University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes
12/3/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Minnesota Head Coach Marlene Stollings
Opening statement...
"Really proud of our team for moving to 8-1. Sitting tied atop the Big Ten is a really big deal and we're really excited to be in that position. I thought that we handled a different defense then we've seen here recently. I thought we handled it really well with our inside play, and Bryanna and Taiye were rock solid for us. We also got 10 rebounds out of Destiny Pitts, and I thought these two just really handled the zone very well from a high level of perspective, really capitalized and they rebounded the ball exceptionally well for us. One of the keys to the game was rebounding for us, they lead the MAC conference in rebounding, they're 27th in the nation, and we ended up plus 11 on the boards so that part was a huge key to the game."
On Bryanna Fernstrom and Taiye Bello's post play...
"Well it's not really a secret about putting the ball in the basket. We always tell our team to get in the gym and work on your shot, and I tell you these two have been putting extra time in. They've been coming up early when they can, and they've just really been spending more time working on their shot, getting 100 makes from different points in some of those practices, and you really just saw the result of what that means. You put the ball in the basket at practice, you're gonna do it in the game most likely, and I thought they shot it with a lot of confidence. I was okay with all of the shots they were taking. I thought they were very good, very balanced shots, and I'm just really happy for them to see the ball go through the net the way it did for these two because they're been working really hard even all through our road trips, and the battle of that three game road trip that we just got off of, so I'm just really proud of everyone"
On approaching Big Ten play…
"I think everybody's in that same boat across the country. You know, non-conference is to prepare for the conference play, and everybody's cleaning up things, honing in on things, and really trying to advance their team overall offensively and defensively, and we're no different. There are things that we really want to focus on and clean up game by game, and day by day in practice. We have a few more opportunities before we open up Big Ten play, but it's coming pretty quickly here. Two and a half weeks or so we're going to be opening up at Northwestern and it's going to be really important that we treat these next couple of weeks very seriously in the areas that we want to, as I say, 'push the needle', and really advance."
Bryanna Fernstrom, Minnesota Senior Center
On her individual play today and preparing for the game...
"The scout this game was really focused on us having openings as a five player, so we were really just taking advantage of that, and like Coach said, finishing was really important for us. It was really the scout telling us to finish so that's what we did."
Taiye Bello, Minnesota Sophomore Forward
On her individual play today and preparing for the game…
"Like Coach said, rebounding was the key for this game, so when I go into the game I try and start off with that and then from there work on the offense, so that's what I did today."
