University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Army
12/8/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 8, 2016
Junior Carlie Wagner
Marlene Stollings Head Coach Minnesota
Opening Statement..
"Thanks for being here. I'm really proud of our team's defensive showing tonight..very, very proud. Holding them to 52 total points, only 15 in the first half is huge for us and our advancement. This is a team that came in here, obviously 7-1, and a team that's sitting in first place in the Patriot league, and will contend for the championship I'm quite sure, again, in their conference. It was a big RPI game for us, so we're really proud of our kid's defensive effort."
"Thanks for being here. I'm really proud of our team's defensive showing tonight..very, very proud. Holding them to 52 total points, only 15 in the first half is huge for us and our advancement. This is a team that came in here, obviously 7-1, and a team that's sitting in first place in the Patriot league, and will contend for the championship I'm quite sure, again, in their conference. It was a big RPI game for us, so we're really proud of our kid's defensive effort."
On a quality win and overall performance...
"I think come March, it's certainly a quality win for us. We were really aggressive in the first half, defensively, which created a lot of stuff. They were in man the first half. We were able to turn on them quite a bit and force them out of the man, because they weren't able to guard our foot speed, which was part of our game plan. Then, they went to zone pretty much the entire second half. They mixed up two different zones to try to slow us down, and they did. We've got to get into gaps better when a team goes into zone like that, and adjust a little bit quicker than what we did. I would've liked to have scored a little bit more, but again very solid defensive performance for us."
"I think come March, it's certainly a quality win for us. We were really aggressive in the first half, defensively, which created a lot of stuff. They were in man the first half. We were able to turn on them quite a bit and force them out of the man, because they weren't able to guard our foot speed, which was part of our game plan. Then, they went to zone pretty much the entire second half. They mixed up two different zones to try to slow us down, and they did. We've got to get into gaps better when a team goes into zone like that, and adjust a little bit quicker than what we did. I would've liked to have scored a little bit more, but again very solid defensive performance for us."
On Kenisha Bell in-game injury...
"We're glad she's back. She got a little bumped knee. Nothing serious is what I've been told, so it doesn't mean it's not painful. It's not any type of damage, in terms of something serious. When she hit that shot, I knew she was okay."
"We're glad she's back. She got a little bumped knee. Nothing serious is what I've been told, so it doesn't mean it's not painful. It's not any type of damage, in terms of something serious. When she hit that shot, I knew she was okay."
On upcoming South Carolina gameplay...
"I can't answer that just yet, because I haven't looked at them. I know their staff very well, and I know they're a well coached team. Obviously, they're a very talented team. We're going to enjoy this. We have a 24 hour rule, so we'll tackle South Carolina tomorrow."
Junior Carlie Wagner
On handling physicality...
"We're getting really good at handling physicality. It's something really new to us because we're a younger team and we're still learning. Physicality is something we're getting really good at and we're going to be strong back to people because we're just in such good shape. We put in the work in the offseason, so it's really important now to be used to physicality because when we get to Big Ten, it's going to up big time. It's good to play some physical teams now so we have it under our belt for Big Ten."
On playing at Williams Arena...
"Playing at home is special. We love to be at home and we like to say, 'protect our house' before we get out there and play. It's important. We don't want to lose at our place, on our court, and we don't want to let our fans down. Our fans are amazing. I think they really help us when we get out there. It's just taking pride when we're playing on our home court."
Junior Jessie Edwards
On being effective defending in the post...
"Considering that Army was a shorter team comparably to us, I concentrated on jumping up and staying low and really using my height as an advantage against the other team."
Players Mentioned
Making Connections: Finau Tonga & Taylor Woodson
Monday, November 03
Gophers Preview Season Opener
Tuesday, October 28
Making Connections: Makena Christian & Grace Grocholski
Tuesday, October 28
Gopher Practice on VHS
Tuesday, October 28





