Kansas State 64, Oklahoma State 46
Feb 15, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2003
Recap?|?Final Stats?|?Notes
KANSAS STATE HEAD DEB PATTERSON
On the difference between the first- and second-half starts...
"(It was) like night and day. We really struggled right from the beginning making shots, and as we missed more, we forced more things. We really made the first half a struggle for ourselves, while Oklahoma State came out very well and sustained high intensity. They built their confidence the more we struggled, so it was just absolutely and night-and-day first and second half. I'm not real sure that our first five minutes of the second half were great. It actually took us five minutes into the second half to get a comfort level in this game. But, the reality is it's a 40-minute game and what I'm impressed with is, despite what adversity we may face and regardless of how it is initiated, we find a way to compete through those 40 minutes. That is what's most important.
On her perspective of tonight's game and the team's confidence...
"Tonight is a classic example of our players individually having to understand the quality of game that they bring to the floor and in spite of struggles to keep their positive mind-set through the course of the game. I felt that it was real important that they understood that we had it on the sidelines and on the bench, and eventually we were likely to fight through the nature of these struggles. It's also a reality that these are the kind of situations that you build experience and confidence from. You can look back and evaluate and say well, 'I struggled this much, for this much of this basketball game, and in the small window down the stretch found a way to shake out of it and build off of that.' Obviously, when you line up against the top-tier teams in this league, your leeway is much smaller. So, I don't know that it is always a good thing, but I do respect our team's ability to fight. I'm hopeful that individually our players are learning to play through struggles, or cold spots, or misses. We have a very conscientious group of young people. They want to be A students, they want to do everything so well."
KANSAS STATE CENTER NICOLE OHLDE
On the first half...
"We kind of came out and our shots were not quite falling. We were doing a lot of things that were hindering our shots from going in, as far as not getting in the box and not executing on offense. But I think we hung in there. We were up by one going into half and that was a good thing for our team."
On seeing Oklahoma State's different defenses...
"I think we noticed a few times that they were running a few different defenses. They had different types of zones and then they did a box-and-one a couple times too. But I think we managed to continue to get the spots and find some openings in their zones and find some gaps."
On Oklahoma State out-rebounding the Wildcats in the first half...
"It is very important not to let them get second-chance opportunities and I think that is one thing we allowed them to do in the first half, since they did out-rebound us. That is just one thing we talked about at halftime. Just making sure we put a body on someone and limit their second opportunities."
KANSAS STATE GUARD MEGAN MAHONEY
On Oklahoma State's zone...
"I think in the first half we were kind of standing still and not finding gaps. Personally, I was trying to force things in and I knew we wanted the posts to get some touches, but we just needed to be patient and work it around."
KANSAS STATE GUARD KENDRA WECKER
On getting the lead at the half...
"We knew that we weren't playing well and that something was going to turn around and get us going. I think Ohlde was a huge presence on the inside in the first half. She had 16 points. We threw a full-court press on them mid-way into the first half. We forced some turnovers. We just came out and really started executing on the offensive end. We had some in-and-outs for threes and we got Ohlde up in the inside. We just started hitting our shots and built momentum off of that and built momentum off of playing good defense."
On the close game despite Oklahoma State's record...
"That just shows how tough our league is. We played Nebraska on Wednesday and they played tough and Oklahoma State tonight. They have some good players. Trisha Skibbe was very, very good tonight. She has shown that all season long. We say every game that you have to be ready for a team to come into your place or when you go road that they are going to give you their best shot. Oklahoma State played well tonight. They had us down by 15 points in the first half. We were fortunate enough to calm down and stay composed and started playing basketball and executing like I know we can."
OKLAHOMA STATE COACH JULIE GOODENOUGH
On the feeling a the half...
"I think to be within one at the half was quite an accomplishment for our kids."
On their defensive scheme...
"Defensively, we really wanted to limit their ability to score out of transition. Obviously, to try and keep the ball on the sides of the floor, not let them drive to the middle or make straight passes inside to Ohlde. We had close to 30 deflections and our players did a good job of taking away passing angles, especially in the first half."
On the press...
"Our kids had really responded well to presses this year, but it really prevented us from getting down the floor and running set plays. It really slowed down our offensive execution. It just took too long to get the ball down the floor, we couldn't get people set up in the right spots to run set plays. Turnovers were a part of the game that were really to K-State's advantage. A couple of times we really had momentum going and their press really caused us problems and we turned the ball over. They did a great job with the press. They are so big, they take up a lot of room and it definitely did take us out of our offensive game."
OKLAHOMA STATE GUARD CHANTOYA HAWKINS
On their early lead...
"We knew they were going to make a run on us. We just tried keep our focus, keep playing and try and keep that intensity that we had from the beginning through the whole game."
On the atmosphere...
"I like playing in front of a lot of people. It's a big game, it's loud everybody like that."
OKLAHOMA STATE FORWARD TRISHA SKIBBE
On the quick start...
"We came out ready to play. Nobody thought that we could even play with them. When we went into the locker room only down by one it gave us a lot of confidence. We were hoping we could keep (our confidence) in the second half, but we just didn't hit our shots."
On taking the crowd out of the game early...
"I didn't hear them very much at all in the first half and I think that hurt K-State a little bit to not have their fans screaming and yelling the whole time."
