Nov. 16, 2008
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery
Head Coach MaChelle Joseph
Opening Statement
“I really thought that our team showed up today and played extremely hard. We were very excited as well. For a young team, I’ve got 10 freshmen and sophomores out there; I thought we were pretty resilient. Every time that they delivered a punch, I felt that we punched back. In the second half I thought Maya Moore was Maya Moore. She stepped up and made some big plays especially down the stretch. I was really pleased with our effort and I thought that there were times that we did some really good things out there. Anytime you come into the number one team in the country and give them a battle the way we did for 35 minutes, I think that it bodes well for us down the road.”
What did you think was the biggest difference in the final five minutes?
“I think great players make plays at the end of the game and I thought Maya Moore made several big plays. Tina Charles was in foul trouble in the first half and she came out in the second half and really did some great things around the basket. We just didn’t have an answer for her offensive rebounding at the end and when she was posting up on the block. I thought they did a great job of making that adjustment and going inside to her. I just think when you have Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Renee Montgomery, three of the best players in the country, out on the court at the same time, at the end of the game that’s what great players do. They step up and they make plays. I thought those players, down the stretch with eight or nine minutes left to go, made plays. “
Your team was 10-15 from behind the arc, is that something that you expect to see from this team?
“The biggest question marks heading into this season were where was our three-point shooting going to come from and where was our point guard play going to come from. I think you saw out there today that we’ve been able to answer a couple of those questions. During the off-season these kids spent the whole summer at Georgia Tech and we all knew that one of the things that we were going to have to work on was our three-point shooting. I was really pleased with the way Mo Bennett, a freshman, came out here today in her first college game on the road and scored 19 points against the number one team. We knew coming out of high school that she was a top 25 player and we really felt like she was going to be an impact player, but I was thinking maybe in January when we started ACC play. For her to show up today and do what she did it’s a good sign of the depth we have on the perimeter with Alex (Montgomery), Jacqua (Williams) and Deja Foster and some of those players you saw out there.”
Sophomore Alex Montgomery
What did you expect from yourselves today after winning the season opener at home?
“Basically we were just focused and ready to play. We were going to let the name on their jerseys strike fear in us. We were just ready. They are just like any other team, just like us. They put on their tights the same way as us. We didn’t have any fear we were just focused.”
