Postgame Quotes

Feb. 21, 2012

Oklahoma Head Coach Sherri Coale
Opening statement:
“I am very, very proud of our team. I thought it was a complete effort for 40 minutes with attention to the game plan and adapting. We were not really accustomed, when A&M went into a zone (defense). I thought we adapted and regained our aggression after it messed with our rhythm for a little bit. We never got rattled. We just kept making plays and fixed things that were broken in the first half. At halftime they had 14 offensive rebounds and we only gave them five in the second half. That was the difference when we went on the stretch when we could score. I think we went seven or eight possessions that came up empty. We got good shots too. So I just was really proud of our perseverance, attitude and our mindset and our mental focus throughout the entire 40 minutes. I know you guys will ask about it, but the MVP is right here. How much has Morgan Hook grown up between the first time we played A&M and tonight. It looked like a completely different kid.”

On how the defense shut down A&M's top scorers:
“Ironically, we kind of shut down their offense with our offense by going at them and being aggressive and getting them in a little bit of foul trouble. That sort of changed their rhythm and the way they liked to play, that was certainly the case with (Kelsey) Bone. Just contesting and trying to take away (Tyra) White and (Sydney) Carter because they are such offensive threats. They are so good in their mid-range game and we wanted to take that away. Make them get all the way to the rim or shoot that 3 but take that mid-range game away. We wanted to guard the elbows and I thought our post guys did a great job of showing on ball screens, which is what kept them from getting to that spot on the floor where they are so capable of scoring.”

On Aaryn Ellenberg making shots on critical possessions:
“Vegas [Aaryn Ellenberg] is such a momentum player for our team. When she is making shots, we run around and think we can do anything. When she made that tough one at the end of the shot clock, it was almost as if all of our guys thought, 'it's over, it's over!' She can do that and there is nothing you can do to stop it. That is what she gives us. She is obviously back. If she was missing, we found her.”

On the importance of this win:
“I think if you want to talk about signature wins, it is an important one because they are ranked in the top 20 in the country and because they are the defending national champs. But it's most important because we are tied for second. We are tied for second in the league and we still control our own destiny. That is so important in the conference race; being in the position to control your own destiny. Nobody is going to catch Baylor. But, the rest of us are still fighting for position and we are fighting for seeds in the Big 12 tournament and that is what's foremost in our mind.”

On OU's rebounding:
“We talked at halftime and I just wrote the number 14 on the board. Their jaws dropped. They knew that they had given up some offensive rebounds but they didn't know that A&M had 14 of them. I think it was just a decision, as many things are. Rebounds are about how badly you want the basketball. You have to do your work. You have to block out. But then it is about going and getting it. I thought they were very determined. I thought Nicole Griffin did a great job, even though she only had seven boards. But even though he number wasn't astronomical, she was really blocking out and keeping her guy from getting a handle on it. I thought that was huge, probably the difference in the game and certainly the difference in that stretch when we had a drought offensively.”

Oklahoma Sophomore Guard Morgan Hook
On the win:
“I think it gives us confidence and momentum going into these last four games of conference to really seal the deal for the second seed.”

On not committing a turnover:
“Compared to how I played the first time we played them, it was great. I just came in with a chip on my shoulder. It was embarrassing watching film from the first time we played them. I wasn't going to let that happen again.”

Oklahoma Redshirt-Junior Guard Whitney Hand
On reaching 1,000 career points:
“I was not aware until that (public address message) happened during a timeout. It's obviously an honor and a distinct group of people to be in. It's fun. It's nice. I don't know if I ever really thought about it before it happened.”

On team's maturity:
“We talked about maturity, I think, yesterday, and how we had been responding to teams. When they would fight, we would have to fight back, and we were doing that well, but we were never initiating that first blow. I think we did that tonight. We got A&M on their heels. She [Morgan Hook] took care of the ball incredibly.”

Oklahoma Sophomore Guard Aaryn Ellenberg
On creating shots with an expiring shot clock:
“It's just wanting to score, wanting to help my team out. I think that's all it really is. Shot clock is going down; there is not much time to pass it. Call for a ball screen or something and just take a shot. I want shots like that.”

On attacking in offense and not waiting for 3-point attempts:
“Coach (Coale) was talking to us about attacking the rim and trying to get them in foul trouble, which they already were. So, that was pretty much just the game plan.”

Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
On the game:
“A whole other game was set in the first half when we did not deny the ball to the fourth player at the high post and we constantly kept giving feeds back to the forwards. And those were my two all-conference players that were getting beat back door. That was a lot of staring and allowing the ball to enter the high post. When they run that little sideline hand-off play, even though we worked on it for three days, we had some problems stopping it. But my own personal point guard froze. She didn't make the right read a couple of times and we didn't help. With the shots that they had, they should have shot 60 percent. Even when we went to zone in the second half, that was more or less match-up and hope they miss on defense because you had some wide open shots that just didn't go in.”

On the second-half momentum shift towards Oklahoma:
“But here's the thing you went and got the offensive board and that really destroys a defense when you make those hustle plays that [Whitney] Hand can make, or [Joanna] McFarland, or [Aaryn] Ellenberg. Somebody is always hustling in there. We were lucky to be in this ballgame at half, only down 3. We had both post players with two fouls. Both of them had one touch foul and the other foul was legit. But all of a sudden, you have to protect in the second half. When we played at our place, we were down 3 at half and we ran them 48 to 27 or something like that in the second half. That's what a home court advantage can do for you.”

On Texas A&M's performance:
“I really thought this team was ready to play a great road game against a good team. I didn't say great team, because Oklahoma is a good team. Texas A&M is a good team. There's no great in our vocabularies right now. We're both struggling to try to find what it's going to take to be able to be Cinderella in March. I've come in here now 2-7 in this building. I've had better teams and Sherri [Coale] has had better teams. But, all of a sudden, her team played a lot harder tonight, made the plays. Hand dominated the first half and Ellenberg finished us off in the second half. Give them credit.”

Texas A&M Senior Guard Sydney Carter
On what was wrong with the offense:
“I don't think it was necessarily anything that Oklahoma was doing because we were getting the shots that we wanted. We were getting looks and we just weren't knocking them down. Like I said that's the lack of focus and we need to take it upon ourselves to get in the gym and start hitting these shots because there's not going to be all the time at every game where we're going to get wide open shots like we did. Missing layups, missing open jumpers, we took a couple of contested shots tonight but I think we stopped ourselves tonight. We just didn't make the shots, and a lack of focus and we didn't get it done on the defensive end either.”

On Tyra White's performance:
“It definitely hurts us because night in and night out, we need Tyra to score. We need her to get the offensive rebounds and putbacks and I think she's one of the best three guards in the league that does that. She gets the offensive rebounds and sticks them back and she makes those shots. But we've been counting on her jump shots all year and this is a game where somebody else kind of needs to step up such as myself and hit those shots. Us four, the four he has out there: me, [Kelsey] Bone, Tyra [White] and Adaora [Elonu], we all just have to step up. If we're not in double digits, it's very hard for us to win games, all four of us. So it's very big when you have one or all of us in shooting slumps in a game. We're never going to win a game if none of us can get it going.”

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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