March 6, 2002

Recap?|? Box Score

Baylor Quotes

Head Coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson
On the game and Marsha Sharp:
"We're building a program at Baylor, and we just played a tradition. I can't tell you how much respect I have for Marsha Sharp and the decisions she has made with her basketball team. For those kids to play and have the kind of year they had, you bet they're going to make it to the NCAA playoffs. My hat goes off to Marsha Sharp."

On Sheila Lambert:
"I'm going to let Sheila Lambert take me as far as she wants to take me. Lambert put on a show out there, and she was in the zone today. There are very few girls that make you want to watch them for forty minutes. She just has a presence on the court. If she's not a Kodak All-American, I want to see the nine others that are."

On Danielle Crockrom:
"Danielle Crockrom has seen every double and triple team in America, and she just keeps plugging away. She gets a key rebound here or there and she gets four points here or there."

On Steffanie Blackmon:
I thought Steffanie Blackmon was an unsung hero today. She took charge when Crockrom and Brooke McCormack were struggling a little bit. She showed some confidence out there today."

Danielle Crockrom, Senior, Forward
On run they went on at 15:50 in the first half:
"We were thinking that Texas Tech was not going to go away just because we had the lead at half-time. We knew they were going to come out, hitting the shots, pushing the ball and working hard. So when we were down by one, we had the same mindset as before to keep working hard on defense and to get a shot every time down the court and not rush it so much."

On falling behind by one early in the game:
"I yelled and told them 'let's go' because we worked hard in the first half, and I asked them 'were we tired? Did we give it all in the first half?' and they told me no. We pulled together and we made a run. I think that everybody did a great job."

Shelia Lambert, Senior, Guard
On Baylor's transition game:
"I do not think that we were trying to get the transition game going. Before the game, coach was telling me to put a lot of pressure on the point guards. I played the move every now and then and it went my way."

Jessika Stratton, Sophomore, Guard
On denying Texas Tech's perimeter game:
"Give their guards a lot of credit, because not only are they great three-point shooters, they set a lot of screens. So talking on defense had a lot to do with it. Perimeter to perimeter, we tried to open our mouths and get over-the-top screens. The post players did a great job helping us out on ball screens. It was really a team effort on defense."

Texas Tech Quotes

Head Coach Marsha Sharp
On the game:
"I want to congratulate Baylor. I thought they really played well when they had to. They had some individuals step up and make some big plays. They did the things they had to to try and advance. We played well at the beginning of both halves and did not finish very well in either half. We just did not stay disciplined enough to make the plays we had to in order to have a chance to win. I was proud of our comeback in the second half. I thought we played hard and proved we can play with some of the best teams in the country. I think Baylor is certainly one of those. They played well for a long period of time. You have to feel like they are the hottest team in the conference because of all the wins they had late in the season. They are certainly a great basketball team."

On the idea of Jia Perkins guarding Sheila Lambert:
"We were concerned about foul trouble in that situation. I do not think that in a contain situation on the ball that Perkins is our best perimeter defensive player. She tends to gamble a lot and tries to take some chances. Sometimes we let people penetrate and get to the rim in that situation, more than we should. I thought the zone made them take a different look and change some things. I thought me might be able to change the tempo with it also. You cannot stay there long because they rebound so well out of it. They also hit some jumpers on the baseline with post players. Sometimes for a couple of trips I think you can help yourself by changing the tempo a little bit."

On Sheila Lambert:
"She is a great player. I think there is no question that she is one of the top players in the nation. I will be surprised if she is not an All-American. I think she has a shot to be Player of the Year depending on what they do in the NCAA Tournament. She will be a top draft choice in the WNBA. You are playing against one of the best in the game right now. I think when you play against her she has the physical skills and the mentality to control a game. Her mentality has changed a lot in the last year, and she is playing with a lot of confidence right now. She gets the ball to the rim extremely well. She has the attitude that she is going to go control games. You have to have that. That is a reason they were second in this conference and other teams were not. She brought that to the table for them."

Natalie Ritchie, So. Guard
On the season:
"Yes, the season has been up and down, but now we have to put this behind us and start going into the NCAA. I feel like if you come out of the Big 12 conference and tournament, you are going to be more prepared going into the NCAA because you're playing Top 25 teams almost every night. We just have to put our heads up and think about the game plan when we get into the NCAAs and come together and see what we can do."

On Jia Perkins coming out of the game because of fouls:
"I just knew I needed to come in and try to do the best I could. I guess with Jia coming out, she's such a great offensive threat on our team. They maybe backed up a little bit on me, and I got some shots to go down. Overall, I needed to do it progressively, but the first half I just tried to do my best while Jia was out."

Jia Perkins, So. Guard
On Baylor's defense:
"They played good defense. We got shots off, but they weren't falling every single time. They had good defense stopping us a little bit, but I just think some of our shots weren't falling."

On Shelia Lambert:
"Of course she is a great player. She is quick, and it's tough for anybody to guard her. She is one of the best guards in the league right now. I think she probably gets their offense going and they feed off her. She creates shots for them. She creates shots for herself. I just think she is the center of the team"

Jolee Ayers, So. Forward/Center
On Baylor's run:
"I think during that time there were some plays where we didn't get back in transition, which was really a big part of our game plan. We needed the post players to get back in transition regardless of whether our players were back or not because Lambert is great at creating off the fast break. You have to have someone back there, which we tried to do a lot. Personally, I had a couple fouls, and they converted off free throws. I think just mental plays like that stuff could have been prevented. That will really hurt you in the stretch of a game. But that is something that happened, and we need to learn from that and take it into the NCAAs knowing we can't do stuff like that and still win ball games."