Post-Game Quotes
3/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 1, 2011
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Pitt vs. Villanova Quotes 2.28.11
Quoting Pitt Head Coach Agnus Berenato:
On scoreless streak in first half
"I think during that time we got shots, we just missed them and didn't get the offensive rebound after. The first 11 minutes I thought we came out and played really great. We played very aggressively and did a great job against all their slips, curls, back screens and on their flares. We limited them to just one shot a possession and we were gang rebounding offensively. I think that when we went through that dry spell it's because we missed and didn't get our own rebounds. They would hold us to one shot then take the wind out of our sails. They would use the clock and wouldn't attack the basket until eight seconds to go on the shot clock so they made us play defense. I really think it came down to rebounding. On offense we didn't get the inside position to get rebounds so we'd get one shot and have to defend for 30 seconds. I think that really affected our three-point shooting."
On poor free throw shooting
"The game was won and lost on the free throw line. You go eight-for-18 and we're a really good free throw shooting team. We've never shot 44 percent the entire year. I told the team in the first half `playing this kind of defense makes you jittery on the free throw line because you have to defend for so long then take a free throw and it throws you off a little.' We missed the front end of a few one-and-ones and that's the ball game right there."
On final possession
"We were going for Jania Sims or Shayla Scott. That's what we wanted. We got two looks at it and we missed. We got the play we wanted. I didn't like the way our first play was looking so I called the second timeout with 6.7 seconds to go. We were able to drive in and actually got the rebound but missed the put back. It's a game of seconds; it's a game of possessions. One of the keys of this game was to play every possession, minute by minute. It's going to come down to the last possession. And with a team like Villanova it's painful."
Quoting Chelsea Cole:
On bouncing back after tough loss
"It's just like any other game. Learn from it and go back to practice, fix our mistakes and come harder next game whoever we play."
On Villanova's style of play
"They definitely play a slow paced game; they use the whole shot clock. So we really focused on defensive rebounds so that we wouldn't be going another 30 seconds on defense. They are very disciplined. So we worked on all their cuts and it took us a while to get used to them. I think we were prepared but we had too many mental lapses."
Quoting Shayla Scott:
On game coming down to last possession
It was a tough one. It came down to the last possession and that's something we've talked about all year. We knew a lot of our games would come down to the last possession so we work every day in practice for that situation. Coach Berenato always preaches to us that every possession is important. That's what it came down to tonight and we were definitely looking to capitalize with the win so it's tough."
On scoreless streak in first half
"We have struggled a little bit this season with scoring droughts and that happened tonight. Our coaches are always keeping us aware of it during timeouts that we haven't scored in three or four minutes and this is something that, by now, we shouldn't be doing. So it's tough when it happens. Defensively, the first 10 minutes of the first half we were on point. Then I don't know if it was fatigue or something that triggered our scoring drought and cut our lead to just three at the half."
