Women's Basketball Postgame Quotes Game 4
11/20/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 20, 2013
HOUSTON HEAD COACH- Todd Buchanan
Opening statement
"I'm extremely grateful that we get to go back and hopefully once again coach, teach and learn from so many of our mistakes with a win. It's like I said on the pregame radio show, we're beyond desperate. At least that's how I felt. Regardless of opponent, if you're 0-3, then you're 0-3. We did not want to go through that unpleasant feeling of a year ago and starting the season 0-4. We're just better than that. Te'onna Campbell came in and really gave us an extra spark and lift from an energy standpoint. She showed some rust from not playing in the first three games and missed on a couple of conversions in the low-post at times, but for the things that she did, and when she needed to do it I was really proud of her for stepping up and gutting it out in a big situation when they were making their run."
"At the end of the day it was about free throws. This is becoming a huge mental thing with them. We had a chance to blow the game wide open. We made some crazy, not very high basketball IQ plays to let them get back into the game, which I credit North Texas for their fight. They fought to the bitter end."
"When we went to the free throw line, one miss led to another miss and so on. We would go down and foul them at times, so we wouldn't score at one end, and then we would allow them to score with the clock stopped. That's what allowed them to get back into the game. We prematurely for whatever reason we were wanting to assume the win. You can never do that. At the end of the day I'm really glad they were able to get that first "W"."
On what led to the 15-point lead
"Our energy was so much different. We were really executing much better. Our cuts were a lot sharper. We were passing the ball much better and not forcing things. We need to be solid and fundamental."
On the mindset of stopping the North Texas run
"That's about the time I called that one timeout in the very beginning of the second half because we came out lethargic and gave up two quick buckets. You try to stop the momentum with timeouts, but what's going through my mind is how can we do this? For me, and I'm old school, it comes down to your mindset, and having that big old valentine of a heart. You have to understand nobody is going to take this away from us tonight. At the end of the day we found a way to get it done, but during that whole time frame we have to be much more disciplined and a whole lot mentally tougher. We gave in and showed a little of our inexperience."
SOPHOMORE GUARD- Alecia Smith
On if North Texas changed their play in the second half to cut the lead
"No, we were doing it to ourselves. We stopped pushing the ball and we stopped attacking them as much and we started waiting on them to attack us instead of us being the attackers."
On free throws
"Free throws have been our downfall this year. We just have to focus on it in practice. We just have to knock them down. We know we are struggling from the free throw line, we've got to knock them down when it's time to knock them down."
On how it feels to get the first win
"It feels good, it feels good. I want to keep winning."
On being hungry for more wins
"We're hungry to keep winning. We know what it feels like, so now we're going to keep doing what we have to do to keep winning."
SOPHOMORE FORWARD- Marche' Amerson
On what the team did well to gain the lead early
"We shared the ball, pushed it up the floor. We didn't wait on the defense to come to us. Those were our strengths in the beginning. Then we kind of got away from it. If we would have stuck with that, we probably would have had a much larger lead than we did."
On free throws
"We have to be more focused when we step to the line and take the initiative to come in when we have days off, after practice or before practice and work on the things we struggle with."
On what senior forward Te'onna Campbell adds to the team
"Te'onna is a spark. I absolutely love playing with her. Whether she is starting or coming off of the bench, it doesn't really matter. She's going to come in with a ton of energy. She's going to give her all on offense and especially on defense. We are very, very happy to have her back and very anxious to move forward with her being another piece to the puzzle."
SENIOR FORWARD- Te'onna Campbell
On how North Texas cut the lead
"We had a lot of negative game changers like missing free throws and finishing layups and offensive rebounds. If we would have gotten more offensive rebounds and made more free throws and made more layups, then we probably would have been way more ahead than we were."
On her play tonight and getting back out onto the court
"It felt good. Before the game, some of the players and the coaches told me to control my adrenaline and control how I was going to come out in the game and not to do too much and just let the game come to me, but still be aggressive. I feel like that was kind of a hard thing to do during a game because I was so anxious to just pick up the intensity and be a game changer kind of. I had to really find my balance in that, so I think that was really something I had to work on during the game."
