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WNBA Minnesota Lynx

San Antonio - Lynx post-game quotes

June 28, 2005 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Minnesota Lynx News Release


WNBA Post-Game Quotes Minnesota vs. San Antonio June 28, 2005 @ Target Center

San Antonio 53 MINNESOTA 63

Minnesota Coach Suzie McConnell Serio:

"It's a matter of playing our fourth game every other day, and not coming out with a lot of energy. It's tough, because you don't want to practice hard on the days in between. We did before the Seattle game to get ready, and then we walked through yesterday, did some shooting just to get our legs and our timing, just to try to stay sharp. It was surprising. We came out very flat -- not a lot of energy in the beginning of the game. We definitely feed off of our crowd, and until we were able to get them into it, we played very lackadaisical. The zone definitely gave us a spark, and we were able to get transition baskets out of our zone."

"Kristen Mann is someone who provides energy coming off the bench. When your starters aren't getting the job done, then you go to your bench -- and a lot of times that's where you're going to find that spark, just to change the lineup."

"It was probably one of [Abrosimova's] best games I've seen her play defensively, just rebounding and getting her hands on balls and coming up with steals and creating transition opportunities for us."

"We can come from behind. We never quit. We continue to believe. We have a great inside game. We can continue to utilize Vanessa and Ohlde together. They played very well, and they're starting to look for each other more and more. It's something we couldn't get our post players to do, pass the ball to each other high to low. That's a big part of our offense, the way it's set up. Now they're really starting to get more comfortable with each other and looking for each other on the floor."

"The intention for [Harrower] coming in was to be our starting point guard. Amber Jacobs would be our backup and give her minutes in the middle of each half. There are times when AJ goes on the floor, if she makes it impossible for me to take her off -- if she's hitting shots and she's playing well and she's executing, she's defending -- it allows me to prolong the rest for Kristi. If Kristi is doing a great job, Amber's minutes might be minimized and Kristi will get an opportunity to go back on the floor. It's really a game-by-game situation, but Kristi will dictate her minutes by her performance, and she knows that. When she plays with her instincts, she's a much better player and a more confident player. Now that she's starting to hit her shots, that just adds to her confidence level."

"I have a great deal of respect for Dan Hughes. He's doing a great job. He's been hit with some bad luck. Sometimes it's tough, after coming off of a big win, to stay motivated. But we always talk about how crucial every win is in this league. You can't look past anyone -- you can't not show up on any given night -- because teams will capitalize, as we saw in the first half."

"The zone proved to be critical for us, as we've seen in other games with this team as well... It's something we keep in our back pocket. We've worked on it. We would spend probably 10 minutes a day each practice in training camp, and really didn't use it a lot early in the season. As we continue to work on it, we started working with combinations and we got more comfortable with it. We felt comfortable going to the zone. It just proved to be a good defense for us at certain times."

"We're going to Connecticut and playing the hottest team in the WNBA right now. It will be all about energy. It will be about execution. It will be about transition defense and rebounding. They're a great team. They have a lot of weapons, and they're really playing well... Connecticut is playing very well at home. We have to go in there with the mindset that we can win. We've played them in preseason. We know what they're all about. We know that that team runs by Lindsay Whalen, and we'll have to contain her in transition. A player that we'll really have to key on is Nykesha Sales. When she plays well, that team is unbelievable."

Minnesota Guard Kristi Harrower:

"I don't think there was worry. I think it was more that we had to focus on getting some energy out there. We were flat and we were just going through the motions. I knew once we got some energy and picked it up on defense, we were going to be okay. It's like our coach said, it's all mental, with such a big win the other night and then coming up to play a team that is struggling at the moment. It's mentally hard at times. We spoke about it at halftime to just get energy, and if we get that in the second half we'll be fine."

"What hurts me so much is that I'm always late to training camp because of my overseas commitments. The first 12 games I really feel like I've struggled. I haven't been happy with how I've played at all. Probably the last two games I've been really happy with the way I've been playing and staying more positive. The thing for me is to just go out and play, and not think -- just play."

"Vanessa is just great inside player for us. She's got the longest arms and brings such a big presence inside offensively and defensively, and whoever plays against her, it's always going to be tough for them every night."

Minnesota Center Vanessa Hayden:

"At the start of the game we were sluggish. It started in warmups; we were really sluggish. We weren't in sync and Katie said something about it, but it really didn't transfer. We went into the zone and changed the pace of the game, and were successful. I don't think we took them lightly. As a team, we came out slow and it had nothing to do with their record. By the end of the first half, we started to get a rhythm going and it carried over into the second half. We used the zone and were successful with that."

"It was tough [against Feenstra]. I told my teammates she is 6-8 and she's solid. It was a challenge defensively. She's really good, and at times I had to go out and guard her like I was 6-8, but my teammates helped out by doubling down."

San Antonio Coach Dan Hughes:

"I thought our ball movement was pretty good. I mean, quite honestly, I didn't think we made shots. I didn't think we converted shots. I thought our offense gave them a couple transition points that they got out of us. Defensively, I was pretty pleased with the way we played the whole game."

"Hayden gave them a physical presence inside, and I thought that was a good battle with her and Feenstra. I thought [Feenstra] was strong in the post area... Katie Smith, that's about as good of a job as you're going to do on Katie in a lot of situations. We were in plays with her and did the type of things we wanted to do defensively."

"They're a good team here. I think it's their fifth straight win here. They have a nice flow offensively as to how they play, and I think their two interior players are complementary when you look at Hayden and Ohlde -- that quickness in one and a lot of strength in the other."

"I'd have to point to the fact that their zone was effective and we didn't finish well against it... Our inability to finish plays offensively was a lot of it. The difference in the game to me was their transition points, and that came a lot out of our inability to finish plays. We didn't shoot the ball well, so they had some runout situations off some of the long rebounds and some of the turnovers. You take those away and I think it's really a close game."

San Antonio Guard Marie Ferdinand:

"We set the tone early in the game. I thought we did a lot of good things. The thing that cost us the game was that we weren't able to weather the storm. When they made a run at us, we weren't able to stop them. We also gave them too many layups, easy transition baskets, and that's because of turnovers. We didn't do a good job of taking care of the ball or getting key stops in the second half."

"We just need to continue doing the things that we've been doing, even though we've been losing. I think we need to improve on those things that we've been doing well and go from there. We need to continue to stick together and work hard. It's going to get better as long as you continue to work hard, which we've been doing. I think we will get out of this slump."

San Antonio Center Katie Feenstra:

"I think in the second half we really hurt ourselves and turned the ball over way too much. Every time we turned the ball over it was an easy two points for them, and that really killed us. They had wide-open layups. We just weren't focusing in on it."

"Scoring is great, but there is a lot more to basketball than just scoring points. I really need to improve on a lot of aspects. I've come a long way since I've been here, and I want to get in as many post moves as I can and learn as many post moves as I can. Every day I get better, and every day at practice I learn something new."

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