Baylor, South Florida Postgame Quotes
11/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015
Ferrell Center (Waco, Texas)
Attendance: 5,517
BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES
Baylor Head Coach Kim Mulkey
Opening statementà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"I thought we were tremendous on the defensive end, not just the first half. I thought we did okay the whole game. You just beat a team that has five returning starters and nine returning players. That was a very, very hard-fought win for us. I knew it was going to be. When [Alexis] Prince went out this week and had to have surgery, you have to adjust on the fly. We're very talented, but we're not anywhere near where we're going to be. I have to figure out who to play and help on the perimeter."
On senior Niya Johnsonà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"If there's anything better in the country than that kid, I'd like to see it. She flat out guarded [Courtney] Williams. She hit the big free throw. She's the spark that makes us go. She's just everything you dream of to have as a coach on the floor for you. She's tired, but she never lets fatigue be an excuse. I sure am glad I have her."
On freshman Kalani Brownà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"It was her first possession, her first shot attempt ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" it was high school. I told her, 'get up and be a woman out there,' and then she dominated. I probably should have kept her in, and I will as time goes on, but you go with your upperclassmen. Look at her. She's a big girl. She wants the ball. This kid can play."
On key takeaways from tonight's winà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"We're going to have a lot of [close games] until we can get some people well, but we're going to win a lot of them, too. I'll figure out who I'll play. If I have to go to a triple post, I will. I don't know if 'fun' is the word [for tonight's game]. It is when you win. It challenges you as a coach. It was just what I thought it would be ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" a very tough game."
Freshman Kalani Brown
On her 11-point performance against USFà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"[Coach Mulkey] gave me an opportunity to score, and I came out the game right after that and she said, 'you can't make a high school move.' I thought that when I went back in, I had to change something up. I tried to do what I could ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" grab rebounds, finish around the rim ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" because that's what she wanted. I wanted to please her."
Senior Kristina Higgins
On the defensive endà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"Our goal every game is to establish post presence on the defensive end, so I just wanted to help my teammates out on the cuts and be there if they needed help."
On teammate Kalani Brownà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"Kalani is a big girl. If you give her the ball, she's going to score. So, we just posted her up. Her defense will get better as time goes on, but her offense is already there."
SOUTH FLORIDA POSTGAME QUOTES
South Florida Head Coach Jose Fernandez
On the way the team kept fightingà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"I mean, that's the nature of our team. I think in the second half we did a much better job of taking care of the basketball than the first half. It's very uncharacteristic of our team to miss as many open shots as we did ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" the put-backs and straight line-drive layups ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" but I think it was a very good basketball game between two teams for the second week of the season."
On how big three pointers are for USFà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"It's big, you know, it is big. But I thought that first and third quarter were very, very good. We went empty on too many trips from that five- or six-minute mark down and you can't do that against a team that can get easy baskets and score in the paint like they could. You shoot 33 percent and lose by three, and you're pretty disappointed."
On Courtney Williams coming alive in the second halfà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"They did a really good job on Courtney. The big thing was that I thought she was pressing a little bit and I told her, 'you have to get to the rim and drive it.' We started to run her off some curls and get her some better shots and some higher percentage shots. You look across the board, and I mean, it's tough to win this type of game and beat this caliber of opponent shooting 31 percent from the floor."
Senior Courtney Williams
On the look she got at the end of the gameà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"It was pretty off-balance. I was just trying to make shots from behind the three-point line."
On going against Niya Johnson all nightà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"I mean, you always have that killer instinct. It doesn't matter who you're playing."
