March 23, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery
Georgia Tech Head Coach MaChelle Joseph
Opening Statement
“Well obviously we’re thrilled to death to be sitting up here with a win over a great Iowa team. I have to give Iowa a lot of credit. They presented a lot of matchup problems for us, but I really have to take a look at my kids and how proud of them I am, not only on how we got the win, but how we approached it. The last couple of weeks have been hard, knowing we were preparing for this game without our leading scorer and leading rebounder in Alex Montgomery. She’s so much more than that to this team and we’re just really thrilled to death to have our second-ever win in the history of our program in the NCAA tournament. I have to compliment Jacqua Williams who came here to Georgia Tech when we’ve only been in the NCCA tournament twice and we never had any wins. The first win came in her hands with a last second shot against DePaul at Minnesota a couple years ago and then today, obviously you saw what she did today on the offensive and defensive end. I said early on in my press conference when we were in here the other day, `someone will step up.’ I was really impressed with our underclassman, our freshmen, and the last couple of weeks. They have really shown in practice what they are capable of. You have to look at Sasha Goodlett who had just an outstanding game today. Mo Bennett who came off the bench without having very many minutes over the course of the last couple of months, but really stepped up huge and hit some big shots. Obviously I’d be remissed if I didn’t mention Iasia Hemingway. She’s been great for us all year long; inside, outside, rebounding, scoring. I was just really pleased with our effort. One of the things we talked about before this game was just earning some respect for our program. We really feel like we played ourselves into a better seed than a nine seed and I think today we showed that we’re bigger than one player. Our program is not about one player. We’re a team and other players will step up. Getting our 22nd win and playing some of the best teams in the country, I think we’ve proven that we belong in this tournament and we’re going to be successful. We’re just really excited to get this win.”
On how they answered to everything Iowa had to bring
“I was extremely proud of our team tonight. I think we really weathered those storms. Iowa made runs and we made runs, but when it really got into it, it seemed like Brigitte Ardossi had ice in her veins. She wanted the ball in critical situations and I didn’t even mention her earlier. One of the things that we did all season long was upgrade our preseason schedule. We went and played U Conn. the second game of the schedule in front of 10,000 fans, so we’re used to playing in front of huge crowds in the ACC. To us, this was just another game on the road. This is what we prepared for all season long. To some degree, the fact that we’ve been here before was an advantage because we heard that crowd before. We’ve played through those spurts before, so we can revert back to that and that’s what we talked about in the timeouts. I said, `we’ve weathered these storms before.’ I was just really pleased and proud of the way our players made plays in critical situations.”
On how their athleticism will affect the next game
“Well I’m very impressed with Oklahoma. Now we get to play the fourth number one seed that we haven’t played this year. Obviously, I have tremendous respect for the Paris twins; what they’re able to accomplish inside. They have great shooters from the perimeter. Obviously, we do what we do. We press and we play hard on the defensive end. We talked when we started this program six years ago and we said we’re going to build this defense on rebounds. That will never leave us. Your offense comes and goes, but your defense and rebounding is always there. That’s what we reverted back to and that’s what I’ve been talking about the last 17 days. Our offense is going to come and go but as long as our defense and rebounding stays consistent, we’re going to give ourselves a chance to win. We’ll go back to the on Tuesday night. We’ll take some time here to get ready for Oklahoma, and we’ll come out here and try to do the same things we’ve always done and that’s play defense and rebound.”
Georgia Tech Freshman Sasha Goodlett
On the team’s rebounding proficiency
“I feel like as a team, we came in with the mindset that we were going to out-rebound Iowa today, and that’s what we came in knowing. Every rebound had to be ours in order to win the game and that’s just what we went out and did.”
Georgia Tech Senior Jacqua Williams
On their second half
“We knew what we were up against. Heading into the ACC tournament, we knew that we didn’t take it as seriously as we would have liked; we didn’t realize what was at stake. Coming in here, we knew we couldn’t let up. Our second half had to be as good, if not better, than our first half.”
On the offense and dribble penetration
“We’re quick and we had to use some of our athleticism and quickness to get to the basket. Our post was setting great screens and we just took advantage of it.”
On their pressure defense
“If you start running something and it’s working, then you just keep going back to it until they stop it. That was kind of our M.O.”
Georgia Tech Sophomore Iasia Hemingway
On the upcoming game against Oklahoma
“I just want to go out and play my game and work on our game plan for Oklahoma. Attacking the rim off the dribble, and keep attacking it and attacking it.”
