2005-06 BKW at Washington -- Notes & Quotes
12/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
N O T E S
Ta'Shia Walker led Michigan with game-highs of 17 points and eight rebounds. Walker has held or shared the lead in scoring six times and rebounding four times this season. She has hit double figures in scoring six times in 2005-06.
Carly Benson set a new career high with seven rebounds tonight.
Janelle Cooper matched a season-high with 13 points, including a career-best three triples.
Michigan drops to 2-3 all-time against Washington.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Cheryl Burnett
Opening Statement ... "I like to try and take some positives out of it. Janelle Cooper tried to really step up and communicate with everyone and do some great things. That's all a coach can ask for, to try to do the right thing. When you look at the stat sheet, we shot 54 percent in the second half, but it felt like Washington was getting every offensive rebound. They didn't outrebound us by that much, but it felt like they did. No loose ball seemed to go our way. We knew that they could really shoot the basketball. They have a great blend of outside shooters and dribble penetrators. Now you take out one of our best defensive and hustle players in Kelly Helvey. So, we had a situation where players were in positions where they haven't played before. I really saw some nice things out of Carly Benson. Ta'Shia (Walker) continued to do enough good things. Stephany Skrba also did some good things for us. We're still turning the ball over way too much. They were in a switching-man and a 1-3-1, and it's very difficult to recognize one from the other. It made us a little bit stagnate. I thought Krista (Clement), Ta'Shia and Janelle were reading it extremely well and understood what they needed to execute."
On the injury to Kelly Helvey ... "All of my alumni and current kids know that whether it's in practice or a game, if I have a kid who's tougher than nails and they go down and stay down, I'm out there on the floor. I knew when Kelly Helvey went down that it was something, because not a lot of things keep her down. We're just going to have to rise above it and get some more minutes out of some other players. Again, we have to get better. That's our goal. That's all we want to do. We've got to play hard and we have to be smart."
