Feb. 17, 2001
Saint Mary's Head Coach Michelle Jacoby
On overcoming a 15-point second half deficit
"Closer to the seven-minute mark, we started making a little run there, when we got it back down to 10. We felt like if we got it under 10, anything could happen and it wouldn't take very long.
"I thought we did a better job in the second half defending the three-point shot. That was key. Even toward the stretch, we got a lot of tipped balls off threes. The intensity of our defense changed. In the last five minutes of the game, emotion and heart comes into play and I think the girls showed they have both. They can play with that heart and intensity even through adversity, and that's tough to do when you're down, to keep yourself up, and they did that as a group."
On half-court trap
"I thought that was a very important advantage for us. We went to the 2-2-1 press. It wasn't necessarily to trap, it was more to contain, and that was exactly what it did. We disrupted their offense enough. We took some time off the clock, they had to work within their structured offense with only 15 seconds, that doesn't give you a lot of time."
On closing out the season vs. Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount, as both teams are also tied for first place in the WCC "Terrific. We didn't play very well on the road and we're very focused for the first game, which is Pepperdine and then LMU is right behind them. But one game at a time.
"We have the momentum now for the last few games. And we worked really hard for that."
Saint Mary's guard Corrie Mizusawa (20 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists)
"Things weren't going too well for us in the first half. I knew that the person guarding me couldn't guard me for the full court, so if I could take her one-on-one, we'd create more shots for the rest of the team in transition. I hit the twins (Jermisha and Jerkisha Dosty) a couple of times and in the second half, it was wide-open shots for them."
Santa Clara Head Coach Chris Denker
On the game
"Deja-vu and not pleasant. I just told the girls it's probably one of two things: either for some reason they have our number late in the game or they're just a better team then us, period. I think they're a good defense, but I don't think they're good enough to hold us to 19 percent shooting in a half. A lot of that is due to us, it's our fault. And we need to figure out why that is. I said to the girls that there's a lot of basketball left to be played both in conference and beyond, so we need to be able to respond from this. But certainly the second half was not indicative of what our team, or at least what we want our team to be.
"In the second half, we weren't scoring inside like we should have been and they didn't have to help in or double-down. They were playing single post defense and standing behind and we were missing shots.
"Part of the problem was if you don't let them score, they can't press."
Santa Clara guard Becki Ashbaugh (15 points, 5 assists)
"Once we got the big lead, it felt we just kind of let up. We weren't as aggressive as we had been. They kind of put us back on our heels and we didn't respond. I thought we had some good shots in the second half, we just didn't capitalize on them."
Santa Clara center Annie Garrison (5 points, 10 rebounds)
"I think we need to come out next week ready to play and bounce back from this. We're traveling to Gonzaga and Portland next week, so we need to be ready to go. Every team in our conference plays hard and plays well, so we need to be ready to go when we get up there. And then there's the conference tournament. We have a lot more games left to play.
Santa Clara guard Kim Sorenson (12 points)
On finishing first in the conference
" We can only take care of ourselves right now. We have to win our games and hope that maybe they lose one of theirs."