Colorado-Texas A&M Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Kathy McConnell-Miller

GENERAL?“We had a game plan coming in, we talked about pressure and breaking the press. We executed the game plan, but we were concerned about their rebounding due to their athleticism. The game started physical, I thought they wanted contact on everyone of our possessions. It was as physical of a first five minutes as I've seen. We made some adjustments; we started to go underneath screens in the first half and then went over the top in the second half. We only allowed one three pointer in the second half. They executed everything we asked them to, and the outcome was within our control. We just didn't finish the game. We didn't rebound at the end and we didn't make our free throws. We have to learn to play with the lead, this is two games in a row that we were up by a lot in the second half and lost it. That is a sign of immaturity and I think a result of how much we've had to play from behind these last two years. We are tough as nails when we're playing from behind but we are a different team with the lead and I don't want to see that again. We had some great individual performances but we have no one to blame but ourselves for the loss.”

ON SCHEDULE?“I don't think we have any easy game the rest of the year, I really don't. If these girls in white think that it is going to be easier against Kansas State, it won't. I came here to compete against the best teams in the country. We had two great teams down on our home court and didn't capitalize. We have to grow from it.”

ON HANDLING THE PRESSURE?“I wish that we had Hannah (Skildum) on the court at the end. I thought she did a good job of handling the pressure and took it to them with her attack. I don't think that the physical nature of the game took it's toll on us I just would have preferred to have had Hannah in there.”

ON TEXAS A&M DANIELLE GANT?“I thought that Jackie (McFarland) did a good job on her, we made a switch and she really helped us to defend her.”

ON DIFFERENT PLAYERS HAVING AN IMPACT?“I just think that Whitney Houston is a player who can handle he pressure. We didn't want an up and down game but she gave us some good minutes. Courtney Dunn is always a threat. She is big, physical and doesn't back down from contact.”

Colorado Players

Sr. F Jackie McFarland

ON TEXAS A&M'S STYLE OF PLAY ? They come at you with a lot of speed, and that's how they play. They always have hands in the passing-lanes. They force whoever they play to speed the game up a little bit.

ON COLORADO'S PLAY AFTER GAINING A LEAD - We are all fighters, but we have no killer instinct. I think everyone looks to the other person and lets them continue the game, once we get a lead. It's not our offense or our defense, we just wait for the other team to die and they don't.

Sr. G Suzie Powers

ON TEXAS A&M - They're a good team and we knew they we're going to come at us from all over. We knew we could be there with them. We got as physical as they did, but they hit free throws and made critical rebounds and we didn't.”

Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair

General

“It's life support system we're on right now. Altitude doesn't mean a thing. You come out here to play a game. We were missing easier shots in the first half when we were open, than in the second half when we were covered. We needed to press, we struggled offensively and we were fouling. Colorado is the best three point team in nation and we got lucky they missed a lot of those shots tonight.”

“This league is all about very good point guards and Susie Powers does a great job for Colorado. We aren't playing like Big 12 champs, we have to go out there next and play Oklahoma State who has been doing a great job. We are a hard working team that can have 5'10” guarding Jackie McFarland, who has the best post moves in the league.”

“The game turned when my little freshman Colson came off the bench. We were able to get a couple of easy baskets and we made plays down the stretch that we needed to make.”

ON COLORADO?

“You (Colorado) have a basketball team that can go to NCAA, the difference in her (Kath McConnell-Miller) team is that she had to put two starters on the bench and put the younger ones in. This makes her team a lot harder to defend. Give coach credit for putting those kids on the bench. There are few great coaches in the county and you have one of them right here.”

Texas A&M Players

Jr. G. Takia Starks-

ON THE GAME-

“It started out to be the worst birthday of my life. Now it's up there with the good ones. I fixed what I needed to for the second half. We had good shots, but they didn't fall and we didn't get inside as much as I would have liked?we didn't get aggressive in the first half.”