Dec. 19, 2008
South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley
Opening Statement
“First half I thought we came out well, and we were in the game. We were doing things that we worked on for the past week. I thought we progressed. I thought we looked pretty good. We got beat by a good basketball team, a team that came off of a loss [at Duke] that they didn’t take kindly to. I thought our players gave great effort. They stuck longer to a game plan than most [games], especially against a top-10 team in the country.”
On what you take from this game to build on
“You have to learn from losses. You have to take good and bad things from it. There are certainly a lot of good things we’ll take from it. But there are things we will learn from. We don’t really get out-rebounded like we did tonight. We got beat by a good rebounding team, a big body team and a well-coached basketball team, but we’re young. For our young players to play the way they played, I think it’s promising. It really is promising going into the SEC season.”
On the importance of sticking to the game plan
“We’re going to win a lot more basketball games when we stick to the game plan. I thought for the first 20 minutes, [Stanford] didn’t score the way they planned to score.”
On shots not falling in the second half
“If you look at the kind of shots that we got, I am pretty secure with the kind of shots that we got. I think we gave it all we had in the first 20 minutes. Sometimes with a young basketball team, it’s hard to come out of the locker room and duplicate that kind of intensity. But, there is growth…I am glad that our players stepped up to the challenge. We didn’t get the results that we wanted, but from a coaching standpoint, we feel really good about us moving forward.”
Brionna Dickerson • Sr. • Guard
On the difference between the first and second halves
“It was frustrating that our shots weren’t falling, and we weren’t getting our rebounds. We played hard and had great effort. Stanford isn’t No. 3 or 4 in the nation for nothing. We played hard.”
On what you as a senior tell the freshmen after a game like this
“The biggest thing is to not let anyone get down. We have other games we need to focus on. It is just one bump that we have hit. It’s something we can easily get over and focus on the rest of the season.”
On how Stanford helped prepare South Carolina for the SEC season
“This is just preparing us [for conference play]. That is what our non-conference is for, to prepare us for the conference. Our conference is one of the top ones [in the country]. This game was to just help us get ready.
Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer
Opening Statement
“I was really proud of our team how we got on the glass and rebounded much better than the other night [at Duke]. We were really aggressive. I think Dawn [Staley] is going to do a great job with the South Carolina team. This was a must game for us in terms of coming out and playing really well. Our team was very disappointed with how we played against Duke and how we finished that game. I think we just wanted to show ourselves were better than that. I think we need to get ready to play Tennessee.”
On the Second Half
“We didn’t change anything defensively at all. I thought we did wear them down a little bit. We were able to get on the glass and get some boards. Number 24, [Demetress] Adams, is a terrific player, but we had three or four people who were her size. The focus of our team is on either side of me. Jayne [Appel] is a fabulous player. If we get her the ball, she’ll deliver for us. Kayla [Pedersen] had a great game, coming off a tough game at Duke.”
On what she said to the South Carolina’s Dawn Staley after the game
“Dawn [Staley] is a very competitive person. I think she is a fabulous basketball coach. Jayne [Appel] played for her and knows she is a terrific coach and a terrific person. I said we are behind you 100 percent and in every other game, good luck.
