Colorado University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Colorado-UCLA Quotes
February 07, 2015 | Women's Basketball
Colorado Coach Linda Lappe
On the Toughness Playing on the Road
"We didn't come out inspired; we weren't ready to go. When you aren't ready to go and you take a pounding like we did in the first twenty minutes it is going to make the game tough. We had eighteen turnovers and fourteen offensive rebounds in the first half. Obviously, not the way you want to start out the game."
On Offensive RunÂ
"In that run every time you looked up at the score it was an eight point or six point game, it didn't feel like that, but we kept reminding our players that it was a close game. I don't know how it was at that point but it was. I thought our guards did a tremendous job of getting down the floor when we had miss matches on their two wings. We also did a nice job of finishing in the second half; we got the ball where it needed to go and got the ball to the right person. We took care of the basketball in that stretch, which also helped us get tops defensively."
On Defensive During Offensive Run
"We started to up our pressure a little bit. We forced them to turn the ball over by denying some of their go-to options. We also started making them uncomfortable and didn't allow them to get so deep in the lane, which we were letting them do in the first half. You still have to credit their players. They did a nice job at knowing where they score and did a nice job getting to those spots. Throughout that stretch we also boxed out; they were not getting second and third opportunities."
On UCLA's Pressure on the Point Guards
"They did a nice job at putting pressure on us all night long. However, I didn't think it was 28 turnovers type of pressure. We had turnovers towards the end of the game, which really hurt us. We went up by one and then we had two or three turnovers following. So really, turnovers and rebounding killed us, along with the inability to execute down the stretch."Â
On Preparing for USC
"We didn't play well tonight; we played one of our worst games of the year and you cant be doing that in the month of February. We haven't had great days of practice this week and we always play like we practice; this is a good lesson. Tomorrow we need to come ready to go, have a great practice, so we can play well at USC."
Colorado Player Lexy KreslÂ
On the Team's Willingness to FightÂ
"We have a lot of fight, I don't think anyone can deny that, we just need to start coming out faster, being focused, and prepared off the bat so we don't have to make fifteen point comebacks. If we come out like we are suppose too we can be ahead by fifteen points and that would be great!"
On Stopping Nirra Fields and Jordin CanadaÂ
"Jordin Canada is pretty quick, she has a good first step, but Nirra Fields is really the one that's a challenge to guard. She can hit the pull up jump shot, she can drive, she can draw a foul; she can basically do anything, which makes her one of the better guards in the Conference. Even though she is difficult to guard it can be done with help from the entire team. You can't play one-on-one or she's going to beat you. When we had the help, we stopped her every time but when we left someone on an island it was a little more difficult."
On Difficulty Setting Up the OffensiveÂ
"We have gotten pretty used to it being difficult in the past couple of games; it seems to be a trend this year. It hurts because we will miss one reversal and that may be where the shot is, so we may be forcing a little bit more then we need to towards the end of the shot clock. However, I thought we flowed into the offensive pretty well considering."
On Thoughts Heading in to Practice Before USC
"We need to get ready. We need to play tough and get the right mindset tomorrow so we will have it on Sunday as well."Â