Postgame Quotes

Feb. 15, 2010

Oklahoma Head Coach Sherri Coale
On the game:
“I'm very proud of these kids and of this team. I thought they really did compete and they matched Connecticut's effort all night long and that is what you have to do to be in the ball game. We just missed some free throws and some big shots.

“We just missed some easy ones. We weren't really that focused at the start and they really took it at us and we had to dig ourselves out of the hole. But we did that and got back to where we wanted to be at halftime. In the second half, we missed some key baskets but, early on, we made some free throws and some jump shots and we took the lead. But you can't make stupid shots against these guys and we have been so good at the free throw line and that kind of affected our confidence.”

On the second half and finish:
“It took us a little bit to get going in the second half and we second-guessed some of the opportunities that we had. I thought that we could have kicked it in and out a little more and we were a little skittish on the defensive end.

“I am proud of our kids and effort and that is the number one team in the country. We are doing alright and hanging in there. There is a lot of basketball to be played and we have to get playing better. That is why you play teams like this.”

On the transition game against UConn:
“In the second half, they attacked it a little better and (Caroline) Doty made the 3 and then we could have gone back to it after that. It was a 12- to 10-point game and then you leave someone open for a 3 and then suddenly it is out of control. I thought that we weren't producing on the offensive end and that was the big difference. Their zone affected us in the second half and rhythm. Then they went back to man and we didn't attack the same way.”

On the atmosphere:
“The game was on national television and we raised a lot of awareness for breast cancer and that was most important thing.”

On the past schedule:
“It has been a tough past couple of weeks, but I am proud of our team. We have to regroup and we have a tough game on the road this weekend. It's time to get back to taking care of business in the Big 12.”

Oklahoma junior guard Danielle Robinson
On UConn's execution:
“I think that it is discipline and they just buy into their system extremely well and they just play basketball. They are all really good players and I just think they enjoy what they do and come out and perform every night.”

On if playing with that kind of intensity makes it hard to make shots:
“No, I don't think so. We have played with that much intensity before. I think it is just a matter of focus. The times we did come down and slow down and focus we made shots. We just need to play our game and I think we were rushing it a little bit. “

Oklahoma senior forward Amanda Thompson
On the matchup against Maya Moore:
“It was fun. It was a great opportunity to play against Maya. She is a great player and I just felt like I wanted to match it. It wasn't about what the media was saying or that my name doesn't get said, I just wanted to have fun and I did. It was a battle out there.”

On holding Maya Moore to limited scoring in the first half:
“She is real aggressive and she tries to body you down there and she couldn't do that tonight and that is why she didn't have like 30 points. I mean, she did awesome, but I wasn't a punk either.”

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Connecticut Head Coach Geno Auriemma
On the switch to zone defense after halftime:
“I thought we did a pretty good job in the first half man-to-man, at least for the first 12 or 13 minutes and then the last seven minutes -- ouch. We didn't play well at all and they played great. We tried to mix it up a little bit, and going to zone I wanted to just give our team a chance to maybe not have to work so hard on the defensive end, not pick up any more fouls. I was hoping today would be a little tighter and they wouldn't have the legs to make some 3s. We took a shot at it. We don't like to play it very often, so it worked out well for us. We're not generally a zone team but it worked out well for us.”

On the competition Oklahoma presented:
“When I watched them on film, I thought they're not going to be easy to play against. Danielle Robinson, she reminds me a lot of what Renee (Montgomery) was doing last year for us. They just kind of give her the ball and she just runs the show for them. We had a hard time slowing her down and I knew it was going to be difficult. I hoped we could score points because I thought defending them was going to be difficult, especially in transition.

On the series with Oklahoma:
“You know we came out here 10 years ago as a favor to Sherri (Coale) because we had two of her kids from out here, Stacy (Hansmeyer) and Paige (Sauer). So we were trying to accomplish two things: Stacy and Paige play a game back where they grew up and Sherri could get a chance to show everybody in Norman what big-time college basketball looks like. Now, we come out here and they showed us what big-time college basketball looks like. They've come a long way in 10 years. I'm really happy for them. I'm thrilled that in the beginning we were there to help. I just hope that they continue to be good hosts and let us win.”

Connecticut Senior Center Tina Charles
On keeping composure when UConn trailing in the second half:
“I think it just carries over from practice. Everytime we practice, Coach always puts us in situations where we're going to have to grind it out. And having our practice players, the way they compete against us, really prepared us for games like this. So honestly, for me personally, I had no worries coming out because we did this in practice before.”

Connecticut Junior Forward Maya Moore
On the second half:
“I think second half we did a much better job of doing things that we practice. At this point in the season, Coach always says there aren't many things that we haven't seen from other teams at this point. So we know what we can do. We just all have to be on the same page. I think in the second half in general we just had a different mindset. Really, I feel like whatever defense they had I feel like we attacked it much better than anything we did in the second half.”

Connecticut Sophomore Guard Tiffany Hayes
On guarding Oklahoma's Danielle Robinson:
“Me and D-Rob, we're good friends. We keep in contact all the time. I knew coming into this game it was going to be really hard to guard her and a really hard team to play against and beat. She did a good job. Obviously we had to come out and contain her. I think we did a pretty good job. She's a really good player and she did her thing tonight. I'm just glad I got to see her.”

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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