March 1, 2001
Santa Clara Head Coach Chris Denker
On the game
"We could probably talk about it forever, but it's sort of obvious. I'm not pleased with the way we played at all. I don't think we showed up to play, that was indicative in our defense, giving up 86 points and allowing a team to shoot 56 percent from the floor. They had more assists than turnovers, they shoot 50 from three, score 21 points from the free throw line... I could go on and on and on. It's not indicative of how we want to play defense. Going into the game we were 16th in the nation in scoring defense. They probably had that five minutes into the second half, they had equaled our season average. We did not come to play defensively. I think part of it is that we missed some shots early. We had good looks and missed them and proceeded to panic. It's a little disappointing, but that's the life."
"We were very successful in getting the ball into the post and scoring there, but as time wore on and their lead sort of expanded, I think we weren't playing the defense we wanted to play. I think we kind of panicked and took more perimeter shots. The more we missed, then they started collapsing more and more in the paint and it was a sea of black in the middle of the key, Annie (Garrison) and the rest of our post players started to suffer."
On NCAA Tournament Chances
"I definitely believe we're a tournament team... we're conference co-champions, we beat No. 10 Texas Tech. I've been to the tournament several times before and I know what it takes to get there. I knew what our RPI was going into today's game. All of those things get you into the tournament. I believe we deserve a bid. But we get to sit around now for 10 days and hope and look at the computer and guesstimate and all these other things that wouldn't have mattered if we had just won."
On playing Portland in back-to-back games
"(On last Saturday) We played very well, and controlled the game. You'll have to ask the players if that affected them today. I will tell you this: the last time it happened, we played San Diego at our place and beat them by 20. It was pretty sound, we held them to 41 points and it was really never a close game. Then we came down here four days later on a free throw with four seconds to go. Maybe we don't respond well. Maybe we started thinking we were better than we really are. I don't know. I can't answer it. I know as coaches we were prepared. It was business as usual. I said during the conference call on Monday I wasn't excited about playing Portland because I know they would play hard. I also said it was scary when we play players like (Sharon) Rissmiller who had 27 against San Diego last week and can go off on you... they can come back and bit you in the rear and sure enough, it's not 27, it's 31 by woods. I'm a bit of a prophet I guess, unfortunately.
Santa Clara forward Annie Garrison (18 points)
On the game
"I personally think we did take a lot of outside shots, but I wasn't being as aggressive as I should have been in the second half, just posting to the ball and looking... if I want to get shots I need to post up strong and demand the ball, I just can't run around the court and they'll magically appear. I needed to work harder for those shots. Like Chris (Denker) said, they did collapse, but I honestly think it would have helped a lot if I would have just posted up a little bit stronger and more aggressively."
On the 11-point halftime deficit
"I definitely thought we could come back and get into the game. We just needed to come out strong in the beginning and hit some shots and get some stops on defense. We just kept trading baskets and that wasn't good enough to get us back into the game."
On playing Portland in back-to-back games
I think it was a different attacking mindset, but I wouldn't say we consciously overlooked them or anything. I think it was more of us playing on our heels."
Santa Clara guard Caroline Gruening (11 points)
On Portland's DaLove Woods
"We knew she was going to drive and that's what she did. She was really aggressive and we didn't step up to put a stop to it. She was a quick guard, and a good guard, but the main difference was our mindset. She had it in her mind she was going to attack the basket and take it to us and we didn't match that."
On playing Portland in back-to-back games
I think it's our mindset, and I'm not sure. It's something we're going to have to look at and figure out because right now we're 0-2 in back-to-back games."
