Pitt vs. USF Postgame Quotes
1/17/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2009
Pitt Head Coach Agnus Berenato opening statement:
“I thought with the week off we really prepared for South Florida. I’ve got to give credit to Xenia Stewart. She gave us 26 minutes running the point, had nine assists and didn’t turn the ball over once. Shavonte Zellous came out and was rattled at first. Our seniors knew how much we really needed this win and they came out a little too fast, but I thought their leadership really got us going. Starting in the second half, I thought Shavonte settled down, hit shots, she rebounded the ball, and made some really nice two- and three-point shots. I thought we had a great week of practice. We did some good things, worked hard, and had fun. We were really excited to play this game.”
On the upcoming road games:
“To be honest, I didn’t know we had three straight road games. I knew we go to Seton Hall next, but that was it. That’s what has to be done in the Big East, you prepare for the moment. If you look past the next game, you get frightened.”
On Pepper Wilson:
“I was proud of Pepper Wilson. We’re tough on her and I’m glad she came out the way she did. She’s also only a freshman and she’s never played against opponents of this intensity. For her to have a double-double is amazing, but I also thought that our guards, and posts did a good job of setting Pepper up for those shots.”
Shavonte Zellous on leadership:
“It was important for us to come together this week. The Big East can be scary and it’s tough. We just came off two Big East losses, but we really came together. We knew what we had to do to get a win.”
Xenia Stewart on leadership:
“We knew this game was going to be a result of leadership. We did what we needed to do in order to get back on track and to play our game, whether that being by example or by us being vocal with each other, but we got it done. Shavonte and I have a good mix of those two things between us.”
Quoting USF Head Coach Jose Fernandez:
“I just want to congratulate them on their effort. They had a week to prepare for us coming off a tough loss to DePaul and they really came out today and took care of business.”
On USF’s Shooting:
“If you look at a lot of the threes we missed, many of them were open shots. All of our perimeter players have a poor shooting percentage in the Big East right now, and this is the kind of league that will eat you alive if you can’t be successful in that regard. It’s only going to get worse for us if we continue to shoot like that.”
On defending Pitt:
“Anytime Shavonte Zellous caught the ball we tried to double her. I thought we kind of got her out of her rhythm early, but some other players really stepped up for them. Shayla Scott was excellent, especially with those two threes to open the game. Taneisha Harrison played a strong game offensively as well. We held them close for a while, but they just kept making runs. When you’re down 18 at the end of the first half on the road like we were, it’s going to be very tough to come back.”