Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State vs. Central Arkansas Postgame Quotes
March 16, 2012 | Cowgirl Basketball
March 16, 2012
Oklahoma State Head Coach Jim Littell
Opening statement:
"I'm proud of our group. I thought we played hard and made some adjustments at halftime, and the girls did a lot better job guarding in the second half. The dribble-drive was hurting us quite a bit in the first half, and we made some adjustments on what we wanted to do on that, and I thought the kids really responded well. Lindsey (Keller) had a great game defensively: held the MVP of that league (Megan Herbert) to six points. She's been MVP the last couple years. Toni (Young) played very well tonight, had 22 (points) and nine (rebounds) and elevated and made some nice moves inside and came from the backside and made some really big plays defensively as well. I'm proud of our group, the way we responded. We have an opportunity to play some more, and that was our goal to just compete and win as many games as we possibly can, and let's use this to jump start our season for next year."
On making a deep run in the WNIT:
"We said that what we need to learn as a young basketball team this year is 'Let's go control our own destiny.' We got to point in the season where we kind of needed some other teams to win at the end of conference, and then we didn't control our own destiny playing Missouri the first game and dropped from 52 RPI to 69. We just said 'Let's learn for the future. Let's go out and play hard, let's get better each time out and give ourselves an opportunity to respect this game and learn how we have to play each time out.'"
On if the team has improved since the Missouri loss:
"We practiced well and we practiced hard, too. We got after it the last week. I think that helped us today play as well as we did. I thought we executed pretty well offensively, shooting 49 percent from the floor and shot it pretty well from the three. I thought our two guards, (Taylor) Schippers and Jordan Schultz, gave us a threat from the outside, and that allowed us to throw the ball inside. We had some subs on the floor when we made the big run, so it's kind of like how our group has been all year long, different people step up on different nights."
Forward Lindsey Keller
On second half adjustments:
"Honestly, we just worked on stopping that dribble-drive, making sure that we squeezed hard and made sure we hitched hard for (Destinee Rogers) so they would get some help on the dribble-drive. Most of all, it was locking down our own player, making sure everyone boxed out and stayed on top of it."
On her plan for guarding Megan Herbert:
"What I always come in to do every time, whether they are MVP or not, I don't want my player to score. That's the gist of it. Not taking anything away from how great of a player she is, in the Big 12, they're bigger, for the most part, and she's a little smaller. I did fall asleep a few times, I did, and Coach got on me. That was my fault, but I just try to go out there and listen to the scouting report, do what my coaches tell me and just 'D' up the way I've been taught."
Forward Toni Young
On playing well in the WNIT:
"I've actually been thinking about last year's game. That was my last game of the season before breaking my arm, and I didn't want tonight to be my last game with us losing, so my mentality was to come out and play hard."
