Louisville vs. Pittsburgh
January 09, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2011
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Louisville Head Coach Walz
(On the importance of winning home games) "They're very important wins. You want to be able to take care of your games at home and steal one or two on the road. We're very fortunate to have the win today."
(On Antonita Slaughter) "I put her in the game because we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. She shoots the ball well. I subbed her in there and I went four out and one in. We did a good job of finding her. She hits the first three, which was a nice shot, and then her second one on the trail was pretty deep. She did a great job. She also did a good job in the first half. She came up with a big offensive rebound and finished. She played a really solid game, I was really proud of her."
(On Monique Reid) "She's starting to figure some things out. I'm really excited for her. What she's got to do is continue to work that hard every game. Defensively, she's getting better. There are still three or four minutes when you watch film that's like what? She's like `I don't know coach.' It's getting there. Those amounts of minutes are less and less and that's why she's able to go out there and play for 38 minutes."
(On Pitt's rebounding) "They rebound the ball extremely well. We're not doing a very good job of boxing out. This is their first loss to a team they outrebounded. They're 0-6 when they've been outrebounded, and they were 8-0 by outrebounding opponents. We're very fortunate to come out with a win today."
(On Louisville's shooting) "It was ugly. There was no question it was ugly. We had good shots. I really don't think we took many bad threes. There were threes in transition kicked out, we had some open looks. Shoni [Schimmel] hit a big one late and Atonita [Slaughter] of course made her two in a row. One of the big plays of the game was Tia Gibbs caught it at the three point line in front of our bench and shot faked, which we've been working on, put it on the ground for a dribble pull-up and makes it. I think that maybe put us up four or six. It was a big basket for us. We didn't play well, there's no question about it. But you have to find a way to win games when you don't play well. Fortunately for us we found a way."
(On the upcoming road games against Notre Dame and Connecticut) "We've got a week in front of us. We've got two tough road games. I told the kids in the circle there at half court after the game that if we play like we played today, there's not much hope. The reason I say that is, I thought we hung our heads. I thought at times we pouted when things didn't go our way with the shots, and it wasn't just one player, it was four or five. We let all the emotions of the game take control of us and that's something you can't do if you want to be a great player and play in big time games."
(On Shoni Schimmel) "She settled down the last 7:20 of the game. I talked to her at half court after the game. I said this is your one. She let the game get the best of her and that's really the first time I've seen that the entire season. I was really proud of the way she responded the last six minutes of the game. It's a learning process; it's going to be a learning process. When you're putting as much responsibility as we are on a freshman, there's going to be ups and downs. It's just a situation I know she'll grow from. She loves to play the game. She'll look at this film and we'll break it down, find the good, and then find the things that we have to work on."
Junior Forward Monique Reid
(On pulling out a tough victory) "It was a very big win. We hung our heads a little bit but this game was a real challenge. We didn't hang our heads, Coach ( Jeff Walz) gave us confidence, and we have players like Nita (Antonita Slaughter) who can step up and make big shots."
(On Antonita Slaughter's big shots at the end of the game) "They were huge. She didn't even run the play. The play was to cut all the way through, but I said `Nita, no!' You could see that she was wide open so I pinned the girl. She knocked it down and then she came down with confidence and knocked it down again. I am really proud of her, she stepped up tonight, huge. She does it all the time, I don't know why she doesn't shoot more. Hopefully this game gives her confidence, she is our token."
(On playing a tough rebounding team) "They are a really long team. They are a really good team, they are really solid. This game gave us a lot of confidence in our rebounding, we knew if we boxed out that we would win. We didn't box out all the time, but when it was most important we did. I felt like we did a really good job, we did the best we could do on the boards."
(On Reid's 3-point play late in the game) "I told them, `we are not running a play, come over here and throw me the ball'. I was feeling it, I really was. And I feel that now that I am a junior, I have the ability to do that, actually take over a game. I am glad that they have the confidence in me to throw me the ball, but in close games I want the ball."
(On Shoni Schimmel's deep 3-pointer late in the game) "The thing with Shoni is that she can miss eight in a row and then come down and shoot from half court and I'll be fine because I know it's going to go in. Shoni is just an amazing player. I don't mind, I trust her to take big shots. She got a little frustrated today, but she didn't let it get the best of her. She composed herself and kept playing."
(On the upcoming schedule vs. Notre Dame and Connecticut) "To be honest, every game is a big game - especially in the BIG EAST. People are knocking each other off left and right in the BIG EAST. We cannot look past a game. We cannot play like we did today, we snuck out with this game. We just have to come back to practice, work on what we need to work on, watch film, and learn. We can only go up from here."
(On stealing a win from UCONN or Notre Dame) "It would be huge, if we could sneak one past any of these teams it would be great. It would give our team even more confidence. We can't look past any team because of their name."
Freshman Guard Antonita Slaughter
(On having the confidence to take big shots) "My team definitely gave me confidence. They tell me every day that I need to start shooting more. After I knocked down the first one, I knew I could hit the second."
(On playing more tonight than in previous games) "Like I said earlier, my teammates keep giving me confidence. Not playing makes me realize that I need to start working harder in practice so when I get on the court Coach knows what I can do."
(On scoring in big games) "This game definitely gives me the confidence to work harder and improve."
