George Washington University

Nov. 27, 2001

Recap |  Box Score

Post-Game Comments

GW Coach Joe McKeown
"In the first half, we didn¹t back down. We got a little whacked out, but wewere able to score at times towards the end. You can¹t try to match baskets with them. At the beginning of the second half, I thought we had a nice flow to the game. We were under control, we were getting good shots, we weren¹t turning the ball over, and trying to hold them to one shot. But then you open the barn door and they just come flying out. And they come at you in waves, that¹s what we weren¹t ready for.²

"You have to play so hard against them to come back. I thought we did that, but then they come back at you with more and more. We have 11 freshmen and sophmores, and we¹re not ready yet for that kind of intensity and pressure.²

"I told the team that this was a great opportunity to understand how hard you have to play at that level. Tennessee set the bar, basically...You can tell their focus is defense. When they gamble, they recover, when they turn us over they come at you in transition, and it¹s difficult to get our kids back there and matched up. By time you match up, they¹re drilling 3s. They have all the answers.²

"I was disappointed in some of the mistakes we made, I call them unforced errors, bad decisions. That¹s what frustrates me.²

"Nobody¹s every scored 100 points on us here. And when it was 82 to 57, we had a time out and I said it¹s 82, if they score 100, we¹re running.²

"It was a great atmosphere tonight, great crowd. This is what women¹s basketball should be. For us to sell out our gym tonight--in November--says a lot for GW and for women¹s basketball and where it is.²

Ugo Oha
"The pressure really didn¹t get to us. I think we kind of played on our heels. We weren¹t aggressive taking it to them like at the beginning. We held back a little.²

"At the beginning, we were right with them. Toward the middle of the first half, we started to shy away and rush a little. But right from the beginning, we took it too them. I don¹t think anybody was nervous

Cathy Joens
"As individual players, I think we could play with them. But that¹s what makes you a number 1 or number 2 team--your team is together and you play as one.²

Marsheik Witherspoon
(on staying focused despite being way behind)
"We kept a level head. We always had in the back of our minds that we can win this game. We¹re playing at home and we didn¹t want to lose. That¹s what kept us going.²

Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt
"We had 15 offensive boards in the second half and only six at halftime. I told our basketball team that we¹re on the road now for 8 straight games, and we have to play defense and rebound. And we didn¹t do that consistently in the first half, we did it in spurts. We picked it up in the second half, which was obviously a big difference for how we played this game. And we took it at them offensively, we took it inside. [Michelle] Snow¹s back-to-back 3-point plays gave us a lot of confidence.²

"Our defense and offensive play on the boards was key for us. I don¹t know if depth was a factor or not. The pressure we were able to put on their perimeter game consistently was very beneficial for us. We started to generate some points in transtion. I don¹t know how many layups we had, but obviously our perimeter defense got us a lot of easy baskets. If you want to get a lead and keep it or extend it quickly, there¹s no quicker way than transition baskets.²

Michelle Snow
(on Ugo Oha)
"She does a very good job of contesting and pushing out of the key. Coming into a game, you know everybody is going to try to play physical, and they