Jan. 31, 2010

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Head coach Lisa Stone:
On Northwestern's second-half play: "They were very good offensively and they got it from all over. They hit 3s in the first half and stretched us out. They've got a great player in Amy Jaeschke, but they have a nice supporting cast and we just couldn't get any stops. They made their first nine baskets to start the second half and they had to direct it back to our offense. I thought we sputtered in both areas and its unfortunate, because we're coming off a big, important win at Indiana, and I wanted to work for some separation today. But I give Northwestern a ton of credit. They played very well."

On dealing with the loss: "They came in here with a tremendous game plan and a way to stretch us out. They've got nice balance; it's a really nicely balanced team. Their record is very deceiving because they've been in many games. I talked to [NU head coach] Joe McKeown before the game and he knows that as well. This Big Ten is a log jam once again and we've got to get it back. Now we go on the road again for two again and it doesn't get any easier. But we've got a group of young women who are disappointed with the fact that we gave up 68 points--that's well above our average. I thought we struggled. We didn't get to the free throw line in the first half, and that's not the officials, we were not aggressive offensively. So we're back to work again and it's a short turn around. Just like when you win a game, you don't celebrate too long; when you lose a game, it probably stings longer. But we've got some things we need to shore up before we go to Minnesota."

On getting two wins on the road while giving two games away at home: "That's the frustrating part of it. And I've got a group in there that knows that it stinks, and it's something that we have to use as the motivating factor for our next game because you can't let one turn into two. Again, it evened things out--you get two on the road, but you give two back. But I can't say enough about Northwestern. They had a great game today in their second half, they way they came out and they didn't miss. They put up and a lot of that had to do with what they were doing, but a lot of it also had to do with us being reactionary on defense."

On Lin Zastrow tallying a career-high 19 points: "It's really important. We need to make sure we utilize her. We went right to her to start the second half and that was diagramed for her because I thought she really showed some want to post up and score for us. She did that at Indiana and it carried over to today, and we need that. We need that in the second half of Big Ten play--we need post play, we need guard play, and we need to get back on track here against Minnesota on Thursday."

Northwestern head coach Joe McKeown
Opening statement: “(It was a) great game for us. The second half was as probably as much play as we had shown all year except for the last minute and a half where they were able to score and we missed some free throws. I just felt like offensively we got on track a little bit in the second half. When you play Wisconsin, the hardest thing to do is score against them. They’re probably the best defensive team in the league and I was very proud of our team tonight for just the way we attacked them, especially in the second half on offense. We reversed the ball and got better shots. In the first half they came out. We had seven points with probably seven or eight minutes to go and I think the biggest thing for us was getting control. The first half they gave us a little bit of momentum heading into halftime. This was a tough place to play. I had never played here before. It is a great atmosphere and crowd. I see why (Wisconsin men’s head coach) Bo Ryan wins all of those games.”

On Northwestern’s ball movement: “I’d like to tell you how good it is but it has kind of been an Achilles (heal) for us. We have been working really hard on screening and moving without the ball. We are doing a little better job, but the last couple of weeks, we had struggled a little bit with that. I thought tonight or this afternoon we had done a much better job of spreading the floor and making better entry passes. We tried to get the ball to (Amy) Jaeschke, who is a pretty good ball player for us. I thought we did a better job of reversing the ball and making the better pass. Hopefully, that will carry over for us.”

On Northwestern’s trap defense: “It got us back in a little bit. It kept them from really getting a head of steam. (When) Rae Lin (D’Alie) gets her motor going, she is just really hard to stop and I thought we were able to slow her down a bit. Karel is one of the better scorers in the Big Ten and I think that we were able to not give her the same looks that she had. She got at least a little bit at the end there, but front of us and it allowed us to kind of crawl back in.”

On the Big Ten conference overall: “I just came into the league. I came here from George Washington where they have (a team in) the top 20 every year and when I came into the Big Ten last year, I was so impressed. I was so disappointed that people throughout the country had the wrong impression of this league. I think from a PR standpoint, we had five teams last year in the NCAA tournament that all did well. This league was very tough last year. The league doesn’t get nationally accredited. I am trying to be a one-person ambassador sometimes. When you play almost a double-round robin, it puts our league at disadvantage in my opinion. What I mean by that in the ACC, they play 14 conference games and we are playing 18. We beat each other up and you get to the end of the season. I remember last year we beat Minnesota. We kept them from going to the NCAA tournament and they were a terrific team. It’s hard to explain the Big Ten. I don’t have a pulse on the league, I think that Ohio State is a great team and I think there are nights when Wisconsin can defend anybody and obviously their record is really good. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the end. They are saying that everybody and anybody can beat anyone on a given night. There’s a lot of parity. I think sometimes people mistake parity as not being as good as other conferences. That’s my take on it.”