Sun earn blowout victory
Published on July 24, 2008 under Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Connecticut Sun News Release
- Connecticut's Sandrine Gruda set a career high with 16 points. Her previous career high was 14, set on July 1st against Houston. She also had a career high with six field goals made and seven field goal attempts.
- With three made three point baskets, it marked the first time since June 20th at Sacramento that Barbara Turner had more than one three in a game. It was also the 10th game in which Turner had made two or more threes. It was also the first time that Turner had connected for a three since July 1st against Houston (six games).
- Lindsay Whalen scored 22 points tonight, her seventh game with 20 or more points this season. It was also the second time that she had scored 20 or more points in consecutive games this season. She had 20 against Chicago on July 20th.
- Connecticut's Amber Holt scored 12 points, the seventh time she has reached double digits this season. She has averaged 8.1 points over the past six games. Holt also had two threes made, the first time she had connected from behind the arc more than once in a game since July 8th at Detroit. Her five made field goals tonight were her most since she went 5-for-8 against Detroit on June 24th.
- With just nine points on the night, Asjha Jones was held below double digits for just the fourth time this season.
- Tonight's victory marked the first time that the Sun have defeated the Sparks in Mohegan Sun Arena since a 72-63 win on August 3, 2006.
- L.A.'s Temeka Johnson set a season high with 11 points.
- L.A.'s Christie Thomas tied a season high with 4 points.
CONNECTICUT SUN QUOTES
Head Coach Mike Thibault On the game "It was actually nice to sit down in the fourth quarter for a change and relax a little bit. Given all the circumstances surrounding the game despite what should be a win, teams don't always handle that well. I was happy how we got after it. Defensively we were pretty good. We had sloppy turnovers in the first half and we missed some easy shots but we stuck with what we were doing defensively and they are short handed and everything else but it was a big win regardless. I'm happy for how we played."
On the attention the WNBA has received the past 48 hours "Well I mean I am glad people are talking about the WNBA but I wish it were for a different reason. Fights in sports are things that happen. Emotions get running high. Those things happen. I wish for our fans' sake that it hadn't happened in a sense so they could see those players play tonight. I personally rather play against a team with all their best players. I want to measure us by where we are at this point in the season. Is it good for the WNBA? I don't know. You are going to have two split sides on that. I don't think a brawl is good for anything but at the same time if people down the road pay attention to the fact that we have highly competitive, spirited, good athletes competing that hard, I guess that's a plus. I'm not condoning anything that has to do with fighting, I just know our league has showcased that we have big time players. Along with that comes a high competitive nature."
On the play of Sandrine Gruda "She's gotten more comfortable, especially on the offensive end. On the defensive end she still has a few things to learn but she is getting there. On the offensive end, she made a couple of mistakes tonight on turnovers because she is not used to seeing that many double teams. When she has to go look at it with our coaches on tape, she'll get even better. She's a good visual learner and when we can break the tape down and show her the mistakes she tends to correct them very quickly. When we come back, she'll have another month of practice, individuals with coaches, getting more used to it. We'll get some scrimmages in against some guys and I think she'll be an even better player at the end of July and the start of August."
Lindsay Whalen On the game "I just wanted to come out and work even that much harder in order to not let them get going. They kind of got going at the start but we picked up the defense and it was good at the end."
On being up in the fourth quarter "Anytime you get a little lead, a little separation, it's nice to be able to try to work on some different sets and looks that Coach wants to put in and I though that it was key for us."
On the play of Sandrine Gruda "She's been doing great. Scoring, rebounding. Getting us extra possessions, that was big. The second quarter there she was making those jumpers and was really aggressive. I thought tose were a couple huge minutes for her and were keys to the game.
On if she was trying to impress her in-laws or Lawrence Taylor more "I just wanted to make the basket, I was just trying to make the shots. I was just trying to do what I could do. Both. Oh yeah, that's cool (on LT being in the stands cheering). I'm a huge NFL fan and he's kind of one of those players growing up that you watched. Obviously, I'm not a huge NY Giants fan but obviously you are a fan of what he did and all the sacks and everything. He's LT. So that is pretty cool and I was obviously a big fan of his growing up."
Barbara Turner On not losing focus for the last game before the break "We have a season series to worry about against Washington. The series is tied 1-1 and we are playing them two more times. So if we can get this one and get the next one, we'll have the season series. As I said before, we have goals. We want to win the season series and come out and possibly be on top in the East going into the break. We are all focusing on our goals and not thinking about the Olympic break right now."
Tamika Whitmore On the play of Lindsay Whalen "I don't know what to say. I just had to slide to the side on that. It's incredible to watch. Like Barbara said, she was like a magician tonight. She was like abracadabra. It was just fun to watch."
Asjha Jones On the play of Sandrine Gruda and her adjustment to the WNBA "I don't think she was overly nervous. It's probably more of not really knowing what to expect. She's never been here before. She's never played in this country before, let alone in the WNBA. I try to prepare her the best I can. But there is only so much you can say with words. We always talk about the benefits of having four years of college. She didn't have that benefit. I played four years for Geno Auriemma who taught me a lot about the game and how to play basketball. She always had a lot of talent but not a lot of skills necessarily so every day you can see her working hard after practice with our coach getting different moves and learning how to apply them into games. Yes, definitely (she is coming along). She had 14 points today. She has a jump shot so no matter what, she can always fall back onto that. Just mixing it up in the lane, she gets a little ahead of herself sometimes but you can still see the growth. More often she is making more plays. She's becoming a defensive presence for us."
LOS ANGELES SPARKS QUOTES
Head Coach Michael Cooper "I thought this team learned a lot tonight. This could be a set back but we played the second best team in the East. We came here and battled them for a good first half."
"When we get a lead we start doing things a little faster. One slip on the defensive scheme can cause slippage. We were up 18-14 then took two quick shots, missed two block outs. On the defensive end we go down and leave two people wide open for three-pointers and that's what our downfall was."
"The whole team impressed me in the first half. I thought we had out game plan down and we just didn't do it. That's the key for a championship team or a team that what's to win a championship. Basketball is a team sport. Good effort for us tonight."
Marie Ferdinand-Harris On team performance "I thought we did well. The second quarter we let them get momentum and their confidence got going. We tried to stay close. We started the game well. I thought a lot of players stepped up and gave us good positive minutes. The second quarter really hurt us."
On bench depth "Players stepped up and played big tonight. Jessica (Moore) played well and gave us some rebounds and minutes. Christi (Thomas) came in and banged for us. They helped contain Asjha and Tamika. They came in and did as much as they could."
On next game vs. New York "We need to win. It's a must win. We have to find a way to be tough and build off tonight. We lost the game but I thought we did some good stuff. Players who don't normally play stepped up and got a bit of confidence. We need to build off that and welcome back out players who didn't play tonight. We need to someway. Somehow come together and put up a good game plan and win tomorrow in New York."
On Lindsay Whalen "I think she's an awesome point guard. Her decision making is great. She's a young player who is going to be really good in the near future. I have a lot of respect for her. She's awesome. She got the ball to the players down inside and then to the wing players to open up the game. If we could contain her we could have a chance. We let her get into the lane and do the little stuff she does and the lead slipped away from us."
Temeka Johnson On small roster "It's different. That's three key players on our team. We have confidence in Jessica (Moore), Murriel (Page) and Christi (Thomas. They are different style of players but I have a lot of confidence in them."
On game preparation "It wasn't any different. We knew what to expect and we had to go out there and give it our all. We know how important those four women are to our team but we still had to come out and play hard."
On Lindsay Whalen "Whalen and I go way back into our early college days. I admire her game and her decisiveness with the ball. She's really decisive with the ball, but makes good decisions and finishes around the basket. She plays with a lot of confidence and I enjoy watching the play as well."
Women's National Basketball Association Stories from July 24, 2008
- Comets cruise to easy win - Houston Comets
- Sun earn blowout victory - Connecticut Sun
- Phoenix Mercury announces PGA event prior to July 27th contest - Phoenix Mercury
- WNBA Announces Penalties from Shock--Sparks Game - WNBA
- Detroit Shock Sign Nancy Lieberman - Detroit Shock
- U.S. Bank Lynx GO Pink to Benefit Those Affected by Breast Cancer - Minnesota Lynx
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