Post-Game Quotes: Purdue
12/5/2022 10:48:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant
On losing despite Purdue's 30 turnovers…
I know, that's what I told the team. When we turn the ball over thirty times and can't win, that's crazy. In the last three games, which have been very close games…obviously this one in overtime, Georgia Tech was down to the wire, and Oregon, we tied it up and it was right there. We are leaving 10 points a game at the free throw line. That's 30 points in three games. You have to be able to take advantage of that. People have to be able to knock down free throws. You don't have to be perfect, but you can't make 58 percent. You fight so hard and put a lot of pressure on them while playing downhill. We are getting the opportunity to get there, and then it's defeating when you get there when you are there with the opportunity to stop the clock and put points on the board, but we couldn't always take advantage of it. There were some big plays down the stretch. There were three offensive rebounds that they got and we didn't get defensively. That's another thing that rears its head for us. We haven't been a great defensive rebounding team. I think those two things, the free throw line and the defensive rebounding down the stretch, were two things that certainly could have helped us win this game.
On the play of Gabby Elliott down the stretch …
I told this to the whole team including her - play like that for 40 minutes, why are you only playing that way for six minutes? - there was just a different urgency. People were missing shots in the first half, but played with that same urgency for 40 minutes, not just six. I hope this is a lesson for people. It's great that we had that urgency for a little bit, but if you want to win games ,you are going to do that every possession you're out there. It shouldn't take "Oh, were down 12 with six minutes left, I guess I have to play harder now." It has to be consistent. That's not rocket science.Â
On Isaline Alexander making the first start of her career…
Yeah, she did well. You know, I was disappointed we lost Ty [Taiyier Parks], because I thought Ty was really getting her hands on a lot of balls, and she actually led us in steals. In 11 minutes, the kid had four steals at the five spot. She's always had a really good hand defensively. You know, we had a talk about her defense and rebounding, and how she needed to improve that and some of her ball-screen coverage. I thought she was really good. I mean, she had four defensive rebounds in 11 minutes, and I don't know if she's had four defensive rebounds in a game this year. So, she really kind of took to heart some areas that she wanted to improve on. And then when she went down, she really could spark us. She was really doing the kind of things we needed her to do. So, we'll see how she does.
On how the team can use the late fight they showed to help them moving forward…
Yeah, I mean just urgency. It was just a different level of people's competitiveness. We were finishing the rim. We were attacking downhill. We started scoring the ball better, or people were really stepping their game up. I mean, if we could do that for longer than six minutes, that would have been a victory. I feel that same way about Georgia Tech. Even if people could just clean up their free throws a little bit more, we'll be in business. So, we got quite a few more possessions than them. We had 71 offensive possessions to their 57, or something like that, 58. I mean, you put yourself in positions to be successful, you just have to capitalize on them.
