University of Houston Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: Houston 66, Memphis 55
2/7/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
MEMPHIS TIGERS (7-16)(2-8) at HOUSTON COUGARS (19-6)(8-3)
Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018 • Health & PE Arena • Houston
HOUSTON HEAD COACH Ronald Hughey
Opening Statement
"We are still trying to find that level of maturity to understand that each game and each opponent you have to play at a championship level. I think it's our youth that is feeding us instead of our maturity. We've started to understand what it takes to win day in and day out. We turned it on, but Melissa McFerrin is a very good coach. She had a good game plan and they knew in zones we would get stagnant a little bit. We started out the game over-passing. Two to four passes is normal for us, but we were making seven and eight passes without shooting the basketball which is unusual for us. We have been preaching to be a good teammate, but that was to the extreme. Hats off to them, I know they were injured, but I love this team because they are resilient. We practice a lot of defense and I was happy to see them change their mindset the last four minutes of the game and pull out the victory."
On his thoughts about the scuffles tonight
"They started to say that the other team was talking and I say everybody talks. Again, it's all in good faith of playing the game, nobody is trying to throw punches. That is a really good team, they play with an edge like we do so we didn't see anything wrong with them doing the same thing as us. We wanted to keep it clean and play the game."
On what he told the team at halftime
"I told them that they need to make a decision. I don't think they were in the right mindset and jumping up and down and throwing chairs and using vulgar language won't put you in the place where you need to be. We promised each other we would go on this journey and this journey will lead us to a great destination. If they think that the destination is here now, go ahead and throw in the towel. They decided to come out and win the basketball game."
On his thoughts about the Tulsa game
"They always play a matchup zone, they pressure you and use a three-quarter court and half court. They shoot threes like we do and have small guards that can get downhill off a ball screen. They have a bigger post than we do so they're going to throw the ball inside. We had trouble with rebounding today and Tulsa out-rebounds teams. When Serithia Hawkins only has seven rebounds and Jasmyne doesn't get eight or more we aren't a good rebounding team. We have to start with our mindset over the next few practices. You know as well as I know, where your focus goes that's where your energy flows. If your focus is on what you need to do to be prepared to win games, your energy will go there. Our focus wasn't always there tonight, that's why our energy was up and down.
SOPHOMORE GUARD Jasmyne Harris
On her mindset for each game
"I'm just playing together with my team and trying to win and play hard every game."
SOPHOMORE GUARD Angela Harris
On what was different in the second half
"We feel like the second half was our half. We've been outscoring teams all season in the second half. Fourth quarter is go time, it's our last chance to win the game. Either get it together, or we lose the game."
On their next game against Tulsa
"We know that they're going to play the exact same way as Memphis played tonight. That's a game that we have to come in with a better mindset from the jump, because we can't let them hang around. That's a rivalry game for us. We know a lot of girls on their team and they know a lot of girls on our team, so they're going to come out and play hard."
