March 15, 2001
Head Coach Chris Denker
On the game
"We came out real charged up, but I think three of the first seven defensive possessions we had a breakdown, just mental errors, and twice we left somebody wide open. Those two plays where they scored three-pointers to start the game were just blown mistakes. Once we corrected those, we were a little bit better, but that allowed them to get off to a quick start.
"We'd make a run and get back to within eight, but they'd answer with a basket, or better yet, points at the free throw line. Then, we expended a little bit of energy pressing and tried to speed up the tempo to force them into some turnover since we did that and came back, I think we ran out of gas, because we started missing shots. Our guards didn't shoot very well tonight and that's not what they usually do for us, and I have a feeling that had to do with the legs."
On Wahine Kylie Galloway's absence
"This is no lie--I wish she had played. We would have matched way better with her in the game. I have played against her when she was at San Jose State and we would match up way better with her playing 34 minutes than when they go with the two big kids. Just size-wise. Now when they have Puida and Roper on the floor at the same time, they're huge. It isn't so much us guarding them as them guarding us. They're just real big and they clog up a lot of lane. In that respect, that hurt us a little bit. We had some things in mind that we were going to try and isolate and when they have two big kids standing in the middle of the key, I don't care what defense you're playing when they're that big, it's going to affect the game.
"In terms of scoring, it's obvious they didn't miss her. I don't think we played poor defensively, we held them to 35 percent shooting, which is pretty good. But when they score 28 points from the free throw line those points are going to be there. Just because she's not there doesn't mean they're going to loose those points. Puida and few other people just get more shots.
"They sure played with a lot of energy... I don't know if that's Vince (Goo, head coach), the girls, or what, but they sure didn't miss a beat. They seemed to have more fire and passion about themselves. If her absence changed them, it was in a good way. Not to knock her at all, because I really don't know what her situation was, but those girls really seemed to respond to the situation, to the challenge."
Senior Forward Annie Garrison (13 points, 10 rebounds, sixth season double-double)
On the game
"I think we were a step slow defensively to start the game. We gave up a few too many easy baskets, some wide-open threes, and we can't allow that if we want to be able to compete with them the entire game.
"Every time we scored in the second half, we needed to come back and get a stop on defense and we didn't do that. That obviously made it difficult for us to cut the lead."
On Galloway's absence
"We were just preparing for the team in general. We've never played against her before, so we just got ready for the team."
