Jan. 4, 2004
STANFORD HEAD COACH Tara VanDerveer
On taking out Nicole Powell in second half: "I had to take her out for a little bit. In that time we took some bad shots and we had some people forcing things. It wasn't pretty at the end, but we had built up a good enough lead that it got us through."
On resting Powell for Washington run: "We knew they could make a run, so I was trying to rest her and then bring her back in the guard Mendiola."
FORWARD Nicole Powell
On injured ankle: "My ankle is sore, but I tried to come in and play. The key to the game was doing the little things behind the scene like blocking out."
On being played man-to-man: "Washington plays tough defense. I expected to see more of a zone, but they did a good job playing me straight up."
GUARD Susan Borchardt
On Washington run: "We could definitely feel that they were on a run and we didn't answer it very well tonight. We were able to hold on and get the win."
WASHINGTON HEAD COACH JUNE DAUGHTERY
General Comments: "This is a disappointing loss. They really took the wind out of our sails. We had too many breakdowns tonight to beat Stanford. They shot the three very well. We have some work to do on the defensive end. We played really well except for the end of the second half which really cost us."
On second half: "We settled down and we stepped up our defensive intensity. We handled the screens and had more denials forcing a quicker pace. The defensive miscues were very costly in the second half. It's tough to see that against a great team like Stanford. They're so well coached and talented. They took in up a level and we looked sluggish in the second half."
On defending Stanford: "They really utilize their front line and run kids off the bench that seem to get bigger and better. Our second rotation wasn't getting there and that was very costly for us. We can control the inside and get out on the shooters. At times we did it very well, but at the beginning of the second half we had a real lapse."
On offensive concerns: "I'm not worried about our offense, we're averaging over 75 points per game and we shot 43% tonight. We didn't get the stops we needed defensively."
GUARD GIULIANA MENDIOLA
On game: "I thought we had them. We can't afford to play defense like we did against these type of shooters. Our rotations were slow and we were slow getting through picks. We watched them shoot it in our faces."
On defensive intensity: "Any team we play can shoot good or bad, we can't worry about them, we just need to play hard. The pressure we needed definitely wasn't there."
FORWARD JILL BELL
On playing Nicole Powell: "I don't think it's different than playing anyone else, but she is a great player. Defensively we didn't do what we needed to as a whole."