Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-Santa Clara Quotes
November 20, 2010 | Women's Basketball
General
"It's good to get a win. I thought we came out in the first half and played very well to start off the game. We were clicking; we were moving the ball. Then we got kind of stagnant; quit doing what we're doing at the end of the first half. I wasn't extremely happy going into half time with how we ended that half. We gave Santa Clara a little bit of momentum going into halftime. We had to establish ourselves in the second half, and I thought we did that. I thought we did a much better job at getting Julie Seabrook the ball on the post which is one of the things we talked about. She did a great job finishing. We had a lot of great performances by a lot of different people. Especially in the second half, I felt like it was a total team effort. Everybody stepped up their play and really got everybody else involved."
On team's bounce back performance
"It's great. We talked a lot about that over the past couple days of not compounding mistakes, and not compounding losses. We wanted to play well; we wanted to get this win at home. It was great to be in front of our fans and our crowd. We did what we needed to do to beat a team that will get some wins this year. Santa Clara, I know they're 0-3 now, but they're much improved from a year ago and they've done some really nice things."
On play of Julie Seabrook
"We talked a lot yesterday about establishing her and Rachel [Hargis] on the block inside. And also everybody else. I thought Chucky [Jeffery] did a great job of posting up when she had the opportunity. We set some better screens in the second half to get some easy shots. We have to continue to get easy shots; we can't keep relying on our outside shots every single game, every single play. That means we've got to screen better, we have to wait for the screens, and we have to look inside. Julie had position a lot of times in the first half and we missed her. In the second half we were really looking for a lot more. She did a great job in catching and finishing and giving confidence to a teammate.
"It helped her a lot. Especially on the boards; I haven't seen her rebound like that yet since I've been here. I think that gave here more confidence more so than even hitting her first couple shots. She came out and she was very aggressive. You could see that by the way she was going after those rebounds."
On play of Brittany Wilson
"She has been practicing very well, and that's showing with how she's performing in games. I thought she played pretty well against Denver as well. She keeps getting better and that's what we need all of our freshman to do: to keep getting better every single day. She comes in and she's a great spark off the bench. She provides a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, defense, she was moving the ball and she was really being aggressive."
On teams' three-point shooting
"We've been shooting it pretty well. But like I said, we can't rely on that. We get in the flow when we make a couple threes and that's all we want to shoot for the next 10-12 possessions. We just have to be smart: when we're knocking down threes we have to know that that's not all we have to shoot. The best three-point shooting teams establish that inside presence as well and are able to get some better outside shots. We've been knocking it down pretty well, you know [Britney] Blythe has stepped up, [Brittany] Spears has been doing well, and Meagan [Malcolm-Peck] has hit a few. Britney Wilson hit a couple tonight. It's one of those things where when it's on you've got to like it, but when it's not you have to have a back-up plan.
"We need them to have the confidence to step up and take that open three. I think the reason that we are shooting so well from the three is that our players are doing a great job of determining what is a good three and what's necessarily not a good three. They're threes when they're open; they're taking threes when teammates have set them up for good shots, and they're not forcing up too many bad threes which is a good thing."
On upcoming opponent Tennessee-Martin
"Tennessee-Martin is very young. I believe they start five freshmen. They're very quick; they play a little matchup zone. They'll be tough. They just had a great game against Belmont and are playing a lot better. The longer they go in the season, the better they're going to get, so we have to be ready. They're going to be a little different team than tonight. They're going to be quick; we have to make sure we're playing defense and we're taking care of the ball offensively."
On play of Chucky Jeffery
"She has taken it to another level. Obviously, I didn't get to see her play much at all last year. What Chucky is doing is being a leader for us at the point guard position; she's getting us into a lot of things. Tonight she didn't have a very good first half and was kind of down on herself after some missed shots. That kind of carried over from Denver when she missed some shots that she thought she should make. She's very hard on herself; that's good and it's bad. It's good because it makes her a better player. It's bad because sometimes she makes things bug her for too long. She's doing, I thought in the second half, a great job of letting her first half go, forgetting about it. I think that's where she's really starting to grow: she can have a bad first half and come back with a great second half like she did."
Colorado Players
Julie Seabrook, Jr., F
ON HER PERFORMANCE - "Well the coaches they kind of challenged the post players after our last game so I thought I needed to step up and have more of a major offensive role, just helping my teammates out, everybody needs to contribute. That is helpful if some people are having off nights."
ON THE TEAM'S SIZE ADVANTAGE - "They were a little bit shorter, not as strong as us when we could pound it in, pound it in, pound it in, it is a good offensive tactic. We definitely had a size advantage today. It was nice."
ON BOUNCING BACK AFTER LOSING TO DENVER - "We were pissed off after coming off of our last game. It was nice for us to take our frustration out after that loss. To come out and play hard, it was definitely nice."
ON HER GAME - "I think it definitely helps my confidence, obviously I didn't play as much as I wanted to the past couple of years, so that has always been kind of an issue for me. I just wanted to help out, go in there and do the best that I could. I just felt that I could rebound really well today, I had extra energy. I've been sick the past couple of weeks so it was nice to be out there and have that energy."
Brittany Spears, Sr., F
ON THE TEAM SHOOTING THREE-POINTERS - "We expect to come out, play hard and win. Threes were going down so we just kept shooting them. We came out and shot threes and then kept shooting them."
ON TEAM HITTING THREES AND TAKING OFF DEFENSIVE PRESSURE - "The floor is open for drives so it helps a lot. Chucky (Jeffery) is a good passer. We have solid shooters so it makes everything easier. We shoot and pass the ball."
Brittany Wilson, Fr., G
ON HER PERFORMANCE IN HER THIRD GAME - "I'm just ready to play. My team is going to need me. There is no time for surprises."
ON HER SHOOTING THREE POINTERS - "I can shoot it, just a lot of times it doesn't go in, but it finally went in today and it felt good. After that when I know that my three is going down, everything else is going down too. It definitely helped to raise my confidence level."
Chucky Jeffery, So., G
ON HER SECOND HALF PERFORMANCE - "Coming off I was struggling in the first half and I kind of got frustrated in myself. In the second half I knew my team needed me so I just had to change my mentality and it felt good to get the team rolling and the team had a good start, (Brittany) Spears was rolling, so was Julie (Seabrook). So I felt like it was a good team win for us."
ON JULIE SEABROOK'S PERFORMANCE - "It makes us feel real good. Julie's confidence is up and now we are more confident in getting the ball in there. Once we start getting the ball on the inside, they start to crowd a little bit and we have a lot of spot up shooters and that means open shots for us. Like Spears said, we get to the spot up in the corner, you've got Jules posted up and you hit her on the high low, and it helps us out a lot. It was real exciting to see Jules have a good game."
Santa Clara Head Coach Jennifer Mountain
GENERAL - "We came out slow shooting. If we knocked down a couple shots and a few layups it would have changed the flow in the beginning of the game. Same as the other night, we shot 2-for-14 from the three-point line and that is one of our strengths, and if we are not shooting the ball well we are going to struggle."
ON RESPONDING AT THE END OF THE FIRST HALF - "We fought back, that is not our issue. We are always a team that will fight back and we are not going to give up, but missed opportunities, missed layups, those are things that you can't do to win ball games. I like the run that we went on, but Kathy Willinsky did a great job. She did a good job, she provided us some spark. We can't shoot the ball the way that we did and be in the game."
ON STARTING THE YEAR 0-3 - "We are a young basketball team; I'm not worried about the record right now. I'm worried about us getting confidence and that is what we are lacking right now. We are a team that does shoot the ball really well. We've played three really good teams. We should have won the other night; I don't think we played very well against Northern Colorado. We are not going to worry about the win-loss record right now; we are going to worry about getting better."
ON IMPROVEMENT OF TEAM - "We are a different team than we were two nights ago. If we played like this two nights ago we would have won. Its confidence and shooting, and right now we are not shooting the ball very well. We are looking at things differently. I think some players on the floor are maturing a little bit, but we just have to knock down some shots quite frankly."
ON THE PLAY OF COLORADO NATIVE MEAGAN FULPS - "She's struggling to shoot the ball. She scored from the free throw line tonight, I'll give her that. I'll give her credit, she wasn't scoring from the outside which is her strength, but she took it at them and got herself to the free throw line during that first half. She's got to knock down some jumpers."
