Clark Atlanta - First Round Press Conference Quotes
General Thoughts
Head Coach Vanessa Moore: I think we were very familiar with Nova. Fortunately, we were here earlier in the season and had a game against them during the regular season. We were hoping that we had grown enough over the course of the season to be able to play a little bit better. But unfortunately, it didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to. Nova is a very, very good team; strong players, very versatile team, able to score inside and out. And I think that’s what gave us a little bit of trouble. But I am definitely proud of my team, they have grown over the season and again, we just fell a little bit short. Proud to say they are SIAC champions and we are going to use this as a stepping stone going into next year.
Q: You guys seemed to struggle out of the gate to stop Nova’s offense. What was the biggest contributing factor to you guys not being able to really slow down Nova’s offense?
Moore: I’ll try to find an excuse, but there’s really no excuse for starting off that slow. But we’ve had a long layoff since our conference tournament, so it was difficult, but it was something we were trying to do. Trying to keep the girls engaged over the last week in a half, almost two weeks, maybe it had something to do with it. My guards, they did struggle, but I had a couple of them who were injured during this time too, one was coming off a concussion. Just to find an excuse, I could use those things, but still you have to rely on the team and I was hoping the team would come through for us, but we fell short again.
Q for Moore: How would you stack up NSU versus some of the other teams you’ve played during the course of the season?
Moore: NSU is one of the top teams we have played. Again, it’s just the versatility of the team, multiple shooters and multiple young ladies that can drive the ball to the basket. We tried multiple defenses on them and they seemed to exploit us, whichever way we went. They are probably one of the top teams if I had to compare them to my conference teams. They would be in the top-three, but I think we did our best to challenge them and they did a good job.
Q: Let’s talks about the inside play of your two big ladies here sitting next to you in this particular game here?
Moore: I’ve relied on these two big girls all year long. People again tend to look at my point guard a lot, and she was actually the young lady coming off a concussion, so maybe that is the result of her not being able to produce today. But I’ve relied on these two big girls all year. Of course I was a post player in my former days, so I always say if there is nobody else I can make better or I can show how to play the game it’s definitely the post players. They have done a tremendous job. They have good hands, they get good post position, they go hard and they go strong. And then what’s on the flip side of that, that Nova forces us to do, they play the perimeter defense, they have to play defense all over the court. And they don’t complain and that’s what’s is so special about them they do whatever it takes they bring the ball up the floor, they take the ball out of bounds, they save us in situations where we don’t have a passing lane, we always kind of just throw it up top to the big girls and they seem to find a way to catch it and finish. So they get a whole lot of credit for the day, but also over the course of the whole season.
Q: Is it much more challenging defending on the perimeter than the post?
La’Quisha Lewis: I would say defending inside is more challenging because it’s more physical. So inside would be challenging.
Ericka Sumpter: Because I am used to the block, I would say outside is a little more difficult to me. But as long as I move my feet and I’m on my toes I’m pretty good.
