March 15, 2018
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery
Penn State Women's Basketball
vs Radford - WNIT
March 15, 2018
Coquese Washington | Penn State head coach
Q: Both that last possession and regulation in the last possession in overtime is kind of Teniya[Page]waiting around and then creating her shot. Was that something by design or did you want to see her do something different there?
CW: In the regulation it was by design, and in the overtime, we had a bit of miscommunication coming out of the timeout, but we didn't get the shot that we wanted, get the flow that we wanted, the movement that we wanted prior to her getting the ball.
Q: From my perspective, it seemed like you guys outhustled Radford. There were couple plays Alisia[Smith]got an offensive rebound, Amari[Carter]got her own rebound off her own shot, and Teniya[Page]at the end of regulation had the drive in play. Even though you guysmay have outhustled them, how do you go into the locker room and tell these players even though you outhustled them they didn't come out with the win?
CW: I think every game has its own rhythm, and I think the pace of the game was up to Radford's liking than ours. We wanted a more up-tempo, faster pace, and we didn't quite get that. Then I thought a quite few times when we had the opportunities in transition, we didn't always take advantage of it. We had some bad miscues in those moments, but I thought the pace of the game was more to Radford's liking more than our liking. It was there for stretch in the second half but we weren't able to sustain that.
Q: Coach for a period there, and throughout most of the game, there were a couple of times you guys had chances that had easy layups, and and they weren't falling. After all, though you wanted the pace to go a little fast like you've been saying the entire season, even last year. In those huddles were you telling them to kind of slowdown so that way they wouldn't miss those easy opportunities, that way you can get back into the game?
CW: John [Wooden] had a famous saying 'Be quick but don't hurry', and there were times that I thought we hurried rather than playing at a fast pace. I think sometimes we were so eager to make a play that we hurried and we were unable to connect. I think about Siyeh [Frazier] throwing a long pass down court to De'Janae [Boykin]. We had quite a few plays like that where if we slowed down just a hair they would be able to complete those plays. But as the players said those are the type of learning experiences that hopefully stick for them.
Q: Can you talk about Sam's[Breen]play? You had her out there, she made some keys passes. Although, she didn't score much, she still was able to make some rebounds, and be a big body out there.
CW: Sam is somebody who I think over the course of the latter half of the season has really improved from the beginning of the year, and her confidence has improved so that we are able to put her out there in moments and games like this, and she can give us productive minutes. Her practice habit, understanding, and knowledge of the game has really improved so that she can contribute like tonight.
Q: What is it going to take for the program to be like it was back in the day,being a Big Ten contenders year in and out like having the success you had four years ago?
CW: When I look back on the recent history when we won three Big Ten Championships in a row. One thing those teams had in common was senior leadership. This season gives our juniors an understanding on how to be competitive, how much work it takes, how important upper class and senior leadership is day in and day out. Senior leadership should not be taken for granted. We certainly have things to improve on from a scale and experience standpoint. We are poised to do those things in the coming seasons.
Q: What can you say about the growth of the were freshman now sophomores, Amari Carter and Jaida[Travascio-Green]into this season. Also, what do you have to say about Teniya Page coming from her injury?
CW: Those kind of experiences, if given the right perspectives and work can foster big gains and opportunities for growth. I think all three of those guys have a lot of experiences that they have gained from this year in perspective, that they'll have going into next season from a leadership standpoint, from the adversity standpoint, from taking on a bigger role. Jaida and Amari don't have to think about anything because they had some upperclassmen kind carrying the load, and as Amari said, you have to think for other people. You have got to think for the freshmen, have to carry a bigger weight, a mental weight. It's harder than it looks, and I think they both grew in that space this year and hopefully we will continue to take steps in that space next year.
Amari Carter | Guard | Sophomore
Q: Amari, everything seemed to flow through you tonight and just from my perspective you really tried to take an increased leadership role on the team this year. How have you dealt with that and how to plan to move forward going into next year?
AC: It was a learning curve for me coming out of last year, being my first year back. This year I had more of a leadership role and I'm trying to gain more leadership roles by helping others.
Alisia Smith | Forward | Freshman
Q: Alisia you had six points right off the bat in the second half. Was there a different approach going out or was it just the ball fell into your hands?
AS: It was basically a different approach coming out because the first half I didn't play too well so I tried to make up for it in the second half.
Mike McGuire| Radford head coach
Opening Statement
First of all I'd like to thank Penn State for the great hospitality. Everything they did for us to make this trip up here lead off a great experience to come up here and play. Really proud of our kids and how they played tonight. We were disappointed with how we played in our conference tournament and for us to come back and bounce back to beat a really good program at Penn State means a lot to us and our program.
Q: Coach, this game seemed to be a game of runs; every time you made a run, Penn State made a run. What were you telling your players in the huddle to stay composed and bounce back when you were behind or even when you were ahead as well?
MM: I think the biggest point for us when it was 4:22 left in the third quarter and we were down four and we had to challenge our kids at that point to really dig in and try to win the rest of the quarter. I thought that gave us a chance because we were up one during the fourth quarter. We had to do a better job of taking care of the ball. Transition defense got a little sloppy and gave their guards a chance to play in some open space, so we had to clean that up. But I thought that that point at the 4:22 mark in the third quarter was critical for us to have a chance.
Q: You were able to keep Teniya Page quiet for most of the night. She got kind of hot at the end but what did you do defensively against her that kept her out of rhythm?
MM: I'm not sure to be honest with you. No, she's a great player. The big thing for us is we wanted to contest every pass and force her to hit tough twos. Now, she's done that all year long, watching the game film that we have, but we wanted her to make as many contested two's as we could force. I think our kids did a pretty good job. Now, we knew late in the game that Page and [Amari] Carter would get a lot of shots and a lot of touches, so we knew we would have our hands full in the third quarter with those two, and we know those two hit tough shots. They're great scorers, they're great athletes, and our kids just tried to do the best they could.