Women's Basketball

Postgame Quotes: Wisconsin vs. Indiana

Women's Basketball

Postgame Quotes: Wisconsin vs. Indiana

Wisconsin vs. Indiana
Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017
Kohl Center

Head Coach Jonathan Tsipis
Opening statement: "I think we battled for 29 minutes tonight. Indiana, they are an explosive team and even in their last two games, Penn State they were down one going into the fourth and went on a 9-0 run. In the Purdue game, same kind of things. 

"I thought with about a minute left (in the third quarter), we just made some key mistakes. We allowed the ball into the paint, on action, I thought we had guarded better throughout the game and Jenn Anderson is very skilled and when you shoot 7-for-8, they were all within four feet. Tyra Buss' drives in the third quarter, I think that is where we had so many opportunities to keep her in front and she just kept willing her way there. 

"We've got to have that will to get that stop because that's a huge momentum piece to take into the fourth quarter. I think you see the score in the fourth quarter, I look and see how we shot the ball in the first three quarters and spread that around. 

"Cayla (McMorris) got us started, had a great first half, I thought Courtney (Fredrickson) picked that part up in the third quarter but when you look at the controllables, did we battle harder than we did on Wednesday night against Michigan State? Absolutely. I thought we battled but when you give up offensive rebounds and teams score off of them. I'm not quite sure, and there could've been a couple of
three-point plays. But when you give up 11 offensive rebounds and you score 22 second-chance points, to me that quickly looks like you scored off of all the offensive rebounds. 

"When you're struggling to make a basket and you've held somebody to shoot 18 percent from the 3-point line, and we switched from the man to the zone (defense) early in the first quarter about halfway through, I thought that was really, really good. I think there's a reason with the maturity level and having somebody get to the line 18 times in the fourth quarter and we don't get to the line until 4.7 seconds left, there's understanding that when shots aren't going in, whether you are a guard or post, you've got to get on the offensive glass, you've got to drive the ball. You've got to force the action for the defense to give yourself those same kind of opportunities. That's the part of the poise and the veteran leadership that again, no matter who we have in the rotation in the game, we've got to be able to do that to give ourselves a chance to win at the end of the game." 

On the challenges Indiana guard Tyra Buss presents
"In the man-to-man, we lost her twice and she hits two threes, two of their three on the game. I thought the zone, until the end of the third quarter, we had done a pretty good job on her. When she beats the first line of defense, she is so good at creating the contact. She understands when somebody is moving, she is going to get to the spot first and I think she is able to do that and they play off of that. Then all of a sudden, people are helping earlier and she is able to make plays off the dribble. 

"I think she's really improved, I thought the zone was doing a good job of finding where she was, we went to the extended press a little bit to try and slow her down. Outside of the last play of the third quarter, I thought it did a good job, it got into the shot clock a little bit. 

"But it's a kid that understands, she got up and I think she's a very improved defender. I think for two years, she got tired of people going after her and she got up and guarded Kendra (Van Leeuwen) and got us out of rhythm and we weren't able to get into our offense the way we wanted to in the fourth quarter, but she did that throughout the whole game. She understands when they need to run offense, she understands when they can go in transition, she's the catalyst for them.

"I think (Alexis) Gassion is their best defender but that's not taking anything away from Tyra Buss. She's an all-league player for a reason and she may not have shot it her best, but she understands at 5-foot-7, there's a reason she scored so many points in high school. She's fearless. She's willing to give up her body to make a play or get to the free throw line."
 
On Cayla McMorris' play in the game, especially in the first half
"I thought in the third quarter, we got Courtney going. As a scorer, we still were running some actions, we got a couple good looks, you can't defer. I think when we look at the film, we'll see that she was 6-for-7 at halftime, but there wasn't anything at the free-throw line. She did a good job of working off the post. I think they looked to double her a little quicker, the same way they were defending her on the post in the first half, to force her to try and kick it back out. The other thing is they pushed her further out, she wasn't catching it as deep but I think we tried to put her in some positions to drive the ball and I felt like Indiana did a good job of putting more eyes on her in the second half and closing down any lanes to penetrate, so she had to kick it out. 

"I thought when we made the run in the third quarter, we were really good at making the extra pass. We made the extra pass to Courtney, we made the extra pass to Roichelle Marble, and then all of a sudden, we started making extra passes to kids that weren't ready to shoot. I think that is what Cayla needs to think - score, score, score, and knowing even more so when you've had a great first half like that."  

On if Indiana was trying to attack Kendra Van Leeuwen 
"She's a freshman point guard in the Big Ten. That is a norm for the game every single time. She needs to understand that. They're going to put pressure on her. One of the turnovers in the second half, she wasn't ready to shoot. She traveled on that play kind of opposite our bench and on the other baseline. When she's not ready to shoot, she went from trying to pass it to trying to get in a dribble drive and your body's too high. I really wish that Ashley Kelsick could've taken more pressure off her today. We started Shelly Marble. We went smaller. She got two fouls quick and we didn't have the use of Ashley until the second quarter today."
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Players Mentioned

Cayla McMorris

#23 Cayla McMorris

G
6' 0"
Junior
Brooklyn Park, Minn.
Kendra Van Leeuwen

#10 Kendra Van Leeuwen

G
5' 10"
Freshman
Brantford, Ontario
Roichelle Marble

#5 Roichelle Marble

G
5' 7"
Redshirt Sophomore
Des Moines, Iowa

Players Mentioned

Cayla McMorris

#23 Cayla McMorris

6' 0"
Junior
Brooklyn Park, Minn.
G
Kendra Van Leeuwen

#10 Kendra Van Leeuwen

5' 10"
Freshman
Brantford, Ontario
G
Roichelle Marble

#5 Roichelle Marble

5' 7"
Redshirt Sophomore
Des Moines, Iowa
G