Notre Dame 68, Notre Dame 67
11/19/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2009
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Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant
Opening Statement...
This was a hard fought game certainly, and we had a couple good looks down the stretch. If we had the defensive rebound on the free throw then in the worse case scenario it would have been an overtime situation. It's unfortunate that it came down to that to be honest because free throw screens and defensive rebounding was one of the keys in our scouting report. On Tuesday we went over their offensive rebounding, and I think there were at least 12 clips on free throw screen outs and how important that was going to be in this game. To see it come down to that twice it was a little unfortunate obviously, and as a coach that is something you get pretty frustrated with because that's one of the things that was important in the scouting report however, we just didn't execute. I thought we had good looks at it down the stretch and the game could have gone either way.
On the last sequences of plays with missed free throws and a foul on the other end...
Obviously, we didn't want to foul because it was a tie game and we wanted to get back and play defense. (Lykendra) Johnson said she didn't foul, but I don't know for sure until I see it on tape. It is always frustrating because they were challenging rebounds too all night and it was frustrating for it to come down to that. Like I said, it came down to free throw screen outs and boxing out and when we unfortunetly put them on the line they missed it, and then were able to get the rebound and we fouled again. Obviously, that was the end of the story there.
On Allyssa DeHaan barley missing the shot that could have won the game...
She played extremely well tonight and I thought she played very aggressive at both ends of the floor. She played with a lot of heart coming back from rolling her ankle, and I thought that it was in. There was two there, but the ball seemed like it was threw the rim before it came back out so that was disappointing. We still had a chance and we did not need to foul there and instead just played it out and potentially have the game go into overtime. It kind of worked to our advantage with them missing their free throw, but we didn't secure the rebound.
On Courtney Schiffauer's injury status...
The ACL thing here is pretty frustrating and unfortunetly she is done for the season. She has taken probably a million jump stops in her life, and we were early in practice and she jumped stopped and went down. As soon as it happens you just kind of know, and she was playing really well for us right 3- pointers for us in our first two games. She was a great threat out there that opened things up for us out there, but I think our team really rallied around that and Jasmine Thomas came out and played very well tonight. We have to find a way to keep her on the floor without fouling so much, and I thought Porsche Poole came in and did a great job too. Both those kids stepped up their play, and then Lykendra Johnson was pretty significant too with a double-double. I thought people did elevate their game considering one of our starters, and leading scorer at this point, went down.
On the team's comeback...
We opened things up in transition and we started to get some stops defensively and running. Jasmine Thomas was a big key to that with her quickness; they really didn't have an answer. She got by their defense and was able to create from there. She has a great pull-up jumper and scored for us which got things going. We started to get north and south at the rim too, with Porsche (Poole) getting away a little bit and Allyssa DeHaan scoring for us and pushing that lead a little bit. I thought Jasmine was a key catalyst for us when we were down 10, but it would have been nice to keep her on the floor a little bit longer.
On the team's foul trouble...
We have to certainly prevent that, and I think one of the biggest one was Kalisha Keane. I think she has played the three games, and has fouled out of every game. She has to eliminate an offensive foul, because she usually gets one, because she needs to have a little bit better body control in situations, and she always gets one that is silly and not needed. There is two right there off the bat, and three of the other ones are probably legit aggressive fouls. She was a big part of the stretch for us when we went up by one, and to not have her on the floor against their pressure was flustering. We found a way and obviously things went back and forth and could have gone our way as well.
On Taja Wilson's importance on the team...
We played Kalisha Keane a few minutes on the swing spot and then brought Taja (Wilson) in because I think she is a rebounder. She didn't come up with any tonight, but I think she is a good finisher and fit well to what we were doing in a high-low look. She has been coming back better and better, although her conditioning is not where it need to be. She is working at it and building on it everyday so I thought she gave us key minutes tonight for sure.
On Brittany Thomas' performance tonight...
Obviously taking it up the sideline and picking up her dribble caused her a lot of problems. She needs to shoot the ball a little bit better too because she had that one point-blank layup there and a couple other good looks that didn't fall. We want her to shoot though. We can't play five on four and that I think she saw when she was out how much more effective we can be when there is someone scoring at the point guard position. I thought tonight compared to the last game she at least attempted to get in there and get her shot, but unfortunetly just missed an easy bucket.
On what that game meant to the team...
I am not really sure at this point. I think everyone is pretty mad right now including me, because I walked out of that locker room probably as mad as I have ever been in my coaching career due to the way it ended with the free throw situation. We have to bounce back because you can't worry about the last game, you have to move on to the next game and we have a chance to do that in Grand Rapids on Sunday.
