Notes & Quotes: Michigan 65, Cincinnati 50
12/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Wolverines and Bearcats faced off for the second consecutive season and for the seventh time overall. With the win, Michigan extended its series lead to 6-1 all-time.
Tonight's game was Michigan's second consecutive game against a team from the BIG EAST conference. The Wolverines defeated then-No. 8 Notre Dame in their last outing (Dec. 10).
Tonight's game concluded non-conference action for U-M. The Maize and Blue finished with a 7-4 non-conference record and are off to a 4-1 start at Crisler Arena.
Carly Benson extended her three-point field goals made streak to nine consecutive games with her one three-pointer tonight.
Melinda Queen set a new career high with four three-point field goals. Queen also set new career highs in three-point field goals (4) and three-point field goal attempts (5).
Melinda Queen was also in double figures for the fourth time this season, scoring a career-high 16 points -- her previous career high was 15 set in U-M's season opener at Kentucky on Nov. 15. She reaches the double-figure scoring mark for the seventh time in her career. She last recorded double figures against Duke (Dec. 7), scoring 10 points.
Melinda Queen led Michigan in scoring for the first time this season.
Michigan went into the break tied at the half for the first time this season.
For the third consecutive game, Stephany Skrba reached in double figures in scoring. She had 11 points at the break to lead all scorers, and finished with 15 in the contest.
Michigan posted 20 assists, marking the first time that the Wolverines have had more than 20 assists in a game since Dec. 13, 2005, against Fordham when they had 21 assists.
Carmen Reynolds set a new career high with three three-point field goals. Her previous personal best was two, which she hit on two occasions.
Carmen Reynolds tallied new career highs in points (11), field goals (4), three-point field goals (3) and three-point field goals attempted (4).
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Kevin Borseth
On the end of the non-conference season... "I guess if you would have told me that we would finish 7-4 with our pre-conference schedule, I probably would have snickered at you. But we're through it, which is good. I thought we performed really well and now it's time for Big Ten season. It's going to be quite challenging, but I think that we are up to the task."
On second-half defensive adjustments... "I thought that in the second half we got our hands on a couple of more basketballs. We tried to pressure a little bit more. In the first half, we sat back and just took punches. In the second half, we went out and tried to contest a little bit more, get after the ball and make them put it on the floor. It helped for the most part, but it hurt a couple of times because they lobed a couple over the top and on the back side we were probably a little too tight."
On the season-high 20 assists... "That's probably the most impressive stat, the fact that we had 20 assists. We haven't really had a whole lot the whole year and that is a stat that is pretty important to me. It means that we are sharing the basketball. Having an assist-to-turnover that is 20 assists to 11 turnovers is good. They had kind of a funky defense and we did everything that we could to figure out what would work against it. We went back to what we normally do offensively and that probably worked the best. I thought our kids did a really good job distributing the ball. We were patient, not throwing up shots that we didn't have a chance to make and of course we made some big shots. (Melinda) Queen and Carmen (Reynolds) in particular hit some pretty big shots."
On the play of Melinda Queen... "What was she 4-of-5 from beyond the arc She has the nicest looking shot on the entire team. It's one of those games where Queenie came alive and of course defensively she gives us so much. She deflects a lot. She keeps you in check one-on-one. She is a great defender. She's a good player. She had a good night, and we are going to need her to play that way the rest of the year."
U-M Senior Guard Jessica Minnfield
On the difference in the second half... "We had a lot of intensity coming out in the second half. We knew we had to put a lid on the game; we just played hard. We played hard offensively and defensively. We were finding the open spots on the court, which were open in the first half, we just didn't see them. We just came out with better intensity and a lot of confidence in the second half."
U-M Senior Forward Stephany Skrba
On her play of late... "Coach is really emphasizing getting the ball to the block and being strong when we get it. I'm just trying to be aggressive when I get it down there and be effective and efficient as well."
U-M Senior Forward Melinda Queen
On where she would rank this performance in her career... "One of the best. I would put it right toward the top. We expected that Cincinnati was going to lay off of me and some of the other players, so I've been going into the gym working on my shot with Coach Will (assistant coach Mike Williams) and they fell in today."
