Nov. 9, 2008
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Auburn Head Coach Nell Fortner
On second half shooting...
"Let me tell you what I am most pleased with. When we went in at halftime, we were like 18-for-44 shooting and we were missing so many easy shots. We weren't even shooting 40% and we wanted to be shooting 50%. I was concerned with our lack of focus on finishing. We were getting good offensive boards, but we weren't getting the put-backs. I was concerned about that, but they came out in the second half and really took care of business. I thought that they really listened. I am most impressed with how we listened at halftime and came out and executed in the second half, which is important for us. We have experienced players and we've got to take advantage of that experience. We have to use the confidence and go out and execute. I was pleased with that. We came back and ended up shooting 54% for the game and I was pleased with that. It was a great opportunity to give a lot of the girls some playing time. I thought that
Chantel Hilliard and
Morgan Jennings really played well. They both did a great job and they are two important freshmen for us and they are going to play a lot for us. So it's important to get them on track."
On the return of Whitney Boddie...
"It's great to have her back. She is such a solid playmaker and she does a really good job of making everybody who is out on the floor better. That's what is so important about her on both ends of the floor. Defensively, she sets the tone for us. Offensively, we have a lot of confidence in her when the ball is in her hands and we know that she is going to make the right decisions. It's nice to see that again."
On the improvements of the second half running game...
"We really improved on that and we did it well. I think that what you saw was that we wore them down. Things were opening up and different lanes were opening up. They were too tired to stay with us, but we saw that our conditioning is much better at this point in the year than it was at this point last year. So, we took advantage of that in the second half. It might not always be pretty in the first half, but hopefully we can wear down our opponent and start getting some easier looks in the second half."
On the aggressiveness of the team...
"We've been working on that. Part of our offense is being as aggressive as you can and getting to the basket, whether the shot goes in or not. Right now, we have to be aggressive and try to get to that basket. I thought Reneisha Hobbs did a great job with that. She's got such a quick first step. That kid is a horse going to the hole and I don't think that we are going to see a lot of people stepping in front of her to take a charge because she is one strong girl. But I thought that everybody did a nice job of trying to attack their defense."
On DeWanna Bonner's performance...
"She got it going in the second half. Her jumper looked really good. She's worked really hard on that jump shot. She worked hard on being more aggressive on her one-dribble and two-dribbles before pulling up on her jump shot. I thought that we saw that tonight."
On preparations for season opener against Alabama A&M...
"I think that we keep going in the direction that we are going. We'll put some more time in on our zone defense and I think that it will be effective for us because we are quick and we can get to places quickly. I think that we'll put more time into trapping on defense. We are quicker and so it gives us an opportunity to do many things. We'll keep working on pushing that ball and attacking the basket offensively. Hopefully, a lot of our offense comes from our defense because we are getting out of those lanes fast, but we've got to get the steals to get us there."
Anderson head coach Jim Brunelli
On team performance...
"I was happy with our execution of plays. I do believe that we've gotten better since the Duke game. We we're able to get some better looks at the basket. I give credit to a lot of the players here. Keana Boyd played well. She's still hobbling with an ankle injury. To have 16 points against these guys is great. Shanice Wilson is coming off an ankle injury. These are ladies that are playing through injuries and to be our leading scorers - I'm proud of them for that."
"We practically cut our turnovers in half from the Duke game. We had 22 tonight. We did work on the zone press this week. We doubled our point production in the second half. We got a lot of good looks at the basket. The ladies are running our offense and its working. We're getting shots. It would be a different story if we weren't getting the shots off. I appreciate Auburn and coach Fortner having us over here.
On Auburn...
"I give all the credit to Auburn and their team. They are just so athletic. They had two freshmen out there who played great. They're going to be fun to watch. Then they've got DeWanna Bonner who is just amazing. She could play on any team I could think of."
Senior guard DeWanna Bonner
On overall team performance...
"We did a good job pushing the ball and really attacking the defense. We got a lot of steals tonight, which turned into points. We are really excited to get our season underway. After we got our jitters out during the first half, we just came out focused and stronger in the second half.
On the slower performance in the second half...
"It was just our first game in front of the crowd. We have a couple of freshman starters, so they were just trying to get it together. We all were trying to get focused. We didn't scout the team that much, so we had to see what they were doing in the first half and we just adjusted in the second half.
On Bonner's individual performance...
"I knew I had to pick my offense since Sherell Hobbs wasn't playing today. I just came out and was focused. I was hitting the basket, so I just kept shooting."
On pressure and tempo...
"We just kept the pressure up which led to easy baskets. That got us more excited so we were ready to play defense. We just kept using our speed and quickness against the other team."
On Auburn being more of a target this season after being ranked in both polls...
"We have just got to go out and play hard. We aren't going to focus on that, we just have to play our game."
Freshman forward Chantel Hilliard
On being a freshman and playing in first game...
"It was exciting playing my first collegiate game, was amazing. The environment and fans were great. I fed off the crowd and just played my game."
On individual performance...
"I was just feeling it. Coach tells you to do certain things, so you just do what she says. The points just came, they were there for me."
On Friday's game...
"I feel confident. I'm not going to say that it will be a easy game, because we do have to work in practice. Whatever happens in practice, we'll just have to go out and do it in the game. Practice makes perfect."
