Nov. 25, 2007
Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb:
On the victory:
“It’s good to get a win period. It’s good to start to get some momentum after losing to Indiana State. I think to win two is really helping to build confidence. We just need to start building confidence and I think this will help us.”
On the defensive performance:
“They’re a three-point shooting team. What we wanted to do was pressure the basketball. That was our number one goal. You saw us really out there pressuring so they couldn’t make passes. They love to skip pass, spread the floor, skip it, shoot the three and then go inside, similar to what we do. We just really wanted to take them out of their game by pressuring the ball and dictating on defense and I think we did a great job of doing that.”
On the play of Lauren Lueders:
“Lauren gives us a lot of hard work, positive energy and she’s a great three-point shooter. I think she’s also passing the ball very well. She’s learning how to feed the post very well. What Lauren did was she worked really hard and got better and earned a starting spot and she’s made the most of it. She’s just been building confidence ever since. She has a really good work ethic and really good attitude right now.”
On Amber Norton:
“Amber Norton just blew me away tonight. I think Amber’s that good. I think we’ve seen it but sometimes it takes a while for you guys to see it because she doesn’t always do it in a game. She just came in and was a difference maker, not just on offense but on defense she did a great job. We had trouble stopping them in the post, so I went with Amber for her defense and then she ended up doing really well offensively. Again, that’s how Amber’s been practicing and she’s playing with a lot of confidence. It was good to see her carry over her practice habits to the game.”
On limiting Iowa State to two second-chance points in the second half:
“That was a really big key. In our matchup (zone), we were not checking out. Our keys were ball pressure and give them one shot. They were shooting really long shots, which is what they take and the rebounds were coming out long. When you’re in the matchup and you’re already down there, it’s hard to get our kids to come back out and create space. One of the reasons we went to man was not to just get more ball pressure but to check out. The kids were really happy. Their goal was 10 (offensive rebounds) and we gave up 11. We gave up one offensive rebound the whole second half. That’s where they made their run in the first half was when they were offensive rebounding out of our matchup.”
