Pitt vs. Maryland Quotes
12/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 7, 2008
Pitt vs Maryland
Quoting Pitt Head Coach Agnus Berenato:
Opening Statement:
“I thought this was awesome. This is a great group of girls. We were well prepared for this game and it showed. Our second team ran their sets really well and our girls stepped up. I think when opportunity meets preparation you’ll have success. We had great leadership today from our seniors. Taneisha Harrison ran the point for us. She stepped us for us defensively. She did a great job of shutting down Kristi Toliver, who is one of the best point guards in the country. We don’t really have a guard, but I’ll take mine any day. I thought Shayla Scott took her assignment seriously. She was absolutely a beast. She man handled the post. This was just a great win.”
On the upset:
“This is obviously our biggest win. We usually say that our last win is the biggest but it’s just a win. Luckily, the girls can enjoy it for a bit because of finals week. We don’t have to turn around and play again, we have a little time. It’s great because they’re the eighth best team in the country and two years ago, this team won the national championship and some of those girls are still on that team. We just believed that we could do it and I’m glad we did.”
On the Top 25 Rankings:
“I think we’re a top team. I vote in the AP coaches poll and I vote us high. But it doesn’t matter. We’re just focused on getting enough wins in order to give us a great seed for the NCAA Tournament. We have no problem with the rankings.”
On Criticism:
“I’m a positive person. But, I don’t really have any critics. We can take the criticism, where others can’t. We have a good chemistry with our team and our staff. As long as we’re solid with one another, it doesn’t matter what others say.”
Quoting Pitt’s Xenia Stewart On the Win:
“This win is special. It doesn’t matter where you’re from. It’s great because we’re finally getting the pieces together. We’re working hard and hopefully we can get to the National Championship.”
Quoting Maryland’s Head Coach Brenda Frese:
Opening Statement:
“Pitt just outworked, outhustled and outcompeted us for forty minutes today. When that happens you’re just not going to win a game at this level. There are a lot of things for us to work on when we get back to College Park, but the most pressing thing is that we didn’t compete. I can tell you right now that that’s going to change.”
On Maryland’s mentality before the game: “The only thing I can think of is that some of our earlier wins made us overconfident. Perhaps we had the belief that we didn’t have to play our best to win, that we didn’t have to work and compete for 40 minutes. If anything, I hope this loss showed us that that’s not the case.”
On Maryland’s turnovers:
“I thought they were entirely on us. There was carelessness for sure, but also a lack of communication and a lack of trust between teammates. We weren’t anticipating where teammates were going to be within our offense. We also had players trying to go one-on-five, rather than passing the ball and trusting a teammate in that situation.”
On returning after a road trip:
“It will be nice to get back home, but in all honesty what we really need to do is get better in games like this. You’re going to face adversity and difficult stretches throughout the course of the season and we need to know how to deal with it better. We need better leadership from our seniors, and better mental toughness as a team. Otherwise, the ACC is going to eat us alive.”
On Pitt’s play:
“Pitt today was tremendous. They executed in every facet of the game, and it seemed like they had an answer for everything we tried to do. They attacked the glass better, and played a complete game on offense and defense. I think you saw today why they’re so talented and have been able to make some runs in the NCAA Tournament the last couple of years.”
Quoting Maryland’s Marah Strickland:
On Maryland’s play:
“I’m not sure there’s really one area you can point to today as the reason we lost. If I had to point to something though, I guess it would be our intensity along with our defense.”
Quoting Maryland’s Sa’de Wiley-Gatewood:
On guarding Shavonte Zellous:
“We did a better job in the first half of staying with her and doubling her when we could. Once the second half came around though, it was almost like we let up a little bit and all of a sudden she had 20 points. She’s a very good player who can score points in bunches.”