Lousville vs. Western Kentucky
December 09, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2006
Louisville senior Jazz Covington
(On the big win) "It's a pretty big win, and in-state rivalry. It feels good to come out on top like they did to us last year. It was good for us to come out and do the same thing. I think when you play at home it's a big difference. And I think by us playing at home we have a great team and I think right now you can throw anyone at us and its going to be a good game. We're going to give them a run got their money. I think our team's doing pretty good."
"It was great. We came out and did what our game plan was. And to come out and go on a 12-0 run, that's even better because we get comfortable. We come out and keep playing and doing what we do. Defensive wise it was great to hold them to zero points in four minutes. That was great. We just came out and did what our game plan was."
Louisville sophomore Angel McCoughtry
(When Kelly got in foul trouble) "He (Coach Collen) said we needed to get the ball inside on our offensive end and get our transition game going."
(what Collen said to them at the half) "Coach told us at halftime they weren't going to keep missing those shots. We kind of played a little relaxed, but we stepped it up at the end."
Louisville junior Patrika Barlow
"I took the loss hard last year, I'm not going to lie. I'm just glad we came out on top. Being close to home there, I had a lot of family here. It was good win."
Louisville Head Coach Tom Collen
"I learned a long time ago as a coach you always have to get excited about wins even though they're not your best performance. We're pleased to be 9-0. I don't know what it's like to watch up there in the stands, but it seemed to have a funky tempo a little bit to me. Not a lot of flow to the game. I think it helped us when Crystal picked up fouls early in the game. Everyone saw what she did in the second half. It's scary to think she got 20 on us in the second half, but she could have got 40 on us if we wouldn't have done a better job on her. I think it took Western out of their game a little bit not having her down on the low block and not having that kind of production. I think they got a little shot happy from the perimeter. They put up an awful lot of threes. 27. That's very atypical of them. I think they are a pretty good shooting team but without Crystal in there they weren't sure of which direction to go. We built a good lead, kind of an insurmountable type lead even though they made good runs on us."
"In the second half they cut it to five or six and when it came down, we executed and it's back up to 10. It's kind of disheartening and that's what Western was fighting in order to get themselves back in the game and I know that became a factor. It's a good thing we got out to a big lead. We just kind of hung on. It was not the prettiest way to hang on, but it was a good win for us and I'm glad to be 9-0."
Western Kentucky junior Charlotte Marshall "This isn't the first time she's (Crystal Kelly) done that, picked up a couple of quick fouls. You just have to play through it. She's a great player, but you can't overlook other people on this team. We tried to pick it up at least. You can't just be like `hey she's got two fouls, she's on the bench, oh no what are we going to do.' This is a team, it takes a team to win a game."
(on the outside shooting) "I really wouldn't say settling. They were open shots, we just couldn't knock them down. It was very frustrating. But I've been taught you shoot your way out of it. Me personally, I kept shooting and hey, I hit one of them, one or whatever. There's nothing more you can say, but like coach Cowles said, `they were open shots, they were great shots, we just couldn't knock them down.'"
Western Kentucky junior Crystal Kelly
(on coming short with ranked teams) "It is tough. But we talked about it in the locker room, this is a game and every game is as important as the next. We still have our goal that we set, and that's making it to the NCAA tournament. So this really has no effect on what we want to do. Last year it really didn't matter that we won (against ranked teams). If we just win the Sun Belt and take care of our conference play, then we should be fine."
(on the road stretch) "It's been difficult because we love playing at home, but it's the same game regardless of where we're at. The conference tournament is not going to be at home, so we just have to get used to winning and playing the same game."
Western Kentucky Head Coach Mary Cowles
"I guess you could pretty much sum it up by `frustration.' I think the biggest key to this game tonight is that we came out not used to going 0 for nine to open up a game. And I thought they were just great shots. I looked at Coach Britt about halfway through the first half, they're not forced shots. We've got the right people taking shots taking shots that they are capable of hitting, that they have hit. There just seems to be this lid. I think what happened, what I saw, what I witnessed, was that we let our intensity level deflate due to going 0 for nine. We weren't able to get over that hump. Defensively, I think we let our offense affect our defense. It's really frustrating, but at the same time this is one game out of 27 in our regular season. We've got to approach this just like we do every game, whether it's a win or a loss, we've got to learn from it and go back and take the next eight days that we have ahead of us to prepare for our next game."
(on the jump shots) "I think we got some great looks, whether it was going in to Alicia Bunton or whether it was outside shooting or whether it was Dominique (Duck) off the drives. So as I watch it again going home, I'll evaluate that and we'll see. I really don't think that settling for outside shots is what we went to. I think we got great looks from the outside and we've got young ladies who are capable of hitting those shots and have in the first seven games of our season. Again, I think we took great shots within that stretch, we just couldn't find a way to get the ball in the hole."
