Post-Game Quotes vs. Illinois

Head Coach Suzy Merchant
On Alyza Winston leaving the team…
She informed me of her intention to transfer on - what day is today, Thursday - so I guess it was Tuesday afternoon. I respect that she wants to do whatever she thinks is best for her and her family. She contributed while she was here. (You) don't like to see anybody leave, but she has to do what's important to her and what's best for her and her family. But I like the team we have. They are gritty and tough and played together, and it was fun to watch them battle out there in that second half for sure.

On how the team responded after the first half…
I know we weren't going to shoot it that bad for that long. I mean, we shot terrible in the first half and we just didn't do a very good job, our offense wasn't going. It just seemed like the bucket was huge for them, and when they shot 50 from the floor and 71 from the arc, it just was something that our defense didn't help us much in that first half when our offense wasn't going. But I thought (in) the second half we did a better job of penetrating and kicking. We weren't doing that in the first half. We had a lot of people driving but we weren't making the extra pass. I thought we did a much better job of that in the second half, which obviously opened up. Finding Matilda (Ekh) is a big one, and I thought DeeDee (Hagemann) had some nice passes inside and I thought he had some nice kicks to Matilda on that weak side coming off ball screens.

On DeeDee Hagemann's play tonight after being in the starting lineup for the first time…
She did well. As a facilitator, (she) was a little bit better, (her) decisions were better in the second half. I think she's going to have to learn to play maybe a little bit longer minutes and play through some fatigue. Over time I think that will help, but I thought (in) the second half she was focusing on where people were and trying to get them some really nice entry passes to the post to set them up for easy buckets. And she's great at that, we needed her to do that and I thought she did a good job of that and (keeping) the tempo. Yeah, I thought she was a big difference maker for sure.

On how to make up for the departure of Alyza Winston…
Obviously, we're a little more limited now with our guard play. We already lost two guards the first week of the season to injury, right? So now, you don't have Tory (Ozment), you don't have Julia (Ayrault) who can play those spots. But those kids have been playing through that. I really hope Moira (Joiner is) okay. That could be a bit of an issue, obviously, but we went with some bigs. We were working on playing the two bigs together a little bit today, Tai (Taiyier Parks) and Smitty (Alisia Smith), and eventually we hope to get our freshmen involved in that too. They're just going to have to be now, at this point. We've had to kind of relook at some things when you have a departure like that, in someone that played that kind of minutes. We'll be alright. We're just going to keep fighting and playing together. I like our team, you know, I really do. There's just a good energy about them.

On the chemistry between freshmen Matilda Ekh and DeeDee Hagemann on the court…
I kept telling DeeDee 'we need to feed Matilda, she's got a hot hand right now, we got to feed that kid.' Everyone on the court should know where she's at, she's shooting the ball well. Any type of penetration, if they don't help, you're going to have a layup and they were really committing on all of our drives, especially with Nia (Clouden) in the first half and DeeDee. They just ran in there and clogged it up, Nia even had a charge. We weren't making the extra pass in that first half, but I liked our chemistry together. I thought, as freshman, that's a pretty big stage to have to kind of come in to and play that many minutes. DeeDee played 34 minutes and Matilda played 35, so that's logging a lot of minutes and, to perform at a high level, I thought they did a great job for us today, especially in the second half.

On post players playing up for their size tonight…
Not as well in the first half as we did in the second (half). I thought they were getting a little more of a high-low look on us in that first half, then we did a better job of denying the ball, putting a little more pressure on it and that helped a little bit. They were definitely going at us early. They went at Smitty (Alisia Smith) and Tai (Taiyier Parks) both, so I think doing a few things on the perimeter, our four-man especially at the high low, (in) trying to eliminate that pass or push them out so our bigs had time to kind of get around. I thought Tai was really instrumental in that first half getting tips. She's mobile and quick and she's a big kid. She's pretty athletic, and she did a nice job getting some tips in there for us.

On if Matilda Ekh's past experience overseas help her rise to the challenge of a larger role…
Certainly she's capable. I think by far she's our best knockdown shooter, no questions asked about that. She can get it off quick and deep and she's got size. That's something. I think it's going to have to be a collective effort. I think Nia is going to have to be consistent in the way she plays, and she has been for four years. She might have a bad quarter or half sometimes, but I think us coming together and playing together really helped in that second half. It gave that experience for DeeDee and Matilda, especially when we were down (and) we weren't playing very well. When you're down like that, you have to put not only the offensive side together but you got to get some stops, too. So, I think that's valuable experience and I really like their chemistry together and I hope Matilda can continue to be consistent for us.

Players Mentioned

Matilda Ekh

DeeDee Hagemann

Taiyier Parks

Alisia Smith

Alyza Winston

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