Colorado University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Colorado-UCLA Quotes
January 29, 2016 | Women's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Linda Lappe
General
"I thought that we did a lot of good things in that game, but it really came down to rebounds, turnovers and fouls. Â It was a big difference in the first half, and we weren't ever able to overcome the 15 point deficit. Â They're a high powered team and when you dig a hole like that it's really hard to come back. Â I thought we stuck with it and did some good things in the second half."
On Trying To Make the Comeback
"You have to do it one possession at a time, and I thought we had the mindset all night long. Â We just didn't have a big enough run in a game that was made up of runs."
On UCLA's Defensive Intensity
"It's hard to simulate that. Â We had guys get after them in practice this week to prepare for it. Â It's just hard to simulate how relentless they are all the time. Â But I liked what we did in the second half. Â We talked about being more fundamental with our passes and I thought we did that."
On Missing Lauren Huggins (Concussion)
"When you start to look at our defense, I knew that's where we were going to miss Lauren. Â Even just in practice we knew that we were going to have to make some adjustments. Â I thought we made some nice adjustments, but we haven't given up 82 in a while. Â Lauren's been one of our better defensive players this year, so I thought that hurt us. Â And our depth at guard hurt us, with only one guard sub coming off the bench, and when we went small we had zero guard subs."
Colorado Players
Haley Smith, Jr., G/F
On Being Able To Keep Up With UCLA
"I don't think it was so much what they were doing as it was just the things we weren't executing as well as we talked about in our game plan. We had talked about taking care of the ball, meeting all of our passes, rebounding, and executing; making sure we were getting what we wanted to get. It wasn't so much that we weren't adjusting to what they were doing, we just weren't doing what we're supposed to be doing. After we were able to talk about that at halftime and make that adjustment, I think we were able to keep the game much tighter. We had dug ourselves a bit of a hole by letting them get to the free throw line so much in the first half and not rebounding."
On UCLA's Tight Defense
"That was something we didn't learn from and adjust to as quickly as we needed to. We were making cross-court passes which isn't going to work against someone that's that long. We were making slow bounce passes and the receiver wasn't coming to the ball as well. We needed that two-way communication and having both people as invested in completing that pass. We didn't adjust to that quick enough."
On Playing Without Lauren Huggins
"Lauren has been a really key scorer for us, especially on the outside, being an outside threat. I think one place we missed her was on the defensive end and in her vocal abilities and her ability to bring energy to the game. That's something we really rely on and something we did miss. She's been a great defender for us this year. We put her on a lot of key players. She's a good matchup on shooters and on some quick players. That was something that we missed, but we did have people step up and we were able to fill that role that she left."
On Team's Losing Streak
"Obviously everyone's aware of it, but that's something that we're trying to avoid thinking about and focusing on so much, because that's not going to do us any good. Being able to take the positives out of every game and being able to not have to rely on what the scoreboard says, but how the game was played is something we want to focus on."
On Individual Performance
"I knew coming in that I needed to be aggressive. They're an aggressive team and you can't be tentative against that. Being able to get to the line more – which is something I struggled in doing. Being aggressive and taking it at them; and playing against their weaknesses. They have a ton of athletic players, shot-blockers, and things like that. Being able to get them up in the air, get in their body, and taking what they're giving was something that I was focusing on this game."
 Jamee Swan, Sr., F
On Trying To Come Back
"We just decided to play Colorado basketball. We decided that it was our turn to go on a run. It was a game of runs. We had nothing to lose. We were just going for it."
On Taking Positives From The Game
"You can't win them all. It's just knowing that you're getting better and knowing that you have improved in certain areas of your game as a whole and as individuals. We have a lot of W's to take out of how we played and how we came back, but we also have a couple things we still need to work on."
UCLA Head Coach Cori Close
General
"I thought our team played with passion. And we had obviously created enough turnovers to help us in our offense. Honestly, I just continue to be impressed with this Colorado team; they are so much better than their record. The freshmen are getting better every game. I'm pleased with our performance; we showed some grit and some mental toughness. I thought Colorado did a great job coming back and disrupting our rhythm. I give them a lot of credit for their fight."
On The Team's Defensive Press
"I thought our pressure was really key, especially early on in the game. We didn't let them get into a rhythm. That is a huge priority for us, to pressure and to create tempo. We're not as good in the half-court, actually I think Colorado is better than us, in some ways, in the half-court. But if we can get the game up and down, that really plays to our strengths, and I thought that got us off to a good start."