Nov. 30, 2008

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Kansas 64, New Orleans 42

November 30, 2008

Kansas Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson

Her thoughts on the game: “I give New Orleans a tremendous amount of credit. I thought that they came out and set the tone about how quick and physical they wanted to play. We didn’t have much of an answer in the first half. There are going to be nights when teams struggle to score offensively but we have to be able to buckle down defensively.”

On KU pulling away in the second half: “LaChelda (Jacobs) got inside and made a couple of layups off of the press. We tried to get Danielle (McCray) to post up. We tried to run everything we have in our playbook to get her on the block. We had some opportunities in transition and had a few and-one’s and scored some points on the free throw line.”

On the KU defense: “We had much better position defense in the second half. We had much better rotation and forced tougher shots. We also drew three charges in the second half.” On the Jayhawks’ 21 turnovers: “A lot of that is on us just being sloppy. Not to take anything away from New Orleans, but I thought we were really sloppy and careless.”

On what her team needs to work on: “We have to grow up and understand that every game is a dog fight. We have to be prepared defensively. We have to embrace who we are. We are a defensive team who creates opportunities off of our defense. Not that we aren’t a good offensive team, but we have to understand who we are and embrace that. This group has to start walking the walk, because we haven’t looked very mature here in the last two games.”

KU Player Quotes

Sophomore forward Nicolette Smith

On her broken nose: “It bled for the first two days, and then the doctor told me I couldn’t practice until I had three days of no bleeding. I finally got in at the end of practice last night.”

On being out of shape for today’s game: “I was really nervous I was going to be sucking wind. It got to me on a few points, but coach knew and she got me breaks. Other than that, I wasn’t as out of shape as I thought I was going to be because I haven’t been doing any cardio at all.”

Junior guard Danielle McCray

On playing like they did against Iowa for the last 10 minutes: “We all know how well we played against Iowa, so every time we’re not playing well, we need to remember that. It’s always something we can look back on.”

On securing the win with defensive stops: “It was the defense. If we come out and play defense like we are capable of, we can stop anybody. We just have to do that and embrace the fact that we’re a defensive team. We create offense from our defense.”

Junior guard LaChelda Jacobs

On being excited about the next game: “Last week was kind of a long week of practice, and we’re excited to play again on Thursday.”

On Sade Morris’ improvement from last season: “I think she’s being more aggressive and looking for her shot a lot more. She’s getting to the free throw line more and making her free throws. She’s more confident from that aspect. She’s grown a lot from last year.”

Junior guard Sade Morris

On Nicolette Smith dealing with a broken nose: “It was funny. We teased her about it. It looked like she was starting a new fashion style with gauze taped around her face like a mustache.”

On winning a game despite poor shooting: “We won a game even though we weren’t shooting well or playing great defense. I guess it’s a good thing to know we can win without doing anything too well, but we know that in the Big 12 playing like that won’t get us many wins.”

New Orleans Head Coach Amy Champion

On the game: “I thought we played really well at times, but we got to a point when we just couldn’t score. We had a couple of crucial turnovers in a crucial part of the game. Things like that hurt us everytime we get close. We just have to learn how to finish. Our biggest problem is finishing. I thought we played Kansas really well. I don’t think the score reflects how we played. There were just some really close shots that we weren’t able to finish.”