Nov. 16, 2016
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Penn State Women's Basketball
Penn State vs. Akron
Nov. 16, 2016
Coquese Washington | Penn State Head Coach
Q: You guys have been averaging about 80 points a game this season. What have you thought about the offense?
A: I'm happy that we were able to put pressure on our opponents offensively. We have a variety of weapons. One of the things I'm pleased with right now is that we are starting to get more balanced with our scoring. At this point in the season last year, we had five players in double figures. This year we have three. I'd like us to have four or five every night. I think we are in a good space right now but as we have more games where teams have footage of what we are trying to do, they try to make adjustments to stop you; so we have to make adjustments in that area.
Q: Teniya (Page) talked about how she worked on her scoring and individual performance over the summer. Over the past three games, what have you seen from her and how have you seen her improve from last season?
A: I think she's a lot more comfortable being a lead scorer. Last year, being a freshman, she wasn't as comfortable being a leading scorer point guard and she looked to get others involved first before getting her shot. Now she has a better understanding of how to do both for the entire game - how to read the defense, when to take her shots, when to get other people involved. That confidence and comfort level of having a balanced attack is the biggest thing. She's also more consistent with the mechanics of her shooting, which is something that she worked on a lot over the summer. I've been really pleased with her decision making. She has a very high basketball I.Q. When you put the work in like she has from a mechanics standpoint, it goes really well.
Q: How important is Teniya (Page) to your game plan?
A: She's important in a lot of ways. She's important because of what she can do. She's important because it frees up and opens up opportunities for other people. Kaliyah Mitchell, Amari Carter, Lindsey Spann, Sierra Moore are able to do what they do because Teniya is being aggressive and is in attack mode for the entire game.
Q: You said you wanted the team to get to the free throw line more. Tonight they got there 17 times. Were you happy with that?
A: No, I would like to be in the 20-plus range. I thought we had some opportunities where we could have been fiercer and determined and got to the free throw line.
Q: After that five-minute drought in the second quarter, what was your message to the team?
A: We weren't being as aggressive against the zone as I wanted us to be with a few adjustments. In the timeout we talked about how we would attack the zone. Once we did that, I think we loosened up a little bit. We also got a few defensive rebounds in that stretch and transitioned it out and see the ball go in the basket. Sometimes when you are struggling, that's all you need is to see the ball go in the basket.
Q: What is your scouting report for Tennessee?
A: I haven't watched any of their games yet from this year. Traditionally, they are a team that is very good inside. With Mercedes Russell inside for them, Jaime Nared, and Diamond DeShields playing the forward spots for them, they have size. They have athletic ability. They've always been a good rebounding team. We are going to have to be very good on the boards against them. We are going to have to be a lot more disciplined defensively than we were tonight. That's one of the things I know coming in. I know they are going to be aggressive on the boards and aggressive defensively.
Q: How would you grade your defense tonight?
A: If I was a professor, they would be asking for a do over. I didn't think our defense was up to the standards that we have shown in practice. One of the things that happens when you have a lot of youth is that the communication is not where it needs to be. We have to get better with our communication on defense and then I can give us a better grade.
Teniya Page | So. | Guard
Q: Teniya [Page], you obviously had a good night scoring the basketball but how did your offense help open up things for your teammates tonight?
A: Once I started making a couple of shots then the defense was more focused on me, which let everyone else be open. I kind of used that as an opportunity to get everyone else involved.
Kaliyah Mitchell | Sr. | Forward
Q: Kaliyah [Mitchell] you finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds. What was clicking for you tonight?
A: Tonight I was just looking to attack. One of my roles on this team is just to rebound, and that's what I went out there to do. I went out there to rebound and that was something that I really focused on, so I think that's what was really clicking tonight.
Q: Only three games into the season, but what's the feeling amongst you guys coming out and putting up a good showing against Saint Peter's and tonight against Akron?
A: Right now we're just trying to keep the high energy and let each game push us forward. We learn from each game. We don't settle. We look forward to every single game but we also look back and see things that we can fix so that we can keep improving every night.
Jodi Kest | Akron Head Coach
Q: What did you see from the Lady Lions tonight, specifically Teniya Page, that your players needed to make adjustments against?
A: They're bigger than us, stronger and faster and so we knew we needed to play some zone and try to force them to take tough outside shots, obviously Page was fantastic the first half. I don't know if we slowed her down the second half, but we just tried to force them to take outside shots because we didn't want them to get the ball to the players inside because their post presence is outstanding. We tried to double them, we were a little bit late on the doubles, but our game plan was to try to run, run, run, run I thought we did an excellent job of that. I thought we got a little tired at times but that's how we play but you have to get stops first. So when we got stops and we were able to run, I thought that created some problems for them but we do not want to play in a half-court game because we felt like they would pound it inside and they scored I think 29 points off of our turnovers and that was probably the biggest difference. Our kids play hard, we definitely weren't stronger than them, but I thought we definitely were tough for about 37 minutes. The 29 points off of the turnovers, if you had to look at one stat, that was probably the biggest thing.
Q: Coach what was the impact that Teniya Page and her style of play had on the game tonight?
A: Well she's just tough I mean she could do it all. She could shoot the three's, she can pull up on the jumper and she can go to the rim. So our game plan was try to make it tough for her but she was just on fire. I didn't know exactly where she was all the time and when you have a kid like that that's a three-dimensional player, it's hard to stop and you're going to have to give up something and so it didn't really matter what we did on her today, she's a fantastic player. I'm glad we don't have to play against her again.
Q: You mentioned your team's pace, were you comfortable with Penn State's up-tempo pace throughout the game?
A: Yup, that's what we wanted to do, we didn't mind going up and down. We felt like that's what we're used to and when we did do that, I thought we were right in the game. When they tried to slow us down, I think their zone gave us a little problem until our kids started to hit from outside and then they got out of the zone in the fourth quarter. That's who we are, we like to push tempo. I thought we did a great job the third quarter, we beat them by six. We did not want to walk the bottom of the court, that's why I was yelling at my kids the whole time, `push, push, push,' and even if we didn't get scores we wanted to run, run and get them a little bit tired. We did not want to play a half-court game.
Q: What are your biggest takeaways from your team that you want to improve on for the rest of the season moving forward?
A: Well the thing I'll take away is we played hard, and we did not play hard the last game so I was very, very happy with that. You know, it's not a moral victory for us just because we played them well, for us it's about winning and to try to win championships and the MAC, so our kids are disappointed in the locker room because we felt like we had a chance to win. But at the end, I think Penn State was the better team and they exploited some of our weaknesses and that hurt us a lot.
Q: You guys were able to make runs at some points with your outside shooting, can you talk a little bit about how you were able to break down a younger defense that maybe had some problems communicating at times?
A: Yeah I mean that's who we are, we've lead the MAC I think three out of the last four years in scoring offense and we have so many young kids right now that are still trying to learn the lanes to run and get the ball up quickly. So it does cause problems because we have four out of the five players that can shoot three's and we know we could be down by 10-15 at any time but we know we can make those runs at any time and we need to get better on the defensive end. The turnovers with easy blockage, the transitions, defense hurts a little bit and we need to improve on the defensive end. Once our defense gets better I think our whole game will get better.
Q: Did you see anything different with Penn State defensively down the stretch as they were able to pull away?
A: No, because I think we had good shots. My best 3-point shooter had four wide-open shots and I will give her the ball anytime, against anybody and unfortunately she missed those four in-a-row. I think it would have been a different ball game if she were to have made it. I think we got the looks that we wanted, we got them out of the zone, we just didn't get stops when we needed.