Pitt Women's Basketball Postgame Quotes
11/30/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Pitt Head Coach Suzie McConnell-Serio
Opening Statement:
“Well, it wasn’t our best game. We struggled offensively throughout the whole night, we just really couldn’t find any consistency. It was a disappointing output offensively. We struggled to take care of the ball, make plays, and when we finally got to the free throw line, we didn’t convert, going 14-for-22. But, give Purdue credit. They are a really good team, a really experienced team led by a really, really good point guard. Watching them from the beginning of their year until now, they have improved tremendously, and they are a team that’s found their rhythm in the lineup and rotation that they have created. They disrupted what we tried to do offensively and we didn’t respond.”
On Forwards Brenna Wise and Kauai Bradley combining for only six points:
“When you depend on two players that average double figures and play twenty-plus minutes, you come to depend on that. I think their struggles were disappointing and were unexpected, but I know Kauai and Brenna will respond when we come back from this. They are very talented, but they had their confidence shattered a little bit tonight. We just need to get them going because those are players that we depend on and will continue to depend on.”
On whether the outcome was based on Purdue’s performance or Pitt’s struggles:
“I think it was a combination. Watching their first game, they had a player get injured, they’ve changed their starting lineup, they’ve had eight different players start, they had [Ashley] Morrissette move from the point to the two. I think she’s a really good point guard and I think they flow better when she’s at the point. I think they’ve really found the rotation that works for them and players really understand their roles on that team. I think it was a deadly combination of how good they were tonight and how bad we were offensively. We were missing wide open shots from point blank range. We just had to be tougher tonight with how physical they were.”
On why Pitt had such a hard time defending Guard Ashley Morrissette:
“She’s very good. She’s very good at coming off screens. If you go under on-ball screens, she’ll stop behind and hit threes. If you help too much, she finds open players. She’ll disrupt. She can pick teams apart coming off of on-ball screens. She’s a good three-point shooter with deep range, and she makes the players around her better, and those players do a great job of setting screens for her. They run some of the same things we run, but it’s tough when you have a guard coming off of it that can shoot the way she can shoot, and use the screens the way she was using screens, and is really crafty with the ball when she doesn’t have a shot, and that is able to create her own shot. So when you look at someone with that many factors to her game, she’s a tough matchup.”
On where the team is going from here:
“We have to get better offensively. I think we have to get more disciplined offensively. We were all over the place with lack of execution, turnovers and allowing them to disrupt us. We just have to find ways to score. I’m more concerned with our offense than our defense because we will get better defensively but we have to find more ways to get better offensively.”
Pitt Guard Alayna Gribble
On her return from injury and playing in a close game:
“I just had to get adjusted. I was out for about a week and a half and I had to get back into rhythm. I didn’t really start hitting shots until the second half.”
On what she needs to work on going into ACC play:
“Being more consistent with my shot and getting open. Being able to get my shot off against higher competition and I just have to keep practicing.”
On how the game got away from Pitt in the second half:
“Our offense was a little stagnant, we weren’t getting the looks we normally do and defensively we had trouble containing number one [Morrissette].”
Pitt Center Brandi Harvey-Carr
On playing in a tight game with 10 lead changes:
“I liked it. I liked having the size difference. In our previous games we played against smaller girls and I like going up against bigger girls. I liked the competition and the speed of the game was way faster than our previous games being that we played against a Big 10 opponent.”
On her feelings about her performance:
“I think it was a solid performance, I see that I had 10 rebounds [and five blocks], but every game I want to look at my performance and see that I get better. Every game is a game to progress.”
On having success against a taller team and being a consistent contributor against the
height:
“My teammates were able to get me the ball whenever I was open and I was able to stretch the defense and when I was trailing, they weren’t ready for me to shoot the three, so I was able to shoot it when I was open. When I was in the paint, I was able to attract a lot of people so I was able to pass when they were in the zone.”
On what Pitt can take away from tonight’s game going into ACC play:
“I know that the ACC is a tough conference and tonight was just a glimpse of what we are going to be playing against; bigger, stronger players. We were going against some tougher girls and we weren’t getting a lot of calls at first but we knew we need to be strong and get to the basket and take care of the ball more.”
On how the game got away from Pitt in the second half:
“Purdue was aware we were up one point [at half] and they were refreshed during halftime and I feel that we did not come out as strong as we should have to start the third quarter.”