Nov. 12, 2010

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South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley

Opening Statement
Looking at the score I think you can really see some of the things we did well this game. Of course we would of loved to win the game, but I am taking a lot of positives from this game. One is rebounding. I am very proud of this particular stat because [Xavier] smashes people on the boards. They absolutely smash people on the boards. I thought that if we could win the rebounding battle that then we could win the game, but obviously that’s not the case. Quite honestly I think we lost the game on the offensive end. That’s something that is easily corrected. I don’t think our starting backcourt is going to shoot 1-for-18 again. Some real positives Ashley Bruner, her stat line jumps off the page. If we can get some more people playing as efficiently as she is, we will be ok.

Did you expect Ashley to show this kind of talent against that competition?
Absolutely! The Ashley that you are seeing right now is the Ashley who was invisible last year, because she was not nearly the player that I saw during the recruiting process. We told her about that, and she made a commitment and stayed here all summer. She just worked on her body, on her game, on her conditioning, on her mind. She got herself ready for this kind of season.

Ashley Bruner – So. – Forward

On her improvement this year
I just worked really hard over the summer because I didn’t want to have the same type of year as last year, where I just didn’t play a lot and I couldn’t really help out the team.

La’Keisha Sutton – Jr.-Guard

On the game tonight
Looking at the score, I don’t think that’s indicative of who we are as a team, or how we are going to play. I think we missed a couple of open shots that we need to make next time, but I think we got some good things out of the game.

Xavier Head Coach Kevin McGuff

Talk about those two 10-0 runs in the first half and how those just opened the game up
We have a veteran team and those runs are something a veteran team should do.

Talk about the performance of your post players
Our post players, deservingly so, get so much attention, but we really have some great perimeter players. I wouldn’t trade Special [Jennings] or Tyeasha [Moss].

What is different from last year, this year
One of the things is I think we can be a better perimeter team, which will be a good thing and give our post players a little bit more room which will be good for the future.