Louisville vs. West Virginia
February 13, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 13, 2011
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On beating West Virginia at their own game) "We played hard. I was really pleased with our effort. I thought we followed a game plan. I talked to them about it this morning before our shoot around. [I said] you have got to go out and play for 40 minutes. Our Georgetown game, we went out and played for about 26, and then just decided to go our own way and do our own thing on the court. We're just not good enough to do that. We defended extremely well. We didn't do a great job of boxing out on the offensive end. What we did do, we only gave up 11 second chance points. I'd like to find out if they include free throws in it, though. We fouled them on a bunch of second chance points so they probably got 18 or 19 actually. We did a good job of defending [Liz] Repella from the three-point line, making sure we were there on the catch. We lost her one time, she hits a big three. For the most part, I was really proud of our effort."
(On not having Monique Reid to start the game) "She sprained her ankle in shoot around, and I wasn't sure if she'd ever walk again [laughs]. But she made it through it. She sat with our doctors in the first half, and our trainer did a fantastic job. I told them not to bring her out during the game. I said just keep doing treatment, and hopefully she decides she might be able to play in the second half. They taped her up and just confirmed to her and made sure she knew, there's nothing broken. We did X-rays, there's no real damage done. It's just a sprained ankle. She went out there. She told me she could go the second half. I was just going to see how long I could go not playing her if I didn't have to. I thought she did a fantastic job the last eight minutes of the game for us. I was really proud of her."
(On not having Tia Gibbs or Monique Reid for the majority of the game and getting a win) "That's one thing as a coach, you just have to go with the flow. I thought Sheronne Vails played great. Sheronne was physical out there, did the things we need her to continue to do now. If we can get Mo [Monique Reid] back to being healthy, and Sheronne doing what she did tonight, now we've got another post presence in there for us."
(On Louisville's defense) "We actually contested shots. I thought we did a much better job of contesting shots instead of just teams missing shots. In the past, some teams we play just missed open shots. Tonight I thought we were there when shots were taken, contested them. If you want to win, you have to do that."
(On the starting lineup) "I was just trying to make sure we had an inside presence. With Becky [Burke] right now, I like that she gives us a scoring punch coming off the bench. She came off the bench, and she did a really nice job in the first half. Hit two threes for us. Steps up in the second half, makes her free throws. She'll continue to come off the bench, and she understands it's not that she's not doing things well. It's just that that's what's best for our team. She's realizing `I'm still going to play the same amount of time, now I'm just getting the chance to see the game for the first four or five minutes of it.' Then she goes out and does her thing. I think she played well tonight also for us."
(On the importance of the BIG EAST win) "It was big for us. There is no question about it. We're sitting 7-4 right now. We've got five conference games left. We've got to perform, though. It's not something where you can just say, `Hey, that's a great win.' We have to go up to Syracuse now, and they're playing well. They're hard enough to beat at home. Then we've got to go down to South Florida, a team that's 1-10 in the league. When you look at their games, they're losing say eight of them by six to eight points. A box out here, a lay up there, a free throw changes the whole season, which I can understand that from our year last year."
(On the team moving forward) "I'm hoping so. I sure don't want to take a step back. We have to come out tomorrow in practice and practice hard. That's what I've been trying to tell them. We're not a good enough team to just be able to turn things on and turn them off. We have to be more consistent, and that's got to start in practice."
Freshman guard Shoni Schimmel
(On beating West Virginia) "We just went out there and we were willing to work on defense. We came out and played defense and our offense just came with it. That was our game plan, to come out there and play defense and beat them at their own the game. And that's exactly what we did."
(On rebounding) "We definitely were just going out there and boxing out. I mean I got my necked wringed a little bit because I didn't box out so that was definitely my goal was to go out there and box out, so that's what I tried to do. That was also our team goal too, so that's what we did."
(On making adjustments without Monique Reid) "Well Coach just told us to always be ready. If he calls your name to go in- you have to be ready and that's exactly what our team did. We were all ready to go. And that helped all of us out on the court because everyone was ready to go and every one was ready to get at it."
(On how crucial the win was) "It was huge because it was at our house and we let Georgetown come in here and take it over. So we had to get redemption and take care of West Virginia."
(On being happy about Louisville's defensive effort) "Definitely, we worked all week on it so it was a huge step for us and we want to continue to make even bigger steps as we finish out the year. We have five more games left so we're excited."
(On her two buzzer beater shots) "No, they were definitely not called plays. I heard everyone call out the shot clock so I knew I had to get a shot off and that's exactly what I did."
Sophomore guard Tia Gibbs
(What it felt like to see Monique Reid come into the game) "That was just heart. We teach family. That's all we talk about and working for each other. I know she's in a lot of pain right now but she did it for us basically. She wanted to do whatever it took to help this team and that's what she did. That's what we needed."
(On foul trouble being a factor in the game) "It was very frustrating but we could not let the refs control our game. Thank goodness everyone was ready to play. If I get a foul or two fouls then Becky (Burke) can come in and she's ready. If Becky gets a foul then Asia (Taylor) will come in and she's ready. We were constantly ready to play and pick each other up."
(On defensive strategy) "Defense was the only thing we talked about during the week before and their top player, Repella (Liz) to limit her touches. She has a quick release and if she touches it, she can shoot. So we were just riding her and seeing if we could get her into foul trouble and work from there. We knew what their post players were capable of doing and we knew the guards were really good drivers. We had to make them shoot outside shots and not let Repella get those outside looks."
