New Mexico vs. Wyoming
Women’s Basketball
WisePies Arena, aka “The Pit”
Postgame Quotes 1/24/15
Coach Yvonne Sanchez:
On being animated and wanting to win…
“I thought I was pretty calm. Just kidding. This team is a good team. And to beat a Wyoming team is difficult. Whether it’s here or in Laramie. I’m honored to be a friend of (Wyoming coach) Joe Legerski. We were talking about going to brunch and letting the assistants handle it.
This was big for us. We have to protect our home court – something we made an effort with our team goals in the beginning of the year. Only having two losses here with the schedule we have is pretty good. But now we’re conference. Now we have a chance, hopefully, maybe to separate a little bit from those that are underneath us. I don’t like the logjam and every win we can get; we can separate ourselves because there’s still Boise State, Fresno, and Colorado State ahead of us. I wanted this bad. I really did. So did our players. It’s not about me, it really isn’t. It’s about how they responded at halftime. It’s about them going on the floor and playing, and I just have an unbelievable group. I told my leaders, Antiesha (Brown), Khadijah (Shumpert), and Bryce (Owens) – I challenged them at halftime. I’ve been saying they’re growing up, they’re growing up. But they responded and I’m really proud of those three because everyone just jumped on their back and said ‘we’re with you’ and that’s awesome.”
On difference in second half…
“Their defense is good. Ever since I’ve been here, and Joe’s coached at Wyoming, even when I coached with Coach (former Lobo coach Don) Flanagan, they pack it in and they force you to shoot shots. It’s almost an unorthodox ball defense because you have open shots and sometimes you’re unsure. But you have to take those. We’ve got the high screen and roll, the first play of the game. They did a nice job of stopping that. We just got confident. I thought we got to the basket more than just settling for jump shots. And I thought our offensive rebounds, 18-11, I thought our o-boards were big-time. That’s 42-34 on the boards, 28-22 in the paint, and then our bench stepped up 15-9 and that’s big-time.”
On the different lineups out on the court…
“That’s our team. They proved it, I believe, against UNLV. When we had a lot of people either at the hospital or going to the hospital or fouling out. There were people that stepped in and did what they were supposed to do and I credit my players. They want to learn. They want to get better. Our long term goal was to get better every single day. You have to get better every single day. When you do that, you’re in positions like you are now. And you’re confident. You’re confident shooters, you’re confident on defense, and you go after rebounds and that’s what we did.”
On consistent defense…
“We have to hang our hat. Our defensive goal was 55 and we got that. We have to hang our hat on our defense. Anytime you can hold them in the 50s, you’ve got a great chance. Then you do a great job of trying to get your offense started. I thought the second half, like I said I’m so proud of my leaders and I’m so proud of my team and staff because we work so hard, and their response was terrific.”
On UNM’s trap defense…
“You know, I have nightmares of Marquelle Dent, number 10, just dribbling through for layups and I thought we did a really nice job with her. That kid is good and you cannot take away what she does with a program. But I thought we did a nice job of taking the ball out of her hands. Or if she dribbled the ball half-court we had people in line to trap her. They had to call two timeouts because we trapped them across half-court and I just thought we put it at the right time. At the end I just wanted to go two because I thought we were guarding pretty well and I just wanted to make sure that we didn’t get any silly fouls or mismatches.”
Player Quotes
On improvements in the second half…
“I tried to get out of myself. I was really down and out in the second half, if you couldn’t tell by the looks on my face. But I was really upset with myself. I didn’t like my turnovers or my shot selection. And coach kind of got me on the bench and she got on me at halftime, too. I just figured that I had to get out of myself and get more into team and I think that’s exactly what I did.”
On challenges by Wyoming guards…
“They presented some good ones, actually. But I think because we prepared and we worked so hard throughout the last two days to learn their offense and learn their defense, I think we were ready for it. We let some things get away from us, which everybody does, but I think for the most part we defended well. It was a good game for us.”
On what changed in the second half…
“Our shots were going in in the second half and they weren’t so much in the first half. Coach mentioned that at halftime as well. I think we started having better shot selections. We got the ball inside a lot more. Luckily, our jumpers were hitting and we got it back on defense.”
On her big-shot play with 40 seconds left to put UNM up 58-54…
“I didn’t really think about missing it. I take those shots almost once or twice a game, so that’s kind of my bread and butter. I love going to the left and hopping back and taking that shot. It’s a shot that I’m very comfortable with and coach is very comfortable with me taking. Just making plays towards the end, I think everybody that was in made a huge play one way or another. Between getting rebounds, getting fouled, or knocking down free throws. Getting actual possession for us. I don’t think it came down to my last shot but those last rebounds that we grabbed, solid defense without fouling, and those last couple possessions. I think that’s what it all came down to.”
On the momentum shift…
“I think the momentum shifted in the locker room. I think we all knew what was going on in the first half. We talked about it in the locker room like ‘hey we’ve got to get it together guys.’ We know that we shouldn’t be playing like this. We know that you can’t walk anywhere and walk out flat and expect to beat anybody. I don’t care if their record is 0-19. You can’t walk out and beat anyone that way. I think that’s what we kind of had to change our mindset in the second half. I think coming down the ramp the second half, I think that’s when our attitudes changed. It was a totally different team.”
On playing against a successful team…
“I think everybody has lost one except for Fresno and they were half way into conference. So these losses, they might double, they might not. This first half, it’s great to get off to a start 5-3. But defending our home court when those big three teams come in this next month or so and really getting those road wins. Wyoming is going to be a tough game; San Jose is going to be a tough game. Just grabbing those road games and defending our Pit floor like we have been doing, we can stay with those three losses.”