UK Head Coach Mickie DeMoss
“I thought we executed well at times. We got some really good looks at the basket, but we didn’t knock down some of our shots that I think we’re capable of making. We played hard and forced them into a few turnovers, especially in the first half. I was real proud of the way we played. I thought we played hard and executed for the most part.”
On her reaction to her first official game…
“I think having the two exhibition games helped settle me down a bit. I have a better feel for what the team can do and I tried to focus on our execution and things that we needed to improve. I didn’t feel nervous. I felt pretty calm over there and I enjoyed coaching tonight.”
On the large crowd that attended the game…
“Today, Mitch Barnhart told me that we just sold 400 tickets this morning and there was a lot of excitement around the offices today. It proves my theory all along that Kentucky can have a great women’s program. Usually the fans are the last to come in building a program and they’ve already bought into what we’re trying to do. If we can keep playing hard and doing things that they will enjoy coming back to watch Memorial Coliseum can be a very exciting place to watch women’s basketball.”
On playing several games in a short period of time…
“I think it will tell me how mentally sharp we are. I want to see how we can turn around and adjust to different styles of play because Northwestern has their own style and we need to see how quickly we can adjust to that. Now, it is more mental than it is physical. Endurance-wise we’ll see where we are as well.”
On facing Northwestern and North Carolina next week…
“Each game is going to get tougher. (Northwestern) comes in from the Big Ten and they are going to be physical and ready to play. Everybody knows that North Carolina is very strong, so our competition is just going to get tougher and tougher.”
UK Players
#53 Sese Helm, C
On Kentucky’s defense…
“It’s an up-tempo defense. We want it to have high intensity and we want to pressure our opponent as much as possible. We want to cause turnovers so we can get some chances to take the ball and get layups.”
On the team’s focus during the game…
“In the first four minutes of the game we jumped on them and played well. In coming out for the second half we were just a little bit flat, but then we picked it up. We’ve got to realize that at the end of the game we’ve got to stay strong, intense, and we can’t give up.”
#33 Jennifer Pfeiffer, G
On playing in Memorial with a large crowd…
“I thought it was amazing. It gets everybody pumped up and it is pretty exciting. Everyone is excited because they know we can do great things.”
#3 Sarah Potts, G
On playing in front of a large crowd…
“It was exciting to see people in the upper level. It gets us more pumped for the game to see everyone there.”
IPFW Head Coach Bruce Patterson
“We just got beat. We met a team that was fundamentally very good and had a coaching staff did a great job with them. We came down here with the intent of trying to hang in there and try to stick it out to the end. I thought we did pretty well except for a couple of areas. One area where we struggled was from the foul line. We were 13 of 30 from the foul line. When you shoot that poorly from the foul line, you’re going to have a problem. Another area was turnovers. We turned the ball over 27 times. When you turn the ball over that many times, you won’t win. We’re a brand-new Division I program. We’re trying to learn how to play at this level. I thought we learned a lot tonight.”
