Nov. 18, 2012
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Opening Statement:
COACH BLUDER: I want to congratulate North Carolina on their victory today. They came out and just played much harder than we did in the first half. Much more composed than we were in the first half. It was pretty much a miserable first half for us. The second half, I thought we got our composure, we played a lot better. We took care of the ball better.
The first half, it was turnovers and second shot opportunities for them. That was the majority of their points. And we can’t get big deficits like that and expect to dig ourselves out.
Not thrilled with the way we played in the first half. Obviously the first half too many turnovers, not enough assists, because we’re a high assist team.
Q. You had it cut to 12. A couple times you had shots that could have made it. It was hard to play a what-if game. Do you feel you could have stolen momentum there if some of those had fallen?
COACH BLUDER: Yes, we had some good looks, didn’t fall for us. We had untimely turnovers when we were trying to make a run at it there.
But, you know, again, North Carolina’s a good team. I think their size scared us a little bit. Made it hard for us to pass over them a little bit.
And that was some of our turnovers. But their press, obviously, hurt us in the first half.
Q. In addition to their size, what other problems do they give you with their contested passes, contested inbound plays?
COACH BLUDER: I think they just took us out of it mentally with how hard it was for us to inbound the ball. They shook us mentally in that area.
Second half, we did a better job of inbounding the ball and we took care of it a lot better in the second half, where we were able to inbound the ball.
Q. Jaime, you talk about passing against this team. Obviously turnovers were a big problem.
Jaime Printy: Yeah, they’re a long and athletic team. And sometimes it’s hard to go against. But at the same time we need to be prepared for that and definitely learn from that because I’m sure we’ll see a lot of teams like that in the future as well.
Some of it was their athleticism and most of it, I think, was mental. Like coach said timely turnovers, timely with some passes and just not normally what we should have been doing things.
Q. Did the mistakes in the first half catch up to you?
Jaime Printy: I think we didn’t stop it soon enough. We try to let go of the last play. That’s a really big key point of our team because you can’t change it anymore. And I don’t think as a team — we had some people doing it but others we were holding on to things too long and that led to other turnovers happening.
So we have to be able to just get rid of it and not let it happen.
Q. Morgan, you got up quick, eight of the first 13 team points were by you, and then you went for about a 12-and-a-half-minute stretch where you went scoreless. What kind of adjustments did they make, what kind of challenges did you see during those periods?
Morgan Johnson: I think they did a good job denying the ball from the top end, so the top end position really wasn’t there. And I think just we were getting frustrated and we had a couple of turnovers so we didn’t get the opportunity to get the ball to be able to look inside.
So I know generally they do a great job getting the ball. And I know their athletic size got a little bit to us. So they weren’t able to look around for those passes. But we’ll get better and we’ll get them next time.
Q. Samantha, what did they do that caused you problems?
Samantha Logic: Obviously they’re a very good defensive team. They’re long, quick and athletic and physical. But at the same time I think a lot of it is on us. We weren’t mentally ready for it like we should have been, like we worked on in practice. I mean a lot of the fault goes to us turning over the ball, not making smart decisions, which hopefully our team will learn from it and move on to the next trip.
Q. Coach, unique scenario over the WINT provided four nonconference games right off the bat. What did you like? What were you kind of surprised about from your team that’s going to help you going forward?
COACH BLUDER: I thought this was really good for us to get four games this early in the year and especially the last two against quality opponents. I just think it’s going to help us down the line because we’re going to face a lot more good teams like this.
We have LSU, West Virginia, Texas, Florida State on our schedule. We’re challenging ourselves. And we want to do that. And the thing we would have liked, we had them at home today, we would have liked to have really taken advantage of that home opportunity because we’re not going to get the opportunity to play North Carolina on our home floor again. That’s too bad. But it was good for us to be in this WNIT. It’s a great experience, and I think it will definitely help us down the line.
Q. Can you talk about the atmosphere?
COACH BLUDER: It was really good. I thought our crowd came out. Did a nice job for us. Appreciate that. We didn’t give them a lot to cheer about in the first half.
They stuck with us. They tried. They tried really hard in the second half to try to give us that little home court momentum, and unfortunately we just couldn’t get, quite get over that barrier.
Q. Morgan, what can you learn from a game like this early in the season?
Morgan Johnson: It’s early so taking the ball is really important. Just understanding you can’t take halves off. Understanding you have to come out and be prepared for what Coach has told us in film, that they’re going to be big and they’re going to be long. And I just think just come in with that mindset next time, not letting a whole half slip away from us, is going to be vital for our success later on down the road.
Q. Jaime, getting back to your starting lineup for the first time after your injury. Everything feel natural from that point of view?
Jaime Printy: Yeah, it felt good. I didn’t really think anything of it, if I was in it or not in it. I just tried to do whatever I can to help the team.
Q. What did you guys change to do in the second half; you played a lot better, went more smooth?
Morgan Johnson: I think initially it started off with turnovers. I think Coach said they had 16 second chance points in the first half and we limited them to six in the second half.
So changing that mindset of we knew that they were going to be a rebounding team. We didn’t really address it as much as we should have. I think we did a better job in the second half of doing that. And just really taking care of the ball. Getting rebounds, not allowing them second shots.
Q. Coach, you have one day to prepare for Robert Morris?
COACH BLUDER: That’s correct.
Q. What are you going to do with the short turnaround? What are you going to work on tomorrow?
COACH BLUDER: I have to watch the film and figure out what we can grow from this game. And I think that will tell us a lot. But obviously with only one day we’ve got to prepare for Robert Morris and we’ve got to get ready to play them and see what their strengths and weaknesses are. My assistants know what that is. I don’t at this point.
But we’ve got to use that one day to more prepare for Robert Morris than obviously get ourselves better, which I would rather dive into that, to be quite honest. With one day to prepare for a game, we have to do that.