Nov. 24, 2008

Recap |  Box Score

Melissa McFerrin
Memphis Head Coach
Opening Statement
I kind of like the nine point lead quite honestly, but that disappeared on a couple great late shots on their part. Those kind of wins are very important to us because it builds our confidence. I saw a little bit of fear in our eyes as the clock was winding down but when we come away with wins like this it is a huge confidence builder.

What were your feelings about several of the major runs made in the game?
There were some major runs and it seems like every time they made one it was at the three point line. Every time we made one it was rebounds and transition. I'm really proud of our kids. I thought the score was too high, but they had 32 points at halftime and our defense needs to hold a little bit more. We gave up two quick threes to right at the beginning of the second half and gave up the lead. It was a game of runs and Ohio University is a good basketball team. They're very fundamental and they know exactly what shots they're getting and they shot 53 percent from the field.

What were your feelings on the rebounds and turnover margins?
Our goal was to keep them at 38 field goal percentage and we didn't exactly do that. Our goal was to force 30 turnovers and we didn't do that either, but 24 still gives us an opportunity to score easy stuff. The rebounding total was huge because we asked our kids to out rebound them by six and that's exactly what they did. That's a twenty point lead on turnovers based on what they are averaging. We did it on the boards, but we had some kids make huge plays. Jessica Jackson got a charge and she got a rebound on that last free throw. Ramses made three or four free throws last and Paris had some great plays. She got a charge and some tough buckets with the shot clock winding down. Those are very key stats and those are the first things that we look at. Their shooting percentage and our shooting percentage, rebounds and turnovers.

Being able to work through some late game jitters?
I'm being really stingy with timeouts because I want them late. This team needs to know exactly what they are doing late in game situations. I thought execution was pretty good in our late game sets, but the free throws were huge.