University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Illinois
1/18/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 18, 2017
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Head Coach Marlene Stollings
On offense tonight...
"We really made it a point of emphasis to take care of the ball. In particular, Kenisha took it to heart. She had a good game with only four turnovers tonight. We're okay with that number for her. We worked with her in practice, we watched video. Aside from that, they played a lot of zone, which gave us a lot of space to move the ball."
On a slow start in the third quarter...
"We obviously want to come out of the gates much stronger. We didn't have enough ball pressure on it. We called the timeout and we talked about having to adjust our ball pressure. We got relaxed with the big league and that's certainly not how we want to start a quarter. The good news is we recovered very nicely and we were getting good reads offensively."
On fitting Bryanna Fernstrom into the line up for Big Ten play...
"Bry started for us tonight and we're going to keep giving her more and more minutes to get her legs under her and getting her used to playing. We're really looking to her to produce out there. She has to log more and more game minutes to get comfortable out there. We're working really hard with her at practice. At any moment she could turn the corner for us and give us some more scoring. We really want her to score more. She's doing well blocking shots and things like that, but we really want her to score more for us."
Redshirt Sophomore Kenisha Bell
On moving the ball better this game than in the previous game...
"We focused mainly on staying poised in practice. That was our weakness. Nobody we played against was pressuring us. We just focused on staying focused this game."
On her mindset while scoring...
"They were taking away from the three point shooters. They hit a bunch in the first half. I think they were worried that, in the second house, we were going to be scoring more. The first half it was misses after misses, but we were rebounding. Then, they started leaving me at the top of the key by myself. I was like, 'oh. I guess they don't think I'm a threat,' so I just started shooting."
Junior Carlie Wagner
On the bench's role tonight...
"I thought the bench did great tonight. I thought they gave us a lot of energy. Jasmine [Brunson] came in and had four assists, and played well and got steals. Starr comes in and gets rebounds. They came in and did what they were supposed to do, and they did a great job doing it."
On scoring so effectively...
"I'm more confident after the last couple games. The hoop seems to be getting bigger to me, for some reason. Just letting things fly. Not playing so hesitantly. I think my teammates are doing a good job of getting me open and setting me screens and setting me up for plays."
Players Mentioned
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