Dec. 17, 2009
South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley
On getting a “comfortable” win with a high number of turnovers…
Comfortable by whose standards? It was a five-point, six-point game with two minutes left. I was happy with how our team came out. I think that everybody who entered the game contributed in some kind of way in a positive manner. We need to clean up in the turnover department. This was a game that we felt like we could get it; we felt like we could get it against a good basketball team that plays in a great conference. Minus the turnovers, I think we could have opened up the game a little bit more than we did.
On Valerie Nainima not scoring in the first 19 minutes of the game and still being up by eight at the half…
Everybody’s constantly growing. It was a great game for La’Keisha (Sutton). It was a game that we needed from a coaching and a team standpoint and a game that she needed from a confidence standpoint. I was really proud of the way she defended tonight. We made a conscious effort to cut Brittany Waters’ production in half and Sandra Garcia’s production in half. I thought both Kelsey (Bone) and La’Keisha did a good job of getting after it defensively. It was one of our better games defensively. When the people who are supposed to be scoring aren’t scoring, you’re doing your job. Somebody else has to beat you, and fortunately for us, it wasn’t enough for them to win the game.
On the high amount of 3-pointers taken by Wake Forest…
At the end of the game, we looked at the stat sheet, and we saw that they shot 32 3s. It didn’t seem like that many in the game, but when you look at it, I thought we just did a good job. We were very physical with them. I think we just wore them down throughout the course of the game. That’s what you want to see.
Sophomore Guard La’Keisha Sutton
On the amount of turnovers…
We had 24 turnovers, and we know that most of them were unforced. I don’t know if we were trying to go to fast or if we just need to learn to play within the play. I know next game we’ll do much better.
Overall thoughts on the game…
In practice we emphasized stopping the ball in transition defense and cutting down the two leading scorers (Sandra) Garcia and (Brittany) Waters. I think we did a good job of executing the game plan today.
On being the team’s leading scorer…
Honestly, it’s not about scoring as long as we win. I could score 20 points or two points, as long as we win, that’s what matters.
