Baylor, Texas Postgame Quotes
2/21/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Monday, Feb. 20, 2017
Frank Erwin Center (Austin, Texas)
Attendance: 7,103
BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Kim Mulkey
Opening statement:
"Look guys, when you're a championship program you go down fighting. I thought the game was very good, I thought it was good for our conference, good for television, good for both schools. I thought the first half they were just flying to the board and were getting second and third shots and were just more physical. Now we got some more free throws out of it because it was very physical."
On Brown's 35 points in the game:
"She's a sophomore, she's 6-7, she's lost weight, she's a go-to in there, she's a presence in there. She hit the big free throws, she hit the jumper, hit the foul line, she didn't get in foul trouble, she moved her feet. I don't think there's anything more I need to say."
On the team being down at half time:
"I talked to them about missing wide open layups, talked to them about second chance rebounds at Texas and that was really all I talked to them about and I didn't really say it real nicely."
On the defensive matchup between Kristy Wallace and McCarty:
"They like to set those little screens up top for her and I thought our post players hedged enough for us to allow us to get over the screen and bide some time. We had a couple of mistakes because we started switching in the second quarter and they burned us a little bit."
SOPHOMORE POST Kalani Brown
On her performance:
"I didn't know I had it in me. Like I said, last time we just had to match the intensity, stay up through tough times when things got hard. We were just all in it, we held together and it worked for us."
On her role changing when Lang left the game with injury:
"I was just demanding the ball, period. Coach said it was really important for us to be a presence in there offensively and defensively so that's just what I was doing. I just had to do what coach told me to do."
JUNIOR FORWARD Dekeiya Cohen
On getting an opportunity tonight:
"When she told me I was going to start at half time, I just knew that we just had to go out there and give it all they we had. I just went out there and tried to do whatever I could to help my team, whether it was rebounding or just driving and trying to draw fouls."
TEXAS POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Karen Aston
Opening Statement:
"Obviously the game was pretty similar to the game in Waco with us getting off to a really great start. I was impressed with how our team played for a lot of reasons. It was a big game, big environment and some are new to this but I was real pleased with the way we handled it. Coming off of the game on Saturday, I was interested to see if we would have the type of energy to play this game tonight and to play it at a high level. I was really pleased with how our team played and how we competed, in particular in the first half."
On the second half of the game:
"The second half we got down in numbers, got in foul trouble. We got scattered a bit defensively in the sense that we had to start helping a lot. Therefore different players on their team took advantage of that and got a lot of offensive rebounds and I thought that was really the difference in the game. On the other side of the ball, we tried to execute some things offensively with lineups we never used, ever. So I'm really proud of our team. I thought it was a great environment."
On Baylor's Kalani Brown:
"Credit to them for doing what they had to do to win, which was getting the ball inside because we didn't have an answer for Kalani. We tried a lot of different things, tried helping off the ball, but again we didn't have an answer for her. She got exactly where she wanted most of the evening and she was tremendous. She's a tremendous talent."
On playing without Kelsey Lang:
"I wouldn't even say it was as much our tallest player, as it was our most experienced inside player. Every person we bought off the bench had no experience from last year. The thing about Kelsey is she just calms us. She calms us offensively, she calms us defensively, she has a presence about her and we definitely lost that. We had to start playing lineups that we hadn't played before and we lost our comfort I think, on offense in particular."
JUNIOR GUARD ARIEL ATKINS
On the satisfaction on narrowing down Baylor this year:
"I do not take satisfaction in losing at all, but our team is better. I think the most important thing for me right now to think is how much we have matured as a team, and I think that's my focal point right now."
JUNIOR GUARD BROOKE MCCARTY
On the second half:
"I think they just took advantage of us not boxing out and then they took advantage of fast break points that they got, easy points. I think they saw some of our weaknesses and then they took advantage of it."
On the atmosphere:
"It feels great. Everybody that was here tonight and supported us, it was just an amazing atmosphere. I mean its been a while since we have seen people on the top of the stands and let alone so we just appreciate the people who come every night and support us, the more the merrier."
