Louisville vs. SMU
December 29, 2013 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 29, 2013
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery 
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Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(About holding Keena Mays to 7 pts.) "Our goal was to limit her (Keena Mays) touches as much as we could and I thought we did an outstanding job. She is a very explosive player who averages 22 points. We didn't want her to get scoring early and get going and feel some confidence. If you make two or three early, then you are dealing with somebody who is trying to drop 35 on you.'
(About coming back from the break) "The first 13 minutes, I thought we fought our way through and struggled a little bit trying to get back into the groove of things. Then for the last seven minutes of the half, boy, I thought we really got things moving. We played well, passed the ball well, got it going in transition. We executed and, then, that was about it. We came out in the second half and in the first five or six minutes, I don't think we played badly. We grinded it and defended it and we missed a couple of shots. I think we scored eight points in the first four or five minutes. It wasn't a bad first five or six minutes and then, we went scoreless for a six minute stretch there. I think we had 63. We were stuck on 63 forever. We had 63 with 10:52 remaining and we had 63 at 7:51. It was bad, it was really bad. We scored eight points in the last 10 minutes of the game. I mean, you can't do that. We scored 24 points in the second half of basketball and that is very bad for us."
(About the contrast in halves possibly stemming from sub patterns) "I had subs in there the first half too. We don't really have a drop-off and that is my challenge. You have to know what you are supposed to do and what is going on in order to continue to get things going. Our goal is to continue to win and be at the top. You can't do that playing like we did there for 25 minutes. It is a good win. It was a good conference win. I think they were picked to finish third or fourth in the league. So I am excited. It is always nice to get your first one. We did a lot of good things. But I am trying to get our kids to understand that I want to get to the top. In order to get to the top, it is a process and you can't sit there and say `hey, we are up 30 now with 11 minutes left and we will back things off.' No, you got to keep the pedal to the medal. This is a ball club that now will go home and say, `we held them to 24 second half points. If we get them at our place, if we can get on them in the first half, it will be a ballgame.' You try not to give anyone any confidence if you can. But Rhonda (Rompola) did a great job with her ball club. They continued to scrap. They got some loose balls and beat us to a few. These are things that we can definitely work on."
(On rebounding) "I thought we did a very nice job of rebounding the ball. Bria (Smith) did a really nice job of getting to the offensive glass, I was very pleased with that - 11 boards for her, I think she can do that every night. She's athletic enough that if she attacks the glass, she can do that for us - and we need her to. We need them to just bang the ball, that's the big thing. Sara (Hammond), Asia (Taylor) and Bria (Smith) combined for 13 of our 18 turnovers. It's just uncharacteristic of them. And we can't have it. Our guards are actually doing a pretty decent job of not turning it over and they used be the ones that were throwing it everywhere. So now we've got to get our posts calmed down a little bit. If we turn it over 13 or 14 times, I'm fine with that because of how we play. We're going to turn the ball over some in transition. If you want us to walk it up the floor all the time, then we probably won't turn it over that much."
(Does it feel weird to open up conference play against SMU?) "No, it's a game. That's what I love about. I love the fact that we get to play as many games as we do. We're 1-0 in the league and now we've got to go and play a very good Temple team on New Year's Day. I'm really concerned about that ballgame.
(On not running a 1-2-2 press much - was that due to scouting?) "We just didn't run much, plus, we didn't score much in the second half. If you don't score, it's hard to press. It just wasn't needed as much. We did some trapping in the half-court, we did run in some of the half-court, but we didn't do much full-court. I thought defensively for the most part we did a pretty decent job."
(On Monny Niamke) "She's been doing some really good things for us. She's one that if she can't figure it out at the offensive end, I can't keep her in the game. She doesn't know the offense, she doesn't know the plays. I'm challenging her to get up in the office and really study it. Defensively, she's as good as I've coached. Her feet are as quick as anybody I've seen. She does a great job getting in front of the ball. She can break you down off the dribble. She comes up with two offensive boards. She can do a lot for us. I'm just challenging her, `you've got to take your game to the next level now and part of that is studying the game.'
(On Starr Breedlove's status) "Starr's still coming back from that concussion. It's a long process. We've tried to do some biking and some things and her headaches came back. Then you're off for seven more days and you've got to wait. It's protocol that you have to follow, so we're still waiting."
(on Antonita Slaughter) "No, there's nothing new. She's been seeing some specialists. Hopefully in the next week or so we might have some updates. Right now it's just wait and see."
(On whether the team is where it needs to be at this point in the season) "I'm really pleased with being 13-1. We've shown glimpses of being right where we need to be, now it's a matter of being able to do it more consistently."
Senior G Shoni Schimmel
(On coming out to a hot start in the second half) "Coach said that we need to have a good start to the half and we tried to shut them out. We threw the first punch and that's what we wanted to do. To stop them in the first seven minutes it really showed that no matter the time of the game we can go out there and get stops."
(On turning a tight game into a blowout) "I think just getting stops on defense is what helped. It turned into offense. It's our first game back from break. Not to make any excuses but we had to get into a rhythm. For us to go out there and do what we do, it kind of just hit us toward the middle of the game."
(On playing SMU for the first time in conference play) "For this being the first time playing them they were very quick and athletic. For us to play someone new we didn't really know what to expect other than film. They played faster than they look on film, so they're a pretty fast team."
(On the back screens) "With the focus on number 23 we kind of ball watched and that was our bad. At the same time that's what they do really well is back cut. They use them well and Mays was getting them the ball off that play so she's a great player and deserves the awards her name is being mentioned towards."
(On The whole team filling up the stat sheet)"We all can play. Coach always tells us that there's no drop off when somebody comes into the game. We bring it every game so we understand when somebody goes into the game it's an opportunity to get better and really show what we have here. The bench takes advantage of their opportunities and it really helps us."
(On staying focus giving the level of completion) "It's different when you're used to playing DePaul, Villanova, and Notre Dame. So it's a little different and a different style of play. The teams aren't as big and as physical. They rely on quickness and athleticism. So like I said it's different. It's sometimes good to see something different and shake up some things."
(On the feel of the game) "It didn't really feel like a conference game to be honest. We're used to the BIG EAST so we'll have to get used to it. Our focus is on getting better every day. Our goal is a national championship and that's what we strive for. So getting better and working on the things we have to do is what we focus on. We can't take anybody lightly. For us to keep going, we try to play everybody like they're UCONN. So we just go out there and do everything we can to get the win."
Junior G Bria Smith
(On her double-double) "It isn't my first double-double. It's my first of the season so hopefully that builds my confidence up and I can get a few more during the season."
(On Bria Smith overall game)"I definitely need to work harder on crashing the boards. It gets us more opportunities on the offense side when we're not shooting that well to get extra shots. It's going to help during the season. Rebounding is just something that I really need to focus on.
Junior F Sara Hammond>/b>
(On keeping Keena Mays in check) "It was big because as she goes her team goes. She's a great player up for All-American honors and leads the conference in scoring and that was the main thing. We put emphasis on where she was at on the floor, because we knew they would run screens for her and try to get her the ball as much as possible. Our whole goal was to limit her touches and not let her get a good look. For the most part our guards did a solid job today."
(On the teams overall improvement) "I think we've made strides throughout the season. Our non-conference schedule was tough. For us to go 12-1 it really gives us confidence going into conference play. We're still working on our turnovers and communication on defense. We'll continue to get better but I don't know exactly where we need to be but we're making strides off that non-conference schedule. To still be Top 10 with the amount of talent we have on this team is a good thing."
