Post-Game Quotes: Rutgers
1/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant
Opening Statement
As usual fashion with Rutgers, it was a heavy weight fight to the last round, to the last man standing. I don't think we handled their physicality well throughout most of the game. Certainly in the first half we were out muscled. So give them a lot of credit. They are very physical both on and off the ball. We did some things well, we did some things not so well, but at the end of the day to secure a victory on your home floor against an athletic Rutgers team, I'm proud of our group.
On Michigan State's defense in the second half...
Yeah, I thought there were some good stops. I thought we did a good job on (Rachel) Hollivay. She's tough and for her to only get two shots. We really wanted to go after her early because she's a shot blocker first and foremost. To get her in a position where she's not as aggressive in the first half, whether it's on the bench with foul trouble or not able to really use that length and toughness that she has. I think that was really big for us because she's a primary postman for them in a rebound and putback situation, and I think that affected them in the fourth quarter. I think we needed to really tighten things up on Scaife, No. 3, because she got away from us. I thought we did a better job chasing the tail off of her double stags and things like that. And for us to go and make sure we had the hand up on Copper. Those are the primary scorers and they did a good job, and they had some skills and were able to find some passing lanes, but we were able to thwart some of their opportunities.
On her game plan to guard Tyler Scaife...
Well it was to guard her a lot better than that. That was the game. She's a very talented player. She can shoot threes. Her pull-up jumper is money. The kid is very, very talented off the pull-up jumper. It's like a layup to her. I thought we did a very poor job on her most of the game. There were times in the second half, where what we were trying to do off of double stags, we were trying to be up, ready to switch it out, but what happened was that the guy guarding her just stopped instead of chasing the tail because she would just fan out and we weren't there at all. She scored four points that way late in the second half so that was disappointing. We had to guard her better, but give her a lot of credit. She really put her team on her back and hit big shots. She did a lot for her crew on the offensive end, that was for sure.
On Branndais Agee's three pointer late in the game...
That was a big three, she had a ton of guys going for a bit. We weren't scoring very well, we weren't finishing very well. Give Rutgers a lot of credit. Inside they were very physical on our drives, very physical on our post players. We hadn't been shooting it that great at that point so that was a big three for us. I thought that kind of opened things up for us, put a little pep in our step. We had some big stops that ended up letting us pull that lead a little bit. We missed a lot of layups; let me tell you that. We probably should have had about 20 more points on the board just from missed layups and opportunities near the rim. But like I said, give them a lot of credit. I thought they were very physical inside the paint. But we were able to knock down some big shots from the perimeter, and I thought she did a great job.
Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer
On what happened down the stretch...
We had turnovers, crucial turnovers, lazy cuts and that always leads to the transition baskets at the other end. They [Michigan State] got second and third opportunities because we didn't block out. Instead of us going to the floor, we tried to reach for the ball and possessions were crucial. I thought for the most part that we played a decently controlled game the first two quarters and then it was not controlled. We can't win like that.
On how to prepare for game coming up against Ohio State...
I really don't know. The same things. We have to get back on defensive transitions, make sure we stop the double penetration in and get it done. I thought there were some things that we should have done in terms of not exposing the big people and we didn't do that. Just that extra effort. If we could have just executed one thing, shots down the stretch. It's unfortunate because we have seniors, so that is the last thing you would expect, but it is what it is. If you don't have control and the guards aren't confident in each other, you're going to see what happened happen.
