Additional Quotes >> USA 85, Japan 63

July 21, 2011 • Puerto Montt, Chile

Jennifer Rizzotti (University of Hartford), USA head coach
Was Japan’s quickness and 3-point shooting the biggest reason the U.S. struggled in some areas?
Yes, they are very fast. They’re very smart and very disciplined. They know their strengths and they play to it. I thought they did a phenomenal job. They played very well.

On the runs by both Japan and the USA, was this a game of streaks?
We went on many runs, and then they went on their own runs. We were able to outlast them with our depth and our size, but they definitely fought very hard and played with a lot of pride and a lot of heart.

Your team is very tall compared to Japan, but they were very quick in getting rebounds.
I think that we were very slow to react to getting the basketball. We watched a lot instead of reacting. So, I think it’s something for us to learn from and it gave our players a chance to see the style of foreign teams playing and understand how much better we need to get over the next week and a half.

Have you had teams that have come up against you that hard at both ends of the court?
They were excellent. They started the game with a lot of intensity. They’re a hard match-up for us. We do have the size, but some of our big guys weren’t able to match up with their quickness on the perimeter. So, we had to find that balance between wanting to score inside, but also wanting to not give up points. When they’re scoring three for our every two, it doesn’t really add up. So we decided to go with the smaller lineup for awhile and try to really focus on our defense. When we came back with our bigger players, they were pretty worn down.

Was that a good game for you to start the tournament with?
It was great. I told the kids, they’ve all played USA Basketball before, regardless what they’ve done in years past, every team that’s here is better than any team that’s ever represented their country before. At this age group I think that they need to understand that every game’s going to be a challenge. We need to be ready and we’re still trying to find a way to come together as 12 individuals to form a really good USA team. We’ve got to learn from our mistakes today and take it into our game against Russia tomorrow.

Watch more from coach Rizzotti in her video interview.

Stefanie Dolson
(University of Connecticut/Slate Hill, N.Y.)
On today’s game:
Japan is a really great team with a lot of great shooters and penetrators. All they did was run up and down the floor. They penetrated the paint and then kicked it out and got a three. They definitely challenged our defensive end tonight. The posts and the guards needed to be able to guard the outside and guard the penetration into the middle. On offense, their defense really makes you pick up your tempo and makes you rush on offense. I think we did a pretty good job of calming down, getting the ball on the inside, because we definitely had a height advantage over them.

Was it good to get the first game under your belt and get the tournament started?
Definitely. For anyone who hasn’t played at this level, definitely the jitters, it’s good to get them out of the way. I think it really proves to us that all of the teams have gotten better. They’ve spent a lot of time together and we’ve only been together for a few weeks. It definitely shows us that they’ve improved and that we’ve got to step up our game if we’re going to win the title.

What do you expect to see from Russia tomorrow?
We expect to see a lot of the same things that we saw in our scrimmage (on July 18). They definitely have more sets than Japan did. So, them just slowing down and running their offense. I think we really need to buckle down and play really great D, talk on defense. We need to push the ball in transition. They have a few more bigs than Japan did, so I think we’ll be able to push it and speed up the tempo, hopefully get it inside and make some good outside shots.

Is it difficult to play a team that’s small and fast like Japan?
Definitely. I know I’ve never seen a team like that, where they’re all about 5’7” or shorter. It was extremely difficult for me, personally, and I know for a few of the girls to deal with their quickness and how fast they move the ball on offense. They would just pass it, pass it, pass it, kick it out, it’s really hard to keep up with it. I think we did a fairly good job in the second half of learning from our mistakes in the first half and improving on them.

Bria Hartley
(University of Connecticut/North Babylon, N.Y.)
What do you need to work on defensively before tomorrow’s game:
I think we definitely need to have a focus on getting to our man, blocking out, making sure we get a body on them in every possession, and not taking possessions off to where we’re thinking we’re just going to be able to out jump other teams and get the rebound. Because obviously that’s not going to work. We just have to get a focus on that. If we all come together and work together, we should be fine for the next game.

On the USA’s depth:
Our team has tremendous depth. Everyone can come in and contribute a tremendous amount throughout the entire game. As long as we come together and keep working together, we should all be fine.

Was it good to get the first game under your belt and get the tournament started?
Yeah, I think it’s good. Everyone is just getting used to how these teams play. It’s good to get one game under your belt and get fresh legs so we can move on to the next game.

What do you expect to see against Russia?
We know they have outside shooters, so we have to be able to get on them. Again, our main focus is going to be on defense. If we can get stops, stop the other team, we can get into transition and get easy buckets.

Malina Howard (Twinsburg H.S. / Twinsburg, Ohio)
On today’s game:
They were running a lot, getting up and down really quick, so we had to adjust how we were playing on defense. We had to make sure we were getting back and stopping the ball so that they couldn’t get easy layups in transition.

What can you take away from this game to be able to improve for tomorrow’s game?
We just have to box out better, because they got a lot of rebounds that they shouldn’t have. And just work on hustle plays and everyone playing with heart.

Was it good to get the first game under your belt and get the tournament started?
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was better than playing against each other. It’s like, finally, different competition. It was a lot of fun to come together as a team.

What do you expect to see against Russia?
When we scrimmaged them, their players liked to attack and they could shoot. They set a lot of picks. We just have to be ready to talk and communicate with each other.

Ariel Massengale
(Bolingbrook High School/Bolingbrook, Ill.)
Was it good to get the first game under your belt and get the tournament started?
It was. Getting on the court, it was something we’ve been working hard for. After today’s game, we know that we still have a lot of room for improvement. Each day we’re going to improve.

On Japan:
They’re so small, fast and feisty. They play hard all the time. Because of their size, they do different things that we’re not used to seeing on a regular basis. So they disrupted us a little bit, but I think for the most part we stayed focused.

What do you expect to see against Russia tomorrow?
For them to play hard, come out and shoot. They’re bigger, more our size, so I think we’ll be able to match up better with them offensively and defensively. We need to take care of the ball and play USA basketball. If we do that, we should be fine.

Breanna Stewart
(Cicero North Syracuse High School/North Syracuse, N.Y.)
On Japan’s team:
We knew that they were fast and they could shoot. So we wanted to focus on defense.

On her defensive effort:
I thought it was pretty good. I kind of blocked shots, that’s what I can do with long arms. But, I can always improve.

On the USA’s defense:
We tried to run through our plays. If they worked, that’s great. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to score more points and win the game.

On playing against a much shorter team:
It’s different playing with shorter players all around, but you get used to it.

On Japan’s speed:
Japan played very fast and that’s just one of the things we had to adjust to and now we’re going to adjust to how Russia plays.