Coach & Player Quotes: Washington Vs. Western Michigan
December 20, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 20, 2010
Washington vs. Western Michigan
December 20, 2010
Bank of America Arena
Seattle, Washington
Washington Head Coach Tia Jackson
Opening Statement
"I'm really really excited about the team effort. I think that we came into this game and accomplished what we wanted to accomplish which was do better with half court execution, and for the most part I thought that we were pretty solid. We went with kind of a nontraditional line-up. When you have four guards out on the floor it is difficult to get the execution that we had so much success with the first half, but for the most part I thought we held on and it was a great victory for us."
On the amount Injuries
"I about put my uniform on, and put myself out into the game. We have dealt with injuries so much, and so much adversity. Not just from an injury standpoint. We really do a good job showing how resilient we are as a team. I think at one point we had Kassia [Fortier] running the point. Having those reps in practice helps her and helps her build confidence. She has great leadership, and that makes her feel better out there. When you have leadership right in your ear I think it can really help."
"Mollie [Williams] has been dealing with her injury since the beginning of the season, and Charmaine [Barlow] took a bump to the thigh yesterday in practice. It wasn't tender last night, but it was sore this morning."
"You have not even seen us yet. Right now we are just a bunch of blue collar workers out there on the court. Having the eight days of break gave us an opportunity to really clean up some things before going to PAC 10 play. When we are healthy you better look out. We are a much more solid team. We are fun to watch because we go and outwork people. Adding that extra firepower will just make it more enjoyable."
The health of Mercedes Wetmore
"It is a medical issue that unfortunately I cannot disclose right now, but she will be ready for the UCLA game."
The play of Kristi Kingma
"She can do that on any given night. I think she had an exceptional game. She is a true, true leader on every level. I think that [Sarah] Morton did a great job of finding her, and I felt that her teammates did a great job finding her too. The half court execution we tremendous. I think having the few days off that we had really helped us. She is just scoring in many ways. She is getting to the free throw line, she is taking wide open shots, she is taking it off the dribble, and she recognizes mismatches very well."
Sr. G Sarah Morton
On the fast start to the game
"We really came out with a lot of energy and focus, especially on defense. Just knowing their personnel really helped us build our offense by getting steals or getting rebounds and being able to kick it out to run our stuff. Definitely defense was a focus.
On playing alongside Kingma when she is hot
"Kristi is really fun to play with. I've got a lot of confidence in her, especially when she's coming off a screen we have a pretty good non-verbal communication--I can kind of read what she's going to do, so it makes it a lot easier to get her the ball where she's going to be able to score. she was hot this game, to say the least."
On rebounding from the guard spot
"I think we were just really hungry and really going after it. Of course, a key is to box out and get after it like there's money on the ball, like Coach J says."
Jr. G Kristi Kingma
On her hot shooting
"After the [Cal] Riverside game, I didn't feel like I was very aggressive early and a lot of that was they were being very physical with me and they were taking me out of my game. At the same time, my role on the team is to score and to kind of lead everyone from the jump, and I didn't really feel like I did that. Coach J pushed me in practice this week to just keep shooting regardless of what was happening. I came out and tried to be aggressive from the jump, shots were falling, so I just kept shooting."
On what it's like to out-score a team by herself
"Personally, it's rewarding, the fact that i'm proud that my shots are going in after all the hard work I put in this summer. More than anything, we were just executing on offense."
