Dec. 1, 2016 Recap | Box Score | Notes
4/4 BAYLOR (8-1) 79, NR/NR ABILENE CHRISTIAN (3-4) 34
Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016
Ferrell Center (Waco, Texas)
Attendance: 5,415
BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES
Baylor Head Coach Kim Mulkey
On pulling the starters earlyà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"We had seven possessions, and we had four turnovers. Give somebody else a shot. We're that good and have that much depth, give somebody else a shot. If there is anything that drives a coach crazy, it's turnovers. Missed shots don't drive me nuts, turnovers. That's just one less possession you have to score when you just turn it over. Now if it's a turnover where the defense just makes spectacular plays, you live with that. We've got enough depth that you just keep trying people."
On changing the energy of the game after pulling the startersà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"I thought KK, Dekeiya, and Juicy those guys came in with a little bit more energy. I'm talking about in the first half now, we picked it up in the second. In the second half, they only scored 12 points, we picked it up a little bit. I though shooting free throws was better tonight than against Ohio State. We were 17-of-22. Look, we're not going to play great every night, but if you'll just pick it up on the defensive end when you miss shots and you seem lethargic, you got to live with it. But this game is behind us now. We have to focus on Rocky Top."
On what she wanted to get out of the gameà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"I think you're going to see zone. We haven't played a team yet that doesn't play us zones, so we know what we're going to face in Knoxville. We knew what we were going to face at Connecticut. We're going to see zone, and we are going to have to attack the zone better in spots. We're going to have to penetrate the zone better. We're going to have to screen the zone better. The hardest thing in basketball sometimes is to be patient, because it's such a fast game you want to do everything quick. Against zones you have to have ball reversal, you have to screen the zone, you have to penetrate the zone and it doesn't look pretty. So I guess we got something out of it from that perspective in that they played a lot of zone."
Senior Nina Davis
On bringing energy after coming back inà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"I just wanted to give us more energy. We came out and we had like four turnovers within seven possessions, so we just wanted to change that and just try to bring energy to get the game going into a flow." On looking like the old Nina tonightà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"It's a process. You weather the storm. I had a couple bad games, but you know, I have a good support system, my coaching staff, family, friends, and teammates they just keep me in the right mindset. We have so many different weapons that even when I'm having a bad game, you have other people that are going to pick me up. So it's just a process and you just weather the storm and eventually the suns going to come out again."
Sophomore Kalani Brown
On not getting a lot of callsà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"I was a little frustrated at first, but I had to get in the mindset that 'you're not going to get a call, so just go up anyway, go up with all of them hanging on you,' so that was just my mindset. I just kept going up, and they started falling in."
VISITOR POSTGAME QUOTES Abilene Christian Head Coach Julie Goodenough On takeaways from the gameà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦ "I thought it was a great opportunity for our university and for our team to come play a team of this magnitude. We knew it would be a difficult task. We knew that we were putting in building blocks to where we could aspire to be a team like Baylor."
"We wanted our team to approach this challenge fearlessly. We had some goals set for this game that we accomplished tonight. Our opponents executed well with our game strategy. There were so many obstacles that we couldn't overcome and with the size of Baylor, we didn't have an answer for that. For the most part, our players gave their best effort and tried to execute the way we felt would put us in the best position. We appreciate the opportunity to play at Baylor and have so much respect for this program and for Kim and what she's done here. We've been telling the girls that this is maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity to play a team that we feel like will be in the Final Four in the spring and it's something you don't get to do very much when you're a mid-major school so we're very thankful for the opportunity. We have a lot of respect for the program and the players that Coach Mulkey's staff has brought in. They're tremendous players, some of the best players in the country and so it's a wonderful opportunity for us to get to play against them."
On this Baylor Teamà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"Coach Mulkey has done an incredible job through her tenure here and I would be shocked if this team was not playing in the Final Four in Dallas later this year. They have all the parts. They have experience. They have perimeter play and they definitely have size and then they have subs to go along with that. It is a well-balanced team. We knew the size was going to be tough for us to deal with."
"They have such great scoring weapons in every position. Their size inside and on the perimeter is a huge asset. I know they got beat by UConn and I predict when they face UConn again in the playoffs it will be a different story. I think this team will continue growing together. They've got some great freshmen that just need experience. They'll add a lot especially on the offensive end, so it looks like a Final Four team to me."
On foul troubleà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"We racked up a few in the first half and more in the second half. We really compounded the fouls. It's something that we are trying to deal with as a young team. We are trying to get our girls to play harder with more energy and with that, a lot of times our young ladies are putting their hands on the ball-handlers."
"We got killed in transition. We were executing pretty well, but just didn't hit shots and they were beating us in the track meet in the middle of the floor and scored so many of the points in transition. They shot 83 percent in the third quarter and I didn't feel like we were crashing the boards particularly well, but we weren't getting back on defense either and they really capitalized on that."
