June 18, 2007 • Monte Carlo, Monaco

USA head coach Joanne P. McCallie
On tonight's game:
I think we can improve a tremendous amount. But we're in a great starting place. I think the team worked very hard, obviously we did much better in the third (quarter), defensively. Holding them to 31-7 in the third quarter was very significant. I thought we were much nicer, more aggressive in the second half. We're just going to try to put quarters together. There was one superlative quarter, that was the third, which really made a difference for us. It was a total team effort, I thought everybody got better and I thought we got a little more physical when we needed to. We have to take this and go onto the next one.

What was going on in the first half?
I'm not going to give any excuses about it. I thought we were sluggish. I don't think we came out of the gates aggressive enough. Defensively, we were not moving our feet. There were a lot of little things. We got into foul trouble and that cost us. They scored way too many points in the paint. We just didn't bring our ‘A' game.

What will you work on for the next two games against France?
Trying to put more quarters together. We had one superlative quarter and we need to work on that. We need to work on our skill set and do a better job for all four quarters.

DeWanna Bonner, Auburn University
On tonight's sluggish start:
I think we just have to get to know each other, get to know how each other plays and relax. This is the first game and everybody's kind of excited. We just need to relax and settle down on defense and our offense will come.

What did you talk about at halftime?
Being more aggressive. We have to be more aggressive with them. We were kind of letting them play their game and we were following them in that. We just have to be the aggressor.

Do you think France was surprised by the third quarter?
Definitely. Obviously because they kind of played the same game they played in the first half and we came out and picked it up a little bit and came away with the win.

Were you a little nervous that the halftime score was tied?
No, we weren't nervous at all. We knew that we were playing bad and the score was still tied. If we had played in the first half the way we played in the second half, it wouldn't have been a close game.

Ashley Houts, University of Georgia
On her first game in a USA Basketball jersey:
It was a good feeling. We started off a little slow, but in the end we all represented it well and made a statement to the other team.

What was the difference between the first half and the third quarter?
Turnovers killed us a lot in the first half, everybody's still trying to get use to playing together, we're trying to gel and get that chemistry going. I think that once we get the experience with each other we'll get more and more comfortable as time goes on.

What are you going to work on over the next couple of days?
We need to work on a lot of things, obviously. We need to work on our defense and our decision making. Just a lot of working together for the team to improve. We need to hold them to a low score, we had a goal and we barely missed it. Hopefully we'll make it next time and continue to improve as time goes on.

Kia Vaughn, Rutgers Universiy
On tonight's game:
I think we all just had to go out there and get rid of all our negativity. We don't know each other really well yet. Practicing is good and all that, but we haven't come out and let some turnovers come out and learn to pick it up. We have to learn our ways better. Game after game we're going to pick it up, every game we're going to become better, much better, we're going to become great.

What happened to start the second half?
The third quarter we came out with more intensity and energy and that's what we have to do.

What did you think about the play of your teammates tonight?
They're great, I love them all. I think Courtney (Paris) is a monster, she's unstoppable. The guards played well. We all picked it up and matched up better in the second half.

You've had a week together and still have a week and a half to go prior to the start of the U21 World Championship. What do you need to work on in order to win in Russia?
Time, time will tell. Tomorrow, when we play again, some more things will come out that we'll need to work on. Whether it's high post, guard passing, help penetration, kicking, everything else. It'll come out and we'll be ready.

Candice Wiggins, Stanford University
On tonight's game:
It was exciting. After a long day of traveling we were ready to start playing. In the first half I think we had to get the kinks out. There were a lot of turnovers, we weren't really in the flow. Once we got into the flow in the third quarter we really got things going and opened things up. We really got a lot of confidence in that and I think it sent a message.

What did coach P talk about in the halftime locker room?
Basically just taking care of the ball. Eight of their points in the first half were off turnovers, so just making sure our post defense was improved. Just working on the things we know what to do. It was really a motivational speech.

With two more games against France over the next three days, what do you need to do to make sure the games get better for you?
We need to work on turnovers, we need to handle that from the start and jump on them right from the beginning. If we can do that our defense can pick it up and I think we'll be good.