Feb. 14, 2016

Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Gallery

Muffet McGraw, Head Coach

Opening statement …

“I think we got sloppy in the fourth quarter. We didn’t defend as well as we could have. We didn’t attack the basket like we could have, but I thought overall we looked like a team that’s peaking and I’m really happy about that. I think the freshmen are really playing well. Marina [Mabrey] is back. She had a great game offensively did some really good things, defensively got some rebounds. I think she played …

one of the best games in a while. I wish we could get the ball to Brianna [Turner] a little bit more. Our 2-3 zone was very effective.”

On Michaela Mabrey …

“She’s smart. She’s going to get the right people the ball.”

On their future for the Final Four …

“We’re getting there. We’re really close right now with the way we’re playing. Being able to score 90 points makes me feel good because I now know what we’re capable of.”

On the team’s 23 turnovers …

“Really sloppy, I think that they were careless turnovers. I don’t think they were created by the pressure so much as by ourselves. [We were] trying to over pass. It happens sometimes when you have an unselfish team.”

Brianna Turner, Sophomore, Forward

On the meaning of today’s win …

“It feels pretty good. It was the pink zone game so everyone was really excited about that.”

On the team’s progress from start of the season …

“Our communication, we’re starting to talk more on the floor.”

Marina Mabrey, Freshman, Guard

On her personal development this season …

“I feel like I learn something new every game that I didn’t know. I think were just coming along as freshmen.”

Katie Meier, Miami head coach

Opening statement…

“I’ve been pretty proud of our defense all year. I think we’ve had great game plans and we’ve played with a ton of grit. Our defense wasn’t as great as it needed to be tonight. But you have someone like Kathryn Westbeld who just blistered our defense with her passing. I don’t know how she only had one assist, but it’s something like that. They have those players that are secondary assist-type players that make you look stupid on the backside of your defense. But really, Westbeld was thinking two passes ahead all the way and just reversed the ball and their player scores. It looks easy, but it’s a ton of credit to Notre Dame ââ’¬” it’s a ton of credit to the IQ of their team. We’re small in certain positions and they got us with that. Our guards had a hard time seeing against the zone, they got us with that. They’re very talented. I was talking to Muffet before the game and I said ‘You’re not getting enough credit for what you’re doing with this team. You’re down Reimer and Jewell.’ They weren’t planning on that in recruiting and they’re doing such a good job. I thought our bench would outperform their bench and I was wrong ââ’¬” their bench was phenomenal. It’s just a great job and they’re so well coached. it’s very hard to do one thing and think it’s going to work.”

On Notre Dame’s mental toughness…

“They turned it over 23 times and if they hadn’t, they would have had 115 points on us. There was beautiful ball movement tonight and I’m glad we turned them over a bit but I thought that would change the game. But they didn’t blink. They have great mental toughness and tremendous leadership on the basketball court, no matter who it is. Obviously, it comes from the top, it comes from Muffet McGraw. I wish I could do a better job with myself, getting my team to be that mentally tough.”

On Notre Dame’s ball movement…

“We lost our identity very early in the game just by missing some open shots. I’m disappointed in that, we’re not that young ââ’¬” we only have one senior, but we have a lot of experience. We lost our grit. I will say, Notre Dame does that to you. You just feel like you’re chasing the ball around. They do deflate you with their ball movement. But no excuse, we have to be able to make shots and play defense. There were some good shots in the beginning, so I didn’t call a timeout. They weren’t going in, but I liked what we were doing.”

Adrienne Motley, Junior, Guard

On mental toughness…

“They just played a lot harder than we did. We missed a lot of open shots early and I guess that kind of got to our head. But being in the ACC, we can’t let that get to us. It just seemed like they didn’t miss tonight and that’s kind of frustrating when your open shots aren’t going in, but we just have to be a lot tougher.