and for this team, and they are going to continue the tradition once we're gone."
BGSU SENIOR Megan Thorburn
"When you make one shot, it's easier to keep it going, especially when everyone else is making shots, too. From defense to offense, rebounding, getting deflections, we all just played well and played together, as a team."
AKRON COACH JODI KEST
(What makes Bowling Green such a tough matchup)
"Bowling Green is a tough matchup for pretty much anyone they've played in the conference this year. They're just so well-balanced; they're an unselfish team. They have great team chemistry and they care about each other on the court, and they don't care who scores. They'll have a good shot, and they'll make an extra pass to make an extra shot. The majority of (the starters) have played together for four years, and you can just see how they play. Every time we made a run, they came back and made another run ... they were obviously very well-prepared. I thought we were well-prepared the last two days in our practices and scouting report, but they just made us look really bad tonight."
