Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball versus Augustana (Exhibition) on October 29, 2025 at 6 p.m.
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6 p.m.
Women's Basketball
vs Augustana (Exhibition)
South Dakota State University Athletics
SDSU at Wisconsin 12-8-05 Quotes
7/6/2010 11:22:00 AM | Women's Basketball
South Dakota State Head Coach Aaron Johnston
On the game:
Its a mentality that you can come and play and not necessarily win all the time, but you can come and play and do what you want to do offensively and defensively and really try to get to your level. I think our team has always believed that. When you hear our players talk, they talk a little bit about execution and passing and making shots, but more they talk about playing tough, and playing with pride and passion.
"Im really please that we have a team that plays to the level of what they do to accomplish some of these things. They just showed great energy. I was pleased that we held on in that run. It was a big run a lot of it had to do with their (Wisconsin s) defense, their offense. A lot of it had to do with us missing some shots. We had few uncontested lay-ups in there that would have eased that 19-0 run a little bit more, but we just showed a lot of poise for still a pretty inexperienced team in the big picture of things to get this one on the road.
On the 22 points off of Wisconsins turnovers:
Defensively, one of the things we try to do is be really distracting. Our players know this and I think they would admit it. Were not always going to be the quickest and most athletic team out there, but we have a style and a system that really requires us to try and disrupt other offenses. We feel like if we just allowed Wisconsin to go through their half court offense and execute and have to try and stop those guards, it would be really hard to do that. Theyre fantastic players and I think that translates into our offense, too. Ill be the one to tell you its somewhat a plan, but we play on the edge of chaos all the time on offense, and therell be some times that we take shots that other people would say boy, thats too quick or thats too early. But for us a good open shot is good no matter when it happens, and some of those 3s that were going in in the first half were really big for us, so I think offensively and defensively we try and be disruptive. I wouldnt say just a run and gun team, but we try and be disruptive with our offense and our defense, and I think that really helps us against these kinds of teams, because theyre very deliberate and all of a sudden theyve got players that have to run to the three-point line and rotate and do different things, and I just think sometimes thats been a benefit for us.
On the difference in building a 21-point lead in the first half and Wisconsins run in the second half:
I think the big difference was that in the first half, they (Wisconsin) were a little bit tentative offensively, and we did force some turnovers and then some unforced turnovers where they just maybe mishandled the ball, and the same thing happened on the opposite side in the second half. They got out and forced some turnovers. They got at some block shots. They really recovered hard defensively in the second half and we had some unforced turnovers and missed shots. So really I thought they were a flip-flop of what happened. We had a pretty good start in the first half and the beginning of the second half. If that run wouldve started right away with 20 minutes to go, would we have held on I dont know. But we had a good three or four minute start that really had a bit of a cushion and got the team going in the right direction and I thought that start was really important.
Wisconsin Head Coach Lisa Stone
On the teams season-high 26 turnovers:
It was lot of turnovers. We just had a horrendous time handling the basketball in the first half. Weve talked about how hard South Dakota State plays and truly, they do. They play their butts off the whole game. Theyre relentless in their defense. Theyre relentless in their penetration and kick for 3-point shots. They caused our perimeter players a heck of a time. It was a courageous battle for us to come back, obviously, but it was too little too late. We had two missed opportunities to take the lead at the end but we missed a couple of shots and got a put-back that just didnt go down. Our kids didnt give up, they kept playing.
On Chris Spencer:
I thought we got a nice little lift from Chris Spencer. Thats probably the silver lining of the second half. We just have to find a way to win and thats the long story short.
On South Dakota State:
They built (their lead) to 26 points. They know how to win. They were undefeated two years ago with a national championship. (Head coach) Aaron (Johnston) does a great job. Theyve taken out a lot of division one opponents. Theres no question that theyll do very, very well. Theyre used to winning 20+ games a year and as we continue to grow and we continue to learn how to win, these games will go the other way. Weve got a short turnaround again and we have another tough opponent in a 7-0 Kansas team on Sunday. It doesnt get any easier but Im just disappointed in our play, we didnt show up in the first half and had to fight back. It was just too little, too late.Women's Basketball Postgame Press Conference vs UConn (03.24.2025)
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