University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Northwestern
2/13/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Head Coach, Marlene Stollings
On success drawing fouls...
"It's different each game but we have a game goal of 20+ free throws and we thought that we could get them into foul trouble. Historically, they are foul-prone. I was pleased with how we handled the pressure free throws down the stretch - especially Kenisha hitting 12 of 14 most coming late in the game. It certaintly was key to attack them. We thought we could get them in foul trouble and get to the free throw line quite a bit."
On the team's season progress...
"It's huge progress. We've said in several locker rooms this year talking about the opposite. A team comes at us and increases the intensity and we have faded and lost our composure. We're like, 'We're only down two, stay poised, stay focused,we're okay, we're got a whole other quarter to play.' For the first time all year I thought we really responded. One of the things I said in the locker room is, 'How great can we be? How great can we be?' When you don't let that impact you negatively and you respond, it is a game of runs, great things will happen. For the first time it was part of our growth and our maturity. We had to lose a few games before we got to this point and this is the first time all year we've responded in the third or fourth quarter this way."
On playing a smaller lineup...
"We can't grow to quick. It wasn't as much about their posts as much as they just have tall guards with the except of the point guard, obviously. We weren't so concerned with that because we felt we could take advantage of some things they don't do well offensively. There was a segment in the first quarter where it was a 30 second span and we drew three fouls at the beginning of the game attacking them. Regardless of their size on the perimeter we felt we could go at them."
Carlie Wagner
On teammates play...
"I saw a lot of fight this time. There's been a lot of games in the past where I could look in their eyes and see that it wasn't there. Tonight I looked into everybody's eyes and everyone was hungry, everyone wanted to come out in that fourth quarter and take over. We always like to say that the fourth quarter is our quarter and that was the mentality we went out with."
On tonight's pregame mentality...
"I wanted to be aggressive and try to find openings to get me back into my rhythm to find my shot again. Whitney hit early too which was huge. I thought we were really aggressive on offense and hit out plays and set good screens."
On the rest of the season...
"I feel like we can make a nice run and we're peaking at the right time. It's mid to end of February and I'm really excited. I'm seeing a lot of good things happen that are effecting how we play. We're rebounding like crazy, our aggressiveness is going up, and we're increasing our instensity at the right times. I feel like we're in a really good place right now."
Kenisha Bell
On building off tonight's success...
"I think our focus should be on how we practice because practicing what we do in the game has been helping us a lot to stay positive and poised. It's helping us to maintain our focus and our fight to the end. We work on plays were we have to stay poised or else this situation tonight it wouldn't have mattered or worked if we didn't practice it."
On keeping composure...
"Having the team on my back and by my side the whole time. They were always in my ear saying, 'You've got this, you've got this.' Having that kind of positivity helped me to maintain my focus and keep myself poised."
Jasmine Brunson
Thoughts on driving to the basket...
"My thought was to go out and just have fun. My teammates and coaches give me all the confidence in the world to go out and have fun. That's what I'm trying to do."
On great shooting and defesnive effort...
"Just locking in and listening to instruction. That's been a big thing for me this year. Working on translating what we work on in practice into the game."
