Comets-Lynx post-game notes and quotes

May 22, 2005 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Houston Comets News Release


COMETS HEAD COACH VAN CHANCELLOR

(on the game) "Coming in from San Antonio last night and playing a physical over there, I was really worried about the end of the game, but it looked like to me that we had a little bit more at the end of the game than they did and I was really pleased with that. It was a career night for Michelle Snow...20 points and 11 rebounds. I thought Sheryl (Swoopes) was really gutsy tonight. She's had back-to-back nights and been unbelievable. I think Dominique (Canty), for us, has been playing very, very good. I think our starting 5 played really well and this is a big win for us."

(on the toughness the Comets showed tonight) "I thought that when they tried

to close us, we just showed a lot of toughness and found a way to close out the game...the same thing we did in San Antonio last night. The hardest thing when a team is coming back on you is to (be able to) close the game."

(on the play of Nicole Ohlde of the Lynx) "I thought she played really good.

I thought she started out like a house afire...I didn't think we were ever going to stop her. I thought her and (Vanessa) Hayden looked really good. If

we weren't going to let Katie (Smith) beat us, they were going to have to beat us somewhere else."

SHERYL SWOOPES

(on the game) "We were very excited coming into tonight's game, our first home game, and after last night's victory over San Antonio, we were pretty excited to get back home and play tonight in front of our fans. It showed early on whether it was the adrenaline that was going, the nerves, the butterflies...we couldn't seem to, as far as offense, we couldn't get any shots to fall. For whatever reason, we were not able to get our defense going and, strangely enough, our biggest problem tonight was rebounding and all along we thought that was going to be one of our biggest strengths this year. If we would have just rebounded the ball, the game wouldn't have been as close as it was. Because overall I thought our team defense was very good."

(on playing and winning back-to-back games) "We expect to be a very good team, a lot better than we were last season. I thought early on we were playing off the adrenaline and we were a little nervous, anxious and excited. We expect to win and also be able to compete with every team in this league."

MICHELLE SNOW

(on comparing her performances of tonight and last night) "I wasn't going to

force anything (shots), I was going to take what came to me and tonight we ran plays to get it inside."

(on how she guarded Vanessa Hayden) "She is a true center. Players like her and (Nicole) Ohlde, they have a great front line. When you can produce against players like that, that's where you're going to see where you're at in the WNBA. That's our goal as a team -- to see where we're at each and every night."

DOMINIQUE CANTY

(on the game) "Overall I think we did a great job. They're a big team, so they had an advantage on us in rebounding. Overall we did a pretty decent job, especially coming back from San Antonio which was a tough game. I'm really proud of our team. We have to take it one game at a time. One thing the coach (Van Chancellor) stressed was the defense, saying that defense wins ball games, so we focused a lot on stopping Katie Smith and Svetlana Abrosimova, just limiting their shots and touches."

LYNX COACH SUZIE MCCNNELL SERIO

(on the play of the game) "There were a lot of good things for this nucleus

to only have been together for a week. We played well in spurts but, we need to do a better job defensively being able to contain another team super

star and be able to have more than one player be a defensive stopper on this

team. We need to be able to rotate people in and out. They played with more of a sense of urgency and were more aggressive taking it to us and got on the offensive boards throughout the whole game, but especially late in the game. They did a good job at taking it at us and we didn't respond. I thought we had some good looks down the stretch, but we didn't convert. We

had 15 turnovers and they had 20 points off of those turnovers. That seems to be the downfall of our team right now. The 15 is an improvement from last season, but we cannot allow teams to capitalize off of those turnovers. We need to be a little sharper with our execution, set better screens, keeping people involved and be able to stop penetration more and get defensive stops. They really killed us on the boards, especially on the

weak side. We need to do a better job and clean things up, but it's a first

game for us and they had the experience of playing last night. They were coming in confident and we really didn't know what we were going to look like tonight. Now that we know what we have and what we are going to look like, we are very optimistic."

(on the play of Katie Smith) "Obviously, (Sheryl) Swoopes knows Katie (Smith) very well having played with her and Katie is the focal point of our

team and teams tend to key in on her which then opens up our inside games some and opens things for other players. That needs to continue to happen and then things will start to happen for Katie (Smith) once teams make adjustments. We just need to be a little more patient and to make sure that

we are getting her shots coming off the screens and making sure she is touching the ball."

(on the play of Svetlana Abrosimova) "She did not transfer what she had been doing all week in practice to tonight's game and she was a little frustrated. She's been practicing very well and she's a big key for us because she makes things happen, she gets to offensive boards, she has a knack for the ball and I think when she settles down and keeps things simple

I think she will be fine."

TAMIKA WILLIAMS

(on the play of the game) "Sheryl (Swoopes) and Janeth (Arcain) have been playing very well. I think Michelle Snow stepped up and they did a great job rebounding, they capitalized a lot more off of our turnovers and got uncontested lay-ups a lot and that was the deciding factor of the game. I think rebounding was pretty even, but they just capitalized off of our turnovers. I think (Sheryl) Swoopes and Michelle Snow stepped up and hit some really good shots. We were contesting them, but the olympian all star that she is, she stepped up and hit some shots that are hard to guard. She is 6' 1" and can shoot over people and like I said our turnovers led to lay ups.

(overall performance of team) "I think we did OK, it was good to see Katie (Smith) out there for her first full game back playing against a player like

Sheryl Swoopes who's going to test here. I think Nicole Ohlde stepped up big time. We've only had our team for a week, most team have had all their starters for a whole training camp. We had our post players, but not our guards. I think a couple more days under our belt and we will be OK."

NICOLE OHLDE

(on the play of the game) "It's just a matter of the little things, setting

good screens, getting stops, boxing out, and keeping the turnovers down. It's the little details and trying to get into a rhythm. All of us have basically been together for a week, that's no excuse whatsoever, but we need

to get the team chemistry going and feeling each other out and click as a team. Through time it will help. We'll go watch films, work on it during practice and get some of the kinks out and try to keep going."

POST GAME NOTES

With the 79-65 win over Minnesota on Sunday, the Comets improve to 2-0 on the season for the sixth time in the nine-year history of the franchise. After opening the 1997-2000 seasons at 2-0 overall, the Comets had won their

first two games just once (in 2003) in four years prior to this season. It is the first time in franchise history that the Comets opened the season with a two-game winning streak in back-to-back games. Houston also opened the season with back-to-back games in 2004, but split those contests with a 64-55 loss against San Antonio on May 20 and a 60-53 win on May 21 at Charlotte. The Comets have now improved to 54-26 all time in back-to back games (24-16 in first games; 30-10 in second games)

With 79 points in Sunday's victory and 78 points in Saturday night's 78-70 victory at San Antonio, the Comets have now scored 78-or-more points in consecutive games for the first time since July 6, 2000 (80-50 against Seattle) and July 7, 2000 (86-71 against Charlotte) - a span of 135 regular season games. In the past four years, the Comets only scored 78-or-more points 10 times in 132 regular season games (two times in 2004, two times in

2003, three times in 2002, three times in 2001). Over the past five years, Houston holds an 11-1 record in games which it has scored 78 or more points.

With the win over Minnesota, the Comets improved their record to 11-1 all-time vs. the Lynx in Houston, with the only loss coming on Sept. 1, 2004

at Toyota Center, 72-64.

Michelle Snow recorded her first double-double of the season with a career-high 20 points and 11 rebounds. Last season, it took Snow until the 14th game of the season - a 61-55 loss at Sacramento on June 25, 2004 - to record her first double-double of the season. She finished 2004 with a career-high four double-doubles. Snow had previously scored a career-high 19

points two other times, most recently on Aug. 8, 2003 at Detroit in a 66-56 win.

Since coming to the Comets in a trade with Indiana on April 24 in exchange for a third-round draft pick in 2006, forward Kristen Rasmussen has made an immediate impact. After averaging 5.0 points in her five-year career, Rasmussen has stepped into the Comets starting lineup in 2005 and averaged 10.0 ppg. in the two Houston wins. She scored 11 points with four rebounds on Saturday at San Antonio and followed up with nine points and four rebounds on Sunday against Minnesota.

With a game-high 27 points against Minnesota following a game-high 26-point performance in San Antonio on Saturday, Sheryl Swoopes is off to the second-best two-game start of her career. Her 26.5 ppg. average in these two games is second only to the 28.0 ppg. she averaged after the first two games of the 2000 season. Swoopes opened up with 27 points on May 29, 2000 against New York and followed that up with 29 points in double overtime on May 31 at Portland. Swoopes went on to average a career-best 20.7 ppg that year and win the WNBA Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards.



Women's National Basketball Association Stories from May 22, 2005


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