UTSA Head Coach Rae Ripptoe-Blair
Opening statement ...
"This was another tough game. You have to give Northwestern State a lot of credit. They could have laid down and died. We had them 23-4 and they came at us hard. We didn’t handle the pressure very well. We really tried to go in to Onika. Onika had just an awesome game tonight. She was wanting to score. She wanted the ball. I thought she did a tremendous job on the boards as well as Ryba. Our three seniors have led us. When one of the young ladies isn’t having a good night, one of the others has stepped up and I think that’s what happened tonight.”
On the defense Northwestern State played on senior Monica Gibbs ...
"They did a great job on Monica. We tried to set the screen low. Then Monica got going. She missed some shots and was trying to dish off and get the ball to Onika. She got in there a little deep. I think she was just putting a lot of pressure on herself wanting to win so bad. Sometimes that’s not an advantage to want it so bad. I think she was really trying to press and wanting to get it in there. I thought that later on in the second half when she did start dishing and getting the ball to some people, she looked really good.”
On feeling the momentum swing back into their favor after the NSU comeback ...
"I really did feel like it was swinging in our favor. First you look at the game and all the momentum shifts. That’s what basketball is. We had the lead. We’re sitting there and we are going strong and then all of the sudden it starts changing. We went into halftime and I thought they had the momentum going their way. We just hung in there and played hard. We stayed focused. I thought we had lost it there for a little bit. I had some concerns. Ryba asked me, ?Were you ever worried, coach?’ I was a little worried there because I thought we had the lead and lost our focus. Sometimes it’s hard to get your focus back, but I thought that my seniors, Onika, Ryba, and Monica really helped us get our focus back. I also think it really hurt us when Amber got in foul trouble. Amber is one of our best defenders and I thought that really hurt us.”
On the offensive rebounding ...
"Just amazing. Monica didn’t hit the boards as hard as we wanted her to, but Ryba and Onika just dominated, and it gave us an opportunity to give us some second-chance points. One time Onika went up and got it and came down with it and brought it back out to run the clock. We played really smart basketball. We were trying to use the clock to our advantage and I thought we did a good job of that.”
On playing again tomorrow with very little rest ...
"We were in this same position last year and looking ahead. The other team is in the same position we are. They play two games in a row. We’ve just got to get some rest tonight and be ready to go tomorrow. I think anything can happen.”
On the advantages of playing back-to-back games earlier in the season ...
"We have had a lot of back-to-back days. There’s no doubt about that. I think we had four back-to-back days. Hopefully that will help us. I do worry. We don’t play a lot of people, but I think our bench is very good. I think tonight we had times that Cierra Martin came in a helped us and other people came in and had some big games, especially on the defensive end. I think tomorrow our bench is going to be very important to get Onika a rest here and there. I don’t know if she can play 40 minutes. If she can, we’ll probably play her 40 minutes.”
On not panicking when they went down by one after having a huge lead ...
"I sat there and looked and for awhile I saw a little panic on our faces. There was a lot of time on that clock. So many things can happen, and we’ve been in so many different situations. We’ve been down 16 before and came back and won. We’ve had the lead before and they came back and tied and we hung on. We’ve been in a lot of situations. These seniors have led us through it.”
| Onika Anderson (left) & Ryba Pawlaczyk |
Onika Anderson, Sr., F
On being surprised to be up so big and then up by just seven at half ...
"I was very surprised to be up that big, especially after yesterday’s game. I just think we wanted it from the beginning. I think we kind of lost our focus and we had to re-group at halftime. It worked out well.”
On how they got their focus back ...
"I think we lost focus and we weren’t following the game plan, so we just had to go in at half and re-group. That’s it.”
On not panicking when they went down by one after having a huge lead ...
"There was a lot of time on the clock, so there wasn’t any need to panic.”
Ryba Pawlaczyk, Sr., C
On their dominance on the offensive glass ...
"That’sbig. We won the rebounds by 20, so that’s huge. Me and Onika and Monicaall did a really good job on the boards, and it gives us a secondchance at shots, so it really helped.”
Northwestern State Head Coach Jennifer Graf
Opening statement ...
"We played extremely hard. To get down by so much early and to see the heart that these kids poured out onto the floor to come back and take the lead in the second half just shows how much heart and character these girls really do have. That’s what we’ve been so extremely proud of. It’s just been a joy all year to coach these girls because of that. The same thing that’s plagued us in all of our losses plagued us today. We go for five or six minutes sometimes where we’re not able to find the bottom of the basket. That happened in the second half after we were able to cut the lead or take the lead, we couldn’t find the bottom of the basket. It seemed like maybe one or two shots went in over the next seven or eight minute period. You can’t keep your lead if you’re not able to score. I thought defensively we did about as good a job as we could. Give credit to San Antonio. They had a great defensive game plan against us as well and did a very good job. I thought it was a defensive battle and we got man-handled on the boards. That comes into play when we’re down. Courtney gave me everything she had and you could see it. She was barely making it up and down the floor sometimes. These kids come into the tournament with their sights set high and we were obviously wanting to go a little bit further, but like I told them, there’s a lot of tears in the locker room, but that’s to be expected. They’re athletes and they’re competitors and they want more. We laid it out there on the line and just came up short today.”
On maybe running out of gas late in the game ...
"We got down by seven or eight there in that stretch where we couldn’t score, but it wasn’t towards the end. We were down by about seven or eight later on with about five or six minutes left in the game, and we weren’t able to hit the baskets. We may have been running out of gas a little bit because obviously we picked up full-court against Southeastern, but it’s something we’ve been doing all year long. We picked up full-court against UTSA as well, but they were able to hit some big shots. We missed a couple of rotations late in the game that had we gotten things may be a little bit different. You have to be able to score and the shots weren’t going in for us.”
On anything she might have said to get her team going ...
"I wish I had that magic. I wish I could just flip that switch and say, ?Alright, here we go.’ These kids just started rallying. I think when we finally hit two or three baskets, we calmed down a lot on the offensive end. I think that was a lot of it. We were still a little worked up over being in the conference tournament and wanting it so bad. When we were finally able to score, we calmed down and that’s really all we needed was to come down a little and start playing. We did and got a rally going. It wasn’t a magic statement. I wish I had one.”
Courtney Shead, Jr., C
On their mindset to get back in the game after being down by so much ...
"We were never down on ourselves. That’s one thing about our team. We always stay positive. No matter what the score is, we know there’s always a chance. As long as the clock is still ticking, there’s a chance. We just rallied together and said, ?Hey, it’s time to start it and get going,’ and it worked.”
Demetria White, Fr., G
On the defense she played on Monica Gibbs tonight ...
"We were just going to help Brooke Shepherd out on it when Monica penetrated. She doesn’t like to shoot the mid-range jumper. She likes to take it to the goal and kick it out to some of her teammates when we drop in defensively. We just helped Brooke out a lot.”