Jan. 21, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Notes
Wisconsin head coach Lisa Stone:
On Penn State’s defensive effort: “We could not get any flow and a lot of that credit goes to Penn State. They’ve got great athletes on the perimeter, good size and we had a tough time finding good looks. I thought we rushed the offense in the first half, took some quick shots which led to their transition. Defensively, I thought our ball pressure was average at best and I thought it could have been improved. But in the second half we really tuned it up. We held them to eight points for almost 13 straight minutes and did a good job defensively. We just couldn’t get going offensively tonight.”
On holding Tyra Grant to just 14 points and Penn State to 54 points: “We tried to establish the inside game as well and they had good size in there, I’m not going to take anything away from them, we needed to be more aggressive. But I thought the X-factor was missing for us too. We gave up far too many offensive boards late in the game. We got a really good stop and then allowed them another opportunity, and when you’ve got Tyra Grant and Alex Bentley making shots, and Julia Trogele did a nice job for them as well. They found ways to get to the foul line, they found ways to get second-chance opportunities and that really broke our back.”
On entering the second half of Big Ten play: “We thought that this would be a really pivotal game for both Penn State and Wisconsin in terms of battling for second place and to find some separation. It didn’t happen for us, but we’ll get this one back. We have to understand that we’ve got a great group of young women in there and they work hard every day. It just wasn’t on for us tonight. A lot of teams have five wins or four wins, right, there’s a big huddle in the middle. We’ve got to get this one back. The timing of the (week-long) break is probably good for us, but we’ll remember this one and get better from this game.
Penn State head coach Coquese Washington
On the low scoring game: “Wisconsin is a very good defensive team and coming into the game, I felt it would probably be a low scoring event They really make it hard for you to get the shots that you want to get They clog the lane. They make it tough so I knew this was going to be a tough battle. It’s a long season. It’s a long conference-18 conference games. We aren’t even halfway through yet. There’s no rest of the weary. It’s a great win because Wisconsin is a good team and they are playing very good basketball. I’m happy that we were able to come in here (with) a good crowd against a very good team and come out with the ‘W’.”
On Wisconsin’s ability to prevent Tyra Grant from scoring in the first half: “That was totally a credit to Wisconsin’s defense. They stifled her. Every time she put the ball on the floor, there were four or five pairs of hands around the ball. It took her at half to really figure out what to do. I think we did a better job in the second half-the rest of the team-of attacking and being aggressive and moving without the ball. The first half I thought we were pretty stagnant on offense. It was easy for the defense to rotate to Tyra. In the second half we got a little bit more movement, so it wasn’t as easy to run and it wasn’t a double-team run and frustrate Tyra. And she makes some tough shots and I thought the defense was still great on her in the second half but she made a couple incredible shots and that’s one of the reasons why she’s one of the best players in the conference.”
On whether or not Grant has trouble making any shots: “I would have to think long and hard about that. She’s a pretty special player and we’re fortunate that she suits up for us. And when you have a player that can really take over the game that …sometimes offense is just better than defense. It wasn’t anything that I drew up. It was certainly not anything that I drew it up. It was her will to make great shots and Tyra is an ultimate competitor and she loves the pressure and she loves putting the team on her shoulders. Some of those shots she made were just her will to win and her will to take it to another level.”
