Syracuse Postgame Quotes
vs. New Hampshire
Syracuse 87, New Hampshire 46
November 29, 2010
Syracuse, N.Y. - Carrier Dome
Head Coach Quentin Hillsman
“I’m obviously very pleased with the outcome of the game. We played well, won the basketball game. That is always the goal, to get out here, play well and win. We got the ball inside well to Kayla (Alexander). She had a big game for us in the paint. We want to continue to throw the ball inside to her and let her make things happen. When she gets that kind of deep post position, being 9-12 and 6-7 from the line, she just did a good job of throwing the ball in the paint. We did an excellent job of throwing the ball inside and looking for her early in the game. That proved to be the difference. Erica Morrow played an outstanding game for us. Rachel Coffey needs to get going a little bit but we’ll get her going, it is one of those transition stages, she isn’t in any dog house or anything like that. We’ll get her going and we really need her. She is going to be a very good player for us to give us some more minutes at the point guard spot. La’Shay Taft gives us a totally different threat in the game because when she runs the floor in transition you really have to find her. You can’t just sit back in the paint because if she is on the floor she can make shots.
“Overall I’m very happy with our shooting percentage, shooting 47 percent from the floor, 40 percent from the three and 85 on free throws, that was big. To get 33 points off turnovers and 30 points in the paint, it was just a very good total effort from the team.”
On adjusting to New Hampshire’s early points from the high post:
“That is just one of our zone presses not letting the ball get to the high post so I was quite surprised how many times they got the ball there because that is normally something we do a good job of, not letting the ball get to the high post. I was really taken aback by that because normally we do a much better job on the high post. That was different letting the ball get to the high post and giving them easy looks there.”
On the rebounding:
“We’re doing a pretty good job of rebounding the ball. They got 13 team rebounds which is really just long rebounds they got because they were shooting the threes. That is what ended up happening, they started getting a lot of long rebounds on us. When you shoot 47 percent there is not a lot of rebounds to be had but we still need to get a lot of those loose balls and be a little bit more aggressive when those 50-50 balls are bouncing around to take advantage of getting on the floor and getting those.”
On how he gets the players to respond so well to his instruction:
“A lot of it is because they want to. We can do a lot of different things but it is not something fantastic that I say to them, it’s that they want to do it. We have players that care and want to do it and be successful so they go back on the floor and make the adjustments. It is just simple instructions for these players and they normally come out and respond really well.”
On what adjustments the team made after New Hampshire was leading early in the first half:
“We were just getting up the floor a little bit more. It is one of those things where you start the game off where they start off the game hitting one or two threes and the team understands they can shoot and gets up the floor. It was just us locking things down to get up the floor and being more aggressive on the wings.”
On a mass substitution of the starters in the second half:
“They got a 50-50 ball and we just talked about that in the locker room. We have to get loose rebounds and they had 18 rebounds in the first half. They came out the first possession and got another team rebound. For us that is just a hustle play, our kids really compete and really play hard so that is uncharacteristic for a team to get that many team rebounds against us. It was one of those things that we had just talked about where they can’t get those kind of rebounds. When you think about their rebounds, they had 34 and 13 of them were team rebounds, that is a ton. We had to do a better job of getting 50-50 balls and getting on the floor.”
On whether the lead at the time mattered:
“It doesn’t matter. We can’t get outhustled and we can’t let people get us on 50-50 plays. We have to take advantage of those opportunities.”
On what made him decide to put the starters back in:
“It was to the point of them getting back in the game and getting some redemption for themselves. Our second unit came in and did a good job, they even increased the lead so they came out strongly then we put our five back in and started playing again.”
On the teams depth:
“The good thing about our team is that when you look down our roster, the caliber of players we have makes them capable of stepping up and having a big night any game. We’re very deep and we can play different players in different positions, we have a lot of versatility with our spots. That for us is so huge to be able to put people in different spots and play different positions. That is all about them because what kind of players they are.”
On the defensive improvement after the first seven minutes:
“We just made a conscious effort to not give them open looks and that we were going to get up the floor and be aggressive. All we did was get up the floor and stayed home in our areas and we didn’t give up too many threes in the second half.”
On whether the players come out with a low level of intensity:
“I don’t think it is that so much. When a player comes out and shoots the ball you have to see their range and where they line up on the floor. In these early games scouting is a bit difficult too because they came out with an offense we hadn’t seen. We made adjustments and took some things away but early in the game they just came out and made a few shots in some areas we haven’t seen on tape. We watched every game they’ve played this year and they came out and started screening down on our guard and setting ball screens, they haven’t done that in any tape that we watched. Once we figured that out we settled down and gave up five threes the rest of the game, that is important.”
On the difference for Iasia Hemingway in the first and second half:
“Just getting her the ball in the high post. In the first half we weren’t getting her touches in the high post or areas we can score so we made a conscious effort to get her going and get her some touches. She had a good second half, she came out and played big.”
On Hemingway’s aggressiveness:
“The good thing about her game is that she plays at the rim and puts pressure on the defense every time she catches it. That is one thing we have to continue getting her touches in that 12 to 15 foot range where she can be aggressive and get the ball to the rim.”
Senior Guard Erica Morrow
On playing a complete game, and not only focusing on scoring:
Kayla (Alexander) at the beginning of the game was really hot, and I just wanted to keep feeding her the ball and giving her opportunities to score.
On Alexander's career-high 24 points:
"I didn’t know it was her career high, but she was rolling this game, so if she’s rolling I wanted to keep giving her the ball. But I didn’t know it was her career high."
On making adjustments to the early threes and the high post:
"When the balls reversed, letting [Tasha Harris] know there is a high post, and that’s a lot of communication that comes from our forwards and our center also. Our backs are turned so when a team like New Hampshire flashes in from the baseline we can’t necessarily always see it, so were a little higher because were trying to get to the shooter and were not aware there is a high post. They’ve been doing some different things bringing some players from different areas, so it just became more of a communication from our forwards and our girls on the back line."
On having 17 steals:
"I think a major part goes to our forwards playing up the floor, getting deflections, and us just keeping our hands active like coach always talks about in practice. Just playing aggressive in the passing lanes, that gets us going, those fast break points, and points off turnovers it just kind of gets momentum flowing in our favor. So I just give credit to my teammates for playing aggressive."
On her five steals tonight and the importance of being aggressive:
"It’s always important because Tasha (Harris) and I sometimes talk about how we feel outnumbered because as guards you have the whole top half of the court from the second hash mark all the way to half court. We kind of felt outnumbered so it’s important that we stay active and keep sprinting from pass to pass because we have top, wing and wing usually. But our teammates definitely helped us out playing up the floor and as a team we locked down in the second half and got the things that we wanted to get."
Senior Guard Tasha Harris
On when a timeout was called immediately after her made jumpshot:
"Nothing went through my mind, I knew he probably wanted to make offensive and defensive adjustments, so I just kind of went with the flow and tried figure out what he was going to say."
On getting the ball inside to Kayla Alexander:
"Whenever I’m in the game, coach always tells us, ‘when you first catch it, square your shoulders to the basket and look inside first, unless you’re wide open.’ So in practice I’ll consistently try and get Kayla open looks first, because if you get her going immediately everything on the outside opens up. So I try to do that consistently."
On being taken out by Coach Q early in the second half:
"You don’t want to sit on the bench, and you know what you’re supposed to do. So I just told myself I have to play hard and get to my assignments and go as hard as you can go, and if you get tired just ask for a sub. If we take away the high post and box out, we win the game by 30 or 40 points. So we know we had to take care of it in these games to be able to go on further and take care of it against other teams."
On adjusting to an offense you hadn’t seen New Hampshire run:
"Just playing our principles, not letting them get into a rhythm with jump shots, keeping our hands active and just stay in our gaps and play our principles."
Sophomore Center Kayla Alexander
On her career high of 24 points:
"I was just playing basketball. Earlier before shoot around, Coach Kornell told me I was playing soft in practice, so I took that as a challenge. I think I showed him that I’m not soft. I was just trying to go out there and play hard to be honest."
Did you know when you got the pass from Erica and made the layup that you had a career high?
"I wasn’t paying attention I was just trying to play basketball and get this W."
On all but one player for the team scoring:
"It shows the depth we have, that we can depend on other players and not just our starters. If something happens, we have the bench we can go to, the whole team is talented, everyone can play or they wouldn’t be here."
On the success shooting the ball from the outside:
"When they’re knocking down threes, the defenders have to go after them. That opens up the post and it makes it easier to go one on one for easy layups."
On making defensive adjustments to New Hampshire’s offense early on:
"We needed to communicate more, that always helps, and talking as Erica said, the back line and the forwards talking, moving our feet and just being more aware."
On taking away the free throw line:
"We love using high post because it’s deadly, so if you take that away it usually shuts down most offenses. If you take away the high post, the three point shooters and rebound, you can usually get a win."
What do you need to do on Wednesday to go to 5-0?
"Keep playing hard, getting after loose balls, shutting down three point shooters, taking away high post, and boxing out and getting rebounds."
