March 6, 2008
SANTA CLARA HEAD COACH Michelle Bento-Jackson
Opening Statement:
Resilient is the first word that comes to my mind. This entire year people have doubted this basketball team and every challenge that has been put in front of us, this team has responded to and this afternoon was no different. I just told them today was about heart, I couldn't be more proud of them right now.
On Jen Gottschalk:
She was doing everything on both sides of the floor, huge buckets in crunch time. I thought the senior in her came out as far as being and keeping her composure and poise. She had two or three people on her a couple of possessions and she still was able to find an open teammate or get to the bucket. More important what we talked was needing to get those defensive rebounds and Jen was a huge part of that.
On USF:
They're a great basketball team, they have a lot of different weapons from Shay Rollins, Dominique Carter and Necolia Simmons, they just have a lot of different people that stepped up and played huge tonight. We knew we were going to have to bring our "A" game and that's what we did in order to finish it off at the end.
On trailing USF the entire game:
It would have been very easy to put our heads down especially after Tracey Walker fouled out, but I put the girls in different situations and Jen carried us.
SANTA CLARA SENIOR FORWARD Jen Gottschalk
On coming back the second half:
Right after warm-ups at half time we got together I said to the team `This is the most important 20 minutes of our season thus far and if we don't step up then we're not going to win.' As a senior and a leader on the team I knew if I didn't step up, no one else would. Sara Majors played unbelievably against Dominique Carter, who is such a great player, and she really set the tone for all of us. At half time coach said were not going to win if we don't get those rebounds and at the end we knew if we don't grab that board, we're not going to win.
SAN FRANCISCO HEAD COACH TANYA HAAVE
Opening Statement:
I thought that for 37, 38 minutes we had a great game. We just ran out of gas. You have to give credit to Santa Clara. They just kept coming at us and coming at us and we just ran out of gas. We still had a great season though. It was a big improvement from last year and I couldn't be prouder. We played well for a lot of the year. This was a team I've seen a lot of this year. We were shooting the ball well, moving the ball. Like I said, just not quite enough but it's the best we've played in a while and we played really well at home against Santa Clara.
On the play of Santa Clara senior forward Jen Gottschalk:
We tried to make some adjustments and make some traps but they seemed to get it really deep inside and we couldn't stop them. She created turnovers and we needed to answer on the other end. She did a really good job getting the ball. She was key; there's no question.
USF SENIOR FORWARD DOMINIQUE CARTER
On playing Santa Clara in the first round of the WCC Tournament:
I wish we could have beat our biggest rivals here and go on but it just didn't happen.
On USF's defensive effort:
For the most part, I thought we played really solid defense. Jen Gottschalk is a good player and she made some great plays down the stretch. Santa Clara is a very good team and we just tried to contain as best we could towards the end.I kept telling our team five points for Santa Clara is nothing. We know they're a three-point shooting team. That's two possessions. Two three-pointers and they take the lead and I kept trying to get the team to get a stop. I kept telling them we needed to stop bailing them out on free throws. We were already in the bonus and they were, what, 26-of-30. They got 26 points alone off free throws.
