Colorado State University Athletics
Postgame quotes
3/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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HEAD COAH Ryun Williams
(on the win)
"Well that's what we faced the last four, five, six games now. They had nothing to lose. They probably know their seed. We know our seed. It's senior night. They wanted to destroy us and they came out and played great. Our kids once again showed incredible resolve, incredible character and toughness. And we just weathered that barrage of offense Utah State threw at us. Holding them to 20 points in the second half, that's what our team's all about. Those are tough kids."
(on the great second half)
"It was one of the better halves we've played collectively. We did a really good job on Funda (Nakkasoglu). In that second half we switched the ball screens. We did a good job at keeping her in front of us. She didn't get that easy stuff to the rim and she didn't get into her dribble-drive three, so everybody did a great job there. We rebounded exceptionally well that second half. We had great looks all night. Just a lot of in-and-outs underneath. The second half we had some good looks. Hanne (Mestdagh) hits two big threes. Gritt (Ryder) starts going. It was just fun to watch them will themselves to a victory."
(on Elin Gustavsson)
"She gets those o-boards. She drives. Very, very determined effort and a lot of conviction behind her game. That last three that she shot, great conviction, great confidence, and we needed her. Our kids wanted to send these seniors out on a right note. "
(on the MW tournament)
"They keep winning. They keep playing tough. We keep getting good shots. We don't turn it over. We're pretty determined defensively, so that's a good formula for winning basketball games. And that's what we've done here as of late. So we'll just keep doing what we're doing and we'll go in there with a great deal of confidence. We know everybody's gunning for us. We've seen it for the last month, so this game prepared us for the tournament."
CSU PLAYERS
(on difference between first and second half)
"We were talking about having to step up overall, energy wise and everything. I think more talking and communicating. That's what we did and it worked. I feel like the second half was more confident. It just felt super good."
(on defensive struggles)
"In the beginning we knew that they weren't going to shoot like that in the second half. We can't control that, we just have to play good defense, focus on offense and focus on what we can do. That's what we did."
(on offensive game)
"This sounds very cheesy, but it was team work. It was team pride, and it was not just me playing good defense. It was us overall and helping each other. As I said, we were communicating and that helped a lot."
(on pressure to win)
"Of course you think that because we won last year. It's more pressure and last year they didn't know so much about us. I feel that if we still have this team pride, put in 100 percent and believe in ourselves, we knew that we were going to be really good."
(on man-to-man defense)
"We came in at halftime and he asked us what we wanted to do, and we choose man. He told us the match up and told me that I had No. 3. Right when he said that I knew what my role was, and I knew that if my threes weren't falling, I had to make it up on the defensive end and contribute to our team."
(on defensive game)
"Well AJ (Newton) was guarding (Funda Nakkasoglu) awesomely, but he wanted to put me on her to bother her with my length."
"Ever since I came here I knew that I wanted to step it up and improve on my defense. I think that was a real challenge for me tonight. I wanted to prove that I can be a good defender even though my feet might be a little slower. I wanted to come out and show that I'm going to shut her down this half."
"It's not an individual effort, I knew she was going to be quicker, and I relied on my teammates to be in the gaps and help me out and they were there."
(on team work)
"Basketball is definitely a team sport. Like we said during the last interview, not everybody steps up every other game. It's not just one person every single game, and that's what our team is about."
(on winning regular-season conference title)
"I come from championships at my juco and I choose this program for that reason. I was ready to have that target on our back and fight for another back to back championship."