Western Kentucky Post Game Quotes
March 22, 2008
Head Coach Mary Taylor Cowles
Junior forward Dominique Duck
Senior forward Crystal Kelly
Cowles: You’ve got to give credit to UTEP. Just simply their game plan and how aggressive they were offensively. I think they’ve got something really special there between (Natasha) Lacy and (Jareica) Hughes. They just do a great job of playing well together, just a very well coached basketball team. We were kind of beside ourselves, so to speak. Offensively, I don’t think we ever got into a flow the entire game. Defensively, they just attacked us in areas where we just simply didn’t step up to the challenge. I don’t think these young ladies have anything to hold their head about. They’ve had an unbelievable season. We’re very, very proud of them and they should be proud of themselves. But obviously this isn’t the way we would want our season to end in such a disappointing loss.
On their defensive performance vs. UTEP:
Duck: They were setting a lot of screens and we were just late with the hedges ? We weren’t very active with our hands and there were easy penetrations. It was a little sluggish ? UTEP executed on it.
On being outrebounded:
Cowles: I think that was a big factor. They got some big offensive rebounds but if you look at second-chance points, there wasn’t that big of a difference between their 15 offensive rebounds and our 14. I think they outrebounded us, number one, because we shot so poorly at the offensive end, but I think what really defined this basketball game was our 22 turnovers. You’ve got to give UTEP credit for taking care of the ball so well. We tried to put ourselves in a position to limit our turnovers to 12, 14 and we feel like we’re in a good position to win but when you go and have 11 in the first half and 11 in the second half against a team like UTEP and they get 30 points off of those turnovers, you’re putting yourself in a really difficult position.
On starting the second half:
Cowles: I don’t know what went wrong. I’ll have to watch it again and when I do obviously and take notes we’ll kind of get that maybe figured out. Again, I think you just have to give UTEP credit. They had players that really stepped up. Their team stepped up. They hit some big threes during that run and those are kind of like daggers when they’re already scoring and then they get big shots like that to fall, that’s really difficult to overcome and they were hitting from everywhere. They had a lot of people that were scoring and knocking down shorts and they would come up the offensive rebound with the putback or we would foul. It just wasn’t very typical basketball for the Lady Toppers ? Our defense is what got us here but our defense is obviously what did not allow us to advance.
On UTEP’s aggressiveness:
Kelly: They were very aggressive. I think that’s what helped them win and we did things that we normally don’t do. We didn’t get back. ? We didn’t rebound well and they capitalized on that. ? Our weakness in tonight’s game was that we weren’t picking up the ball quickly and they just did a really good job of capitalizing on that and noticing that we weren’t doing a very good job of it. It seemed like every time they did that, they made a good play.
On UTEP versus other top teams:
Cowles: Obviously, they’re good. You don’t win 23 games in a row and you don’t go undefeated in your conference at the Division I level without being a good basketball team. There’s differences when you look at them versus George Washington. George Washington’s post game is different. When you look at them versus Louisville and them versus North Carolina, there’s differences in all of them. We’re not going to take anything away from UTEP. They’re a very good, very well coached basketball team.
On Kelly’s career:
Kelly: I’ve loved every second I’ve had here. I’ve never regretted my choice that I chose Western and it’s become a big part of my life. I don’t think it’s really hit me that I’ll never put on this uniform again. There have been a lot of good people here and the fans here and everyone’s so loyal to Lady Topper basketball. I love everything about it.
Cowles: Any time at this point in the season, the season is over and you have an opportunity to reflect on your seniors, it’s kind of a difficult situation but yet it’s kind of a sweet situation because you appreciate and respect how much they’ve given to your program. Whether it’s Muna who’s been with us for two years or it’s Crystal Kelly who’s been with four or Charlotte Marshall who’s been with us five, it’s a time for us to truly appreciate and respect all that they’ve given to our program, and we do. These three seniors, like I just told them in the locker room, these three seniors will always be very very special to me personally, to our program. It doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the amount of point they’ve scored and the minutes they’ve played or the games they’ve helped us win. It’s the fact that they’re classy young ladies that came to Western Kentucky and took a lot of pride in putting on that uniform. They all three understood the importance of going to class and getting a college degree and they have really given us everything that we have ever asked out of them and more and we have to appreciate and respect that. These three young ladies have been there. They will be greatly missed, but like I said, they will be missed for many reasons than just their contribution on the court.
On Charlotte Marshall’s health:
Cowles: The rest that she’s had since the conference tournament, obviously not getting to play in the conference tournament but that last minute or so in the championship game, and the time that we’ve had since then has really allowed her to get better and better. We knew she was going to be able to play in the NCAA Tournament. Charlotte has done some really good things for our basketball team over her career, so once we knew that she was going to be able to go, there really wasn’t a hesitation to go to her on the bench.
