Colorado-Iowa State Quotes
January 15, 2011 | Women's Basketball
General
"That was fun. I'm so proud of our players and how they responded. Obviously being down Chucky [Jeffery] this could have gone a lot of different ways. Our team stepped up, they believed and they had a lot of fun tonight. They kind of just played with no regard for anything, which was awesome to see. I challenged them to win every media [timeout] that last second half. I told them every time I saw them that I wanted to still be ahead the next time I saw them. I think every time I said that they all smiled. With the exception of the end of the game, we were ahead. I thought we could have gone a couple different ways in overtime. We came and we hit free throws down the stretch, not all of the free throws but enough to win. This was just a great win for our team and I am so happy for our players more than anything."
On the Team's Resiliency Without Chucky
"I know our team and I had hoped that they would respond the way that they did respond all year. I thought in the Kansas game we kind of talked about going our separate ways and we addressed it. Anytime we've addressed anything our players take that to heart, they're mature enough to step up and not take it personally, and they really grow. I thought tonight we came together even more than I expected and that was awesome. That's what we've got to continue to do the rest of the year."
On Chucky Jeffery's Return
"We're not sure. It's too early to tell. She got hit in [the Kansas game] and she has a concussion."
On Meagan Malcolm-Peck Playing Through Injury
"She did something to her ankle. She's gotten an MRI. They're not quite sure what's going on. I'm so proud of her because she didn't practice either of the two days [Thursday or Friday]. We were hoping we could play her some. She really gutted it out. She did something towards the end of the game where she was really limping, and for her to really just suck it up and gut it out shows a lot from her."
On Brittany Spears Guarding Anna Prins
"I thought Spears did a great job and challenged Spears to be a leader and I felt like she stepped up in every way. She's not the most vocal kid and I think she needs to become more vocal. We've talked a lot about it. Everybody on the team respects Brittany. S he's spent more time in this gym working on her own. She's spent more time in practice, the weight room and over the summer. She didn't leave all summer long. Our team knows what she has worked for. It's great to see her finally get kind of a reward for all of that. I know she's had some other big games and some other big wins in her career, but I'm sure this one for her feels really nice. Defensively, she did a great job. She played almost the entire game on a 6-7 center. For us not to let Prins, I think she just got off that one three-point attempt, that was kind of our game plan going in for her to be more on the block than out on the three point line. I think she hurts a lot of teams out there. I thought our team helped her [Spears]. We always had someone in help position that was able to get over there and discourage the pass. It wasn't just Spears on Prins, it was sort of our whole team on Prins. Obviously [Kelsey] Bolte did a great job. We knew she couldn't get a shot off or else it was probably going in. I thought [Britney] Blythe did a great job and I thought Brittany Wilson did a great job on her. And we did a nice job switching out at the end, finally."
On if She was Concerned About a Momentum Shift Going into Overtime
"Yes and no. No because I saw the looks in our players' eyes when they came over to the huddle. If you weren't able to see that, then yes. They knew that they could win and they knew if we stuck together, we only had five more minutes. We were lucky on that last shot [in regulation]. We knew we could win in the last five minutes and especially how we played up to that point it was almost like, 'You can't give it up now.' And I think they felt that sense of urgency."
On Kelsey Bolte's Game-Tying Three-Point Shot
"I thought it was going out at one point. I thought it was going left, but then it just drops right in. She's a fantastic player, she's a great shooter. They run a lot of sets for her and she came through big time tonight. She was tough to guard and she came off screens ready to fire."
On the Win
"It means a lot. I really respect Iowa State and what Coach [Bill] Fennelly has done. I think I've played against him probably thirteen times and this was number fourteen I think. There have been a lot of great battles, both here and at their place. More so than me, it's great for our players. Coach Jennie [Baranczyk] and I are both from Iowa, and she was a Hawkeye and obviously I came here. So we like to beat Iowa State any time we can, but they're a good team and it's hard to do that. I thought just for our players, it's an amazing win and I'm glad that they were able to experience something that they were able to experience today. They've worked really hard for it."
Colorado Players
Brittany Spears, Sr., F
ON THE WIN - "That felt great. It was awesome. We just all came together and then we just won. It's amazing."
ON THE OVERTIME PERIOD - "I thought we should have won in regulation. Stuff happens and we still stayed together. We got the 'W,' and that's all that matters. I definitely didn't want to go to overtime because they're all three point shooters. Number 11 [Kelsey Bolte] wasn't missing a shot, but we came out on top."
ON NOT GETTING TO SHOOT FREE THROWS - "At first I was kind of mad that I didn't get to shoot them, but Chelsea [Dale] knocked them down. Two points is two points. They called an injury timeout because I took too long [to clean my bloody nose]."
Brittany Wilson, Fr., G
ON THE WIN - "Especially with Chucky [Jeffery] out people thought we couldn't do it."
ON STEPPING UP AS A STARTING POINT GUARD - "Me and Chucky, because we're the two point guards, we have that relationship. So I knew that I had to step up and they wanted me to step up. I had to step up in order to get this win. The point guard takes care of the floor so I had to step up, [Britney] Blythe had to step up for us to get the win."
Chelsea Dale, Sr., G/F
ON HITTING CLUTCH FREE THROWS IN OVERTIME FOR SPEARS - "I knew Brit was going to knock them down if she would have been able to stay in. So I said to myself, 'Alright I've got to make them for her.' I just stepped up there like I do every day in practice and she [Spears] told me, 'This is what you do, you make free throws.' Then I said, 'Alright I've got you.' I just went up there and knocked them down. I had to put a smile on my face so I could remind myself to calm down a little bit."
ON HER ROLE THE SECOND HALF THE SEASON - "I said before, at my first game back, that I'm so happy to be back there on the floor with my team. I'm happy to be contributing, whether that's rebounding, or shooting the ball. Especially in a game like that, where I could be an impact player, and someone that my teammates could go to. That was just really awesome that my teammates believed in me and I showed them that I can do my job out there."
Iowa State Head Coach Bill Fennelly
General
"We were awful. There is no way around it when you only have one person scoring. We missed I don't know how many shots around the basket. Defensively, that wasn't our problem. We held them to 57 through regulation, that's not bad. We made some defensive mistakes but offensively we really struggled to get anything around the basket. Right underneath the basket you have got to make them, and we didn't make them. We spent the whole day looking up hill. We had a great look at a shot to win the game at the end and got to overtime. We probably felt we were kinda lucky to be there. But same thing, you get into overtime and tried to really pound it inside because we were a little bit tired, and we go one for nine I think in the overtime. It's tough to win when you can't score."
On Colorado's Play:
"You always have to give the other team credit. They did a good job of fronting the post. We had enough left to finish and we didn't get to the free throw line enough. We need to be a little bit more aggressive. I thought offensively [Brittany] Wilson really did some good things for them. Brittany Spears is always someone who is going to be engaged in the game and take a lot of shots. They made some big plays. That's to their credit; and we certainly didn't. When we had the opportunity when we cut it back to two, we had two just ridiculously silly turnovers in a row where we just dropped the ball out of bounds and forgot to guard. That falls on me. We have to do a better job at practice of getting them to understand the things it takes to win on the road no matter who you are playing in this league; that's the nature of Big 12 basketball."
On Iowa State's Play:
"We had one kid who was hurt today. Of the nine we dressed, eight of them are in their first or second year of Division One basketball. Our point guard is brand new. Kelsey Bolte is the only senior on our team. Some of that really showed. The bottom line is, it doesn't matter how old you are, you have got to make a layup and you have got to step up and make a free throw. We missed four consecutive free throws in the overtime. We took it inside and we had four, and I would say I would take that shot every time around the basket and would miss three of them. Some of it is lack of experience in certain people, but most of it is execution and we have got to do a better job. All of our shooting percentage, every single kid on my team couldn't make anything except for Kelsey Bolte. No matter who we put in there, we couldn't find another scorer when we had to have it."
On Team's Low Shooting Percentage:
"It's really hard. There is nothing worse than playing a game where the biggest difference in the game is not being able to make a shot that you expect and think your players can make. You just stand there and watch us clang four free throws in a row. It's hard, but that is the nature of this business. There are times when you sit and watch us play well and there are times when we didn't. That was one of those today. In this league there is always another challenge, and our next challenge is Texas A&M. It goes from really hard to borderline impossible, probably, for this team. We have got a lot of work to do, we have got a week to think about it, and we'll see. This is part of growing up, it's part of maturing as a human being and as an athlete and we'll see how we do."
Iowa State Players
Kelsey Bolte, Sr., G
On Starting the Game Slowly:
"The past three games now we haven't come out like we need to come out, we need to execute the way we should and we want to. I think that is one of the main things that is really keeping us down right now is our first half starts. We are trying to learn; we can't come out in the second half and play the way we did and expect to win like we did on Tuesday. This is just something we have to get better at; being prepared in the first half, in the first four minutes, in the first eight minutes, in the first 12 minutes coming out ready to go."
On Playing from Behind:
"We dug ourselves into a big hole, and fortunately we were able to dig ourselves out, crawl ourselves out a little bit in the second half, and got it into overtime, but we couldn't execute. We couldn't do the hustle plays that we needed to do at the end. We didn't really focus; we just need to make it more important to us. We need to trust each other a lot more, and have faith in each other that we are going to do the hustle plays and do it for one another."
On Tying the Game:
"We were just getting rebounds. We went into a little bit of a zone and I think that kinda disrupted them a little bit. We were able to force some shots, some unwanted shots that they didn't really want to take, and get some rebounds, and hit a couple open threes."
On Underestimating Colorado:
"I don't think we looked past Colorado. I don't know if we were just relaxed or what it was, but we need to come out a lot stronger. We knew she [Chucky Jeffery] wasn't going to play at the beginning of the game, but we should have know n that one of their other guards was going to step up, and she did, number 11 [Brittany Wilson]. She played a great game. We just need to focus on that, and make sure that just because one of their top players is out doesn't mean that we need to let loose a little bit and take a breath."
