Texas Tech at Oklahoma Postgame Quotes
January 24, 2015 | Women's Basketball
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
TEXAS TECH - OKLAHOMA POSTGAME QUOTES
OKLAHOMA 70, TEXAS TECH 64
SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2015
LLOYD NOBLE CENTER - NORMAN, OKLAHOMA
Candi Whitaker
Head Coach
Opening Statement
"Tough game. I thought we battled very, very hard. I'm proud of our fight. I thought we made some plays at the right time towards the end to stay in it. Proud of our group."
On the defensive game plan
"I thought we had a great game plan defensively. We made a lot of adjustments from the first time we played them and our kids carried that over and did a great job defensively. We struggled a little bit shooting the ball here, so I thought we had some looks that maybe should have gone toward the end. We missed quite a few layups, had a lot of put backs. We were getting them on the glass pretty good the last couple of minutes, I thought. Those opportunities, you've got to finish those. You've got to go to the line. We've got to go to the line more. Big difference there. There's little things you go back and look here and there. And this team, in two weeks, has made a lot of strides. The difference when we played hem last time and this time, I thought was significant."
On the broad outline of the defensive plan
"Well, we wanted to stick to our defensive fundamentals of being up the floor and shrinking gaps. Obviously they (OU) love to put it on the floor and attack you so we had to do a better job of guarding the ball. How we were guarding the ball was important. They went to the middle almost every time on us. We wanted to take away their middle drives, shrink the floor, not allow such open gaps and obviously get to 3-point shooters. I honestly don't think they had a lot of wide, wide open threes. We were there most of the time at least contesting, making those shots much more difficult. We gave the post much more trouble by showing traffic at times and turning them over. As they put the ball on the ground, their head goes down, the ball goes down and we wanted to make plays there. We also wanted to keep them out of rhythm, which is what we did."
On how much Kelsi Baker and Dayo Olabode's foul trouble impacted them late in the game
"That always impacts us. Those two players need to be on the floor. They are our best offensive duo in the four and the five so any time they are in foul trouble, it impacts us. Especially on the offensive end."
On what she has seen from Gioya Carter compared to last year
"She seems to be taking over more of a go-to role for them. When they need a bucket, they go to her. She is a great one-on-one player. It seems like she is trying to create more for herself off the bounce."
On what she has seen from Dayo Olabode on the perimeter
"When we recruited her, we knew she shot the three really, really well. So I think it has been a matter of her adjusting to the college game, feeling more comfortable. We encourage her to be a threat at all times when she has the ball in her hands."
Amber Battle
Senior Guard
On how this team has grown over the years
"Definitely our team has matured over the years. We have a lot of experience and we have a lot of newcomers that have been giving us everything they have. We just need to keep fighting. We're giving good teams good games and if we keep fighting, keep hustling, keep working together, we'll get some key wins."
On OU responding and what made it tough to stop them
"Yeah, Oklahoma is a great team. They have great shooters, great penetrators, and we just have to play our team defense and they got some key scores but we've just got to keep playing defense."
Dayo Olabode
Freshman Forward
On how her game has improved
"Well, in practice I try to shoot as much as I can. My teammates are encouraging me to shoot more and just attack and do what I do best. So, I try to shoot as much as I can when I'm open and do what I do best."
