Postgame Quotes

Feb. 20, 2008

OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH SHERRI COALE
On turning the game around in the second half...
"I don't think I turned it around, I think they turned it around. We're so young that sometimes we don't recognize it. They're great kids and they don't intentionally not complete or intentionally not play hard, but sometimes we don't recognize when we don't have a sense of urgency on every possession. Sometimes it comes from selfishness - trying to share too much and trying to be too patient. Those are things that can get you into trouble. You need a healthy dose, not an overdose of it. I think they made a corrective decision at halftime - that we are a better basketball team than that and we are tougher than that. We were going to take care of the things we needed to take care of and control the things we can in the second half. "

On getting the ball into the posts...
"Kansas State does a really good job of if you get them on one thing, they are going to take it away the next time. We had to keep changing the way we delivered the ball to the post - angle, where the pass came from, the person who was making the pass. Patience was a piece of it."

On being a young team and getting a big win...
"We were forced to grow up. We were on the road against an experienced team, who's leading the conference, who has had great success throughout the conference run and we were lousy in the first half. We had a hole and we had to dig our way out of it. If you had turned on the game at halftime and watched the second half, you would have never dreamed that we didn't have a senior on the floor. So, I think we grew up."

OKLAHOMA SOPHOMORE GUARD JENNA PLUMLEY
On coming back in the second half after her first half injury...
"I didn't know we were down by 10 at halftime. I just heard the comments about what happened when I wasn't there. We made a decision to make a change and that's what we did. We came out and we played together. We didn't force things we just played off of one another and we just made things happen. It was a really good turnaround."

On showing leadership...
"I always have pressure to lead, especially as a point guard. I just needed to talk my teammates up and get everybody going. Once we hit that first shot it just kept coming. We talked our way through it and we played with one another. We came out to play and that's what made a huge difference. We knew with the size difference between our posts and their posts, we just had to get it in there. Courtney (Paris) did extremely well finishing at the rim. She brought energy, especially when she got the and-ones. That's what kept us going."

OKLAHOMA JUNIOR FORWARD ASHLEY PARIS
On Jenna Plumley coming back in the second half...
"She came back and helped us get out of our double-digit deficit. I think it started with her. We realized that we needed to step it up since she wasn't there. We obviously had a size advantage inside. Courtney (Paris) finished extremely well inside."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

KANSAS STATE HEAD COACH DEB PATTERSON
Opening Statement...
"It was a game in which it was a tale of two halves. Obviously K-State was very good in the first half and Oklahoma struggled. Oklahoma was very good in the second half and we struggled. I think that pretty much puts the stamp on it. It was a game in which two very great basketball teams comes down to one possession, a three point game. We fought hard but I don't think we played well in the second half. I know Oklahoma thinks they didn't play well in the first half. I am proud of the effort we put forth, but not satisfied with our execution defensively in the second half. Especially those first seven or eight minutes of the game really changed the nature of the game. They got more aggressive and we were more passive. I think that changed that game. I was proud of the way our team fought back and made it a game down the stretch. It just comes down to making shots and little plays down the stretch that separates you.

On failing to capitalize on Oklahoma turnovers...
"I was satisfied with the first half. We are not going to be perfect but we did have some possessions that we could have converted on. I felt pretty good about our defense and our rebounding. At that stage of the game the biggest difference was not us in the first half it was us in the second half. I don't think we were as assertive as we needed to be as a group."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors