Pitt vs. Villanova Postgame Quotes
2/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2009
Quoting Coach Agnus Berenato
Opening Statement
"I am really proud of our team. I feel that when preparation meets opportunity there will be success. Villanova has a great team. Our strategy was to take away their three-point shots. They had two all game. I thought in the first half, Shavonte Zellous came out attacking she was making her shots and she was elevated over people. Xenia Stewart showed great leadership. Tonight, I thought our bench played a key role in our win. Offensively and defensively we did a great job. This was a total team win."
On the win after losing to UConn:
"I think a win is a win and a loss is a loss and any time you can win it's great. Villanova was in third place, and we were in fourth and we wanted what they had and now the tides are turned. This win for Pitt was outstanding."
On taking away threes and giving twos:
"There are different ways to do things. We came out attacking the perimeter. We tried not to foul and not give up the and ones. If we gave up the two points, we knew we still could compete, but if we gave up three-pointers, we weren't going to win. Villanova averages eight three-pointers a game and tonight we held them to two."
On the few minutes after half:
"After we came out of the locker room, our intensity wasn't there. We gave up two three-pointers and we had to call a quick time out in order to regain our composure."
Quoting Pitt Guard Shavonte Zellous
On defending the perimeter:
"It's important to defend. In the two days we had to prepare for Villanova, we really broke down their offense. It prepared us and we came out and executed on defense well."
On her leadership role:
"Every game it's important to come out and be a leader, not just now because it's crunch time. It's also important because the team looks up to Xenia Stewart and I. We just come out every game and lead as best as we can."
Quoting Pitt Guard Xenia Stewart
On defending the perimeter:
"We worked on communication while defending the perimeter in those two days. They tried to set some flare screens and with our communication, we were able to apply pressure."
On the breakdown after half:
"We came close to letting down. We briefly lost our composure, but we came out of the time out and stayed true to our game. Offensively, we were able to regain to lead."
Quoting Villanova Head Coach Harry Perretta:
Opening Statement:
"I thought Pitt did a really good job taking away our threes tonight, which is what we like to do on offense. They have such versatile players that they were really able to shut us down on the perimeter. In the same sense, we had it down to four points late, but then they came down and hit two three-pointers. We just didn't have the firepower to answer at that point."
On Villanova's offense:
"We just don't have the offensive depth right now to score on a lot of possessions in a row. You see tonight that we had one player with 35 points and are next-highest had seven. It's very tough to win games under those circumstances when you fall down by double digits."
On Villanova's success scoring on drives:
"I think in a lot of ways that's what Pitt's defense was giving us. A lot of what we do is focused on hitting threes, so by taking that away from us it gave us some open drives to the basket. They're so athletic at so many of their positions, that they can sometimes put a center on a guard. They don't have to switch on ball screens. We did get some open looks on drives, but at the expense of our outside shots. Under those circumstances we can't score enough field goals to win."
Quoting Villanova Forward Laura Kurz:
On her play:
"I'd actually been struggling a bit with my shot coming into this game. Fortunately, I was able to hit a few early shots and gain some confidence. It felt good to step up when some of my teammates were struggling. They have a very good defense and we had a tough time getting good looks."