Nov. 13, 2011
Lisa Bluder: Start by congratulating UNLV on their championship. They did a great job coming back. We were nine up, and they played with a lot of energy, come back at that point. Again, we had a slow start to begin this game. I think down 13, and we’ve just got to dig ourselves out of a hole, but when it got to a one point advantage for us at halftime I thought we were kind of over that. Rebounding continues to be a sore subject for us. They have 20 more rebounds than we do. I don’t know who you’re going to beat giving up 20 rebounds to. So we’ve got some work to do, and it’s not just the defensive end of boxing out, it’s the offensive end. We’re getting about 25 percent of offensive rebounds and they’re getting 50 percent of offensive rebounds, so it’s both ends that we have to do a better job on the boards.
Q. What’s missing rebounding wise? Are you just not boxing out or getting in position?
Lisa Bluder: I think it’s not making correct fundamentals of box outs. We’re just kind of watching the ball fly through the air instead of going to make that contact with the offensive player and getting inside position. We have to technique, we have to fundamental. Sometimes we’re not as athletic as other people, so we’re not going to out jump other people. We have to do fundamentals correctly, and we did not do that in the box out. And offense, it’s just not a conscious effort to crash when the ball goes up. That’s really unfortunate because that’s just effort. That’s just going into the paint when the ball goes up and try to pursue the ball. And that bothers me almost more because to me we can correct the defensive fundamental of the hitting, but it’s hard to develop heart to go after the offensive boards.
Q. Jaime, you guys had the lead. I think there was a stretch where you guys went 0 for 9 from the field and had six turnovers. What wasn’t working?
Jaime Printy: We just didn’t play well those nine minutes and you just have to overcome that in the game and it’s going to happen, but I also think we need to shoot the ball better, and we’re not going to win games if we don’t shoot the ball better.
Q. You guys were able to overcome the early shooting woes. What got you out of that funk and what put you back in it?
Jaime Printy: I don’t know. Their defense was pretty good, and when we don’t hit shots we’ve got to just pitch it and let it go and know we’re going to make the next one.
Q. Kelly, obviously you’re battling for a lot of those rebounds. What do you see down there? They have a couple six footers that each had double digit rebounds?
Kelly Krei: Well, like coach said, we just need to go back to fundamentals. When a shot goes up, you’ve got to find a body and box, and clearly we did not do that tonight and it cost us.
Q. I know you guys talked about, Kelly, that everybody is going to have to share the rebounding that you miss from Kachine. Is this kind of proving that you have to share it?
Kelly Krei: Yeah, Kash was obviously a big loss on the boards, but there’s a lot of girls on this team I feel like that can step in and equally share what we miss in Kash. We just have to do it, and we’re not doing it right now. Q. Coach, talk about Kelly in the run you did make in the first half and her taking that shot and getting the halftime lead. Lisa Bluder: I’m trying to remember the situation you’re talking about right now.
Q. She had the lay up on the pass from Sam, got the forearm across the face. It was right in the midst of your…
Lisa Bluder: That was the intentional foul for them?
Q. It was in the midst of your run to get the lead?
Lisa Bluder: Yeah, we started to push the ball a little bit better at that point, and their zone defense bothered us. I don’t remember the last time we’ve gotten beat by a zone defense. But then we really didn’t in the second half couldn’t get any transition so we could get down the floor before they had time to set up in their zone defense, and I think that’s one of the ways to beat a zone defense is to get down the floor before they have time to set up in it, and I thought second half we just didn’t have those opportunities as often.
Q. You only had two free throw attempts in the second half, as well.
Lisa Bluder: Yeah, they had 10 more opportunities to shoot the ball from the free throw line than we did. We were perfect from the free throw line, but again actually 11, they had 11 more opportunities to shoot the free throw than we did. You know, I guess they’re a pretty clean team, and we just didn’t get to the rim enough to create foul situations, either.
Q. How much did that hurt the final five minutes without Morgan in there?
Lisa Bluder: Well, it hurt, obviously, not to have your center in there, somebody that you really rely on and has been there for us in those situations. It’s a little tougher for a freshman to step into those situations when they’ve never been there before.
Q. Can you talk about depth? I know on Thursday you said you were really excited about how Kalli Hansen is doing. With Morgan’s injury, do you foresee her playing more of a five role?
Lisa Bluder: Yeah, I do see Kalli playing some more of the five position.
Q. Do you have an early read on what’s up with Morgan?
Lisa Bluder: I have not heard yet. I’m hoping it’s more of the same and nothing more than that.
Q. Jaime, just kind of an early blow for you guys. How do you regroup? You have a game again Wednesday.
Jaime Printy: We just have to learn from it. It’s early in the season, and we have a lot of upper classmen that can lead this team, and we just need to learn from our mistakes like coach said and come ready to go on Tuesday.