Additional Quotes >> USA 80, China 77

July 25, 2011 • Puerto Montt, Chile

Jennifer Rizzotti (University of Hartford), USA head coach
Was this a good test for your team?
You always kind of need a wake-up call when you’re winning by a lot of points and you start to feel like your team’s getting complacent. I think it’s a good wake-up call. I hope it is. Our team needs to really remember what we’re here for and take it seriously and get themselves ready to go. They need to understand that we’re going to get everybody’s best shot. We’re used to always trying to win every game in going through. A lot of teams come into the tournament knowing that they have to win enough to advance. So maybe they’re just playing hard enough to get to the next round and then thinking ‘I have to win three in a row,’ we need to be ready for that from every team here on out.

On Italy, the USA’s next opponent:
Italy’s a little bit different than China in that they’re smaller and faster. I think they’re going to try to create a little more havoc defensively, just hawking the basketball. They also play a lot of zone. We’ve been working a lot on our zone execution and I told our kids we’re going to see a lot more of that from here on out. There’s a lot of teams packing it in and challenging the outside shot. Offensively, they’re much more of a penetration team, trying to get to the basket, but they certainly have guys who can knock down threes like China did to us today.

On the outside shooting of China and Japan:
They just do such a great job of using screens, reading screens. Then once they’re hot, they make sure they go back to that same guy. Our kids are young and no one’s really taught them how to play defense. We’re just trying to learn through the process and learn throughout the tournament how to be better defensively, how to guard talented offensive players.

In the last few minutes, Bria Hartley and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis were hitting shots. Does that show their poise and calm?
I still continue to be amazed at Bria Hartley’s guts and her willingness to take the big shot, make the big play. Then on the other side of the ball, turn around and guard the other team’s best player. Obviously it was nice to have Kaleena show up today and knock down some shots for us. It’s just probably a little more disappointing that our post players were so bad around the basket. I feel like it never would have been a close game if we hit those 10 or 12 layups we missed in the first half. They have to understand the urgency of every possession and playing every possession like it’s the most important and that missing a layup is just not going to be good enough. We can’t continue to do that if we want to advance in this tournament.

How do you think China feels about this close game?
Obviously, it’s got to bolster their confidence and make them feel better about how they’re playing. They obviously came in and didn’t play well in their first two games of the tournament. Beating Egypt and scoring a lot of points, maybe they got themselves going from the perimeter, which is what we had heard all along, that they’re a very good 3-point shooting team. This was really the first night where you could witness that. I’ve got to think they’re feeling good about this, disappointed in the loss in being so close, but also feeling better about where they are as a team and their chances of moving forward.

About the final few minutes of the game:
It’s funny because you feel pretty helpless when you have no control. In the U.S. you may call a time out, substitute offense and defense. But here, with the limited time outs and the inability to call it when the ball is live, you really have to trust that your players can make plays. That’s why I wanted Bria (Hartley) and Stefanie (Dolson) in the ball game. They’re the two college players who are used to playing under that kind of pressure. At the same time, there were definitely some moments when I wish I could have called a time out and yelled at them about their defense. But I knew I had to save those time outs for the end of the game. It puts the decision making in their hands, which is where it should be, but sometimes as a coach you feel a little helpless. I’m just proud of them that they were able to dig it out. It wasn’t perfect, we didn’t play great, but we found a way to win. They found a way to win. There really wasn’t much I could do at that point in terms of controlling the game.

What did you tell them at your time out with 43 seconds to go?
We were getting the ball back on offense, so I tried to get their minds on that next possession. It’s hard to come out and not want to talk about the last possession on defense and what they did wrong. So our focus was just on what we were going to run and trying to keep it simple. Then we told them, ‘when we score, we’re going to be up by three. Make sure you get back on defense and take away the 3-point shot.’ We just really tried to give them offense-defense scenario, nothing further than that.

Stefanie Dolson
(University of Connecticut/Slate Hill, N.Y.)
Was it good to have a close game in order to refocus for your final five games?
Yes, definitely. It’s not necessarily good that we played the way we did, but it’s always good to get an experience like this. We because we if had all those games where we won by 30, then a close game comes around like this in a later game, we wouldn’t know how to handle it. This was a great experience for the girls, just to know how to handle the pressure, how to execute on offense and play defense. Coach said we had guts out there.

Coach Rizzotti said she wanted you and Bria Hartley were in there at the end because you had that kind of experience. What are your thoughts on that?
When she put me in, I knew it was the fact that me and Bria had more experience than some of these other girls, because of some of the games that we’ve been in and the scenarios we’ve faced. Having me and Bria in there gives … we make the right decisions, take the right shots, we know how to execute. In that end stretch of the game we did a great job, all five of us did.

What did Coach Rizzotti tell you during that time out with 43 seconds to go?
Pretty much she was telling us on defense to guard the three. A lot of the guards on our team kept jumping the gap and they were getting wide-open step-back threes. So, she was telling us to focus on trailing them around the screens, posts helping on curls. It was mainly about not letting them get open shots, rebounding the ball and on offense, executing the plays that coach drew up for us.

What have you been doing off the court here in Chile?
Exploring, having fun together, getting to know each other better. Having fun, watching movies and exploring Chile. Talking to the people, playing with the dog. Just having fun.

Bria Hartley
(University of Connecticut/North Babylon, N.Y.)
Were you surprised at China’s focus and intensity?
I wasn’t too surprised, because every team is going to come out and play us really hard and have their best game against us. We just have to be prepared for that. Even though they came out third in their pool, we have to know that every team is going to come out ready to play, ready to try to get a win. We can’t get complacent and play all lackadaisical. We have to come out ready to play every game.

On China’s final shot and her rebound:
I just know that when you see a loose ball, you have to get it. I think someone tipped it and I was just hoping I would get there before the other girl got there.

On her 3-point shooting and that of Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis:
If we’re going to get an open shot, we’re going to hit shots. Kaleena is a great shooter, we know she can knock down shots. She can knock down clutch shots. When we had an opportunity to score, we made sure we scored and that helped us in this game today.

Did this game get you refocused?
I definitely do. Yesterday we had a day off and coach said we didn’t use it to our advantage. We didn’t use it to get better. It gives everyone a wake-up call to know that everyone’s going to play their best against us. We have to be focused and make sure we stay together.

On the USA’s next opponent, Italy:
Italy’s a great team. They have a lot of fast guards and I’m sure our coaches did a great job scouting. We’ll be ready to watch film and learn a lot and be ready to defend them tomorrow.

Ariel Massengale
(Bolingbrook High School/Bolingbrook, Ill.)
Is a game like this a good one to force you to refocus?
It is. I feel like after pool play we thought we could just come out here and be lackadaisical about it and just play. But, there’s a lot of preparation that goes into it behind the scenes and we just have to know that from this game forward, every team is going to bring their best effort against us.

On China:
They were hitting shots. They were hitting open shots. They were playing hard and at some points in the game they had more intensity than we did. That kept them in the game.

On Bria Hartley and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis:
They were fantastic. Bria, we’ve been calling her ‘Bria Gamer.’ In practice she doesn’t hit too many, but she’s always waiting for game time. Kaleena, she was struggling early on in the tournament and for her to pick herself up after a day off and knock down shots like that is great.

Kaleena Mosqueda- Lewis
(Mater Dei H.S. / Anaheim, Calif.)
On today’s game:
We didn’t really come out very good in the beginning today. We weren’t focused. We weren’t boxing out. We weren’t finishing inside. Coach Rizzotti was trying to get it through our heads that China’s here to play. They’re trying to advance, just like everybody else here and we need to play as hard as we can. We let China hit us in the mouth first today.

Does a game like this help you refocus?
Definitely. I’m glad that we got this game out of the way. We got an early game like this to challenge us, to see how we handle adversity. We did alright, but we shouldn’t have put ourselves in that situation.

On her 3-point shooting:
Bria (Hartley) and Ariel (Massengale) and all my teammates were getting me the ball in the right places where I was open. Luckily I was hitting them today.

On the USA’s next opponent, Italy:
They’re a little scrappy team, so we’re going to have to play with a lot of heart. We’re going to have to put bodies on them. The guards fly in to get rebounds. They’re quick to the basket. We’ve got to keep them in front of us and we’ve got to make sure our bigs are dominating.

The USA kept its poise, what does that say about this team?
I think that our team has a lot of confidence in one another. I have confidence that our point guards are going to get the ball to the right place. I have confidence that our wings are going to shoot the ball when it’s the right time and the bigs are going to rebound and they’re going to score inside like they’re supposed to. If we got a little shaky, I don’t know what would have happened.

Elizabeth Williams
(Princess Anne High School/Virginia Beach, Va.)
On today’s game:
I think it was pretty good to have a close game like that. I think we realized the intensity level that we have to play at all the time. That any of these teams, when they play the U.S., are going to come out and show us their best game. It was good for us to realize that we need to have a better mentality and be more focused.

In your first two summers with USA Basketball and your first three games here, you’ve not really had any close games.
Was it overconfidence?
I think we just underestimated how China was going to play. I don’t think we were as focused as we could be, us as post players, we didn’t finish very well. It was a combination of a few different things. It’s different when you do blow teams out and you underestimate people and you don’t play to the best of your ability all the time.

On her defense on China’s last shot:
I just contested it. I don’t think I got a hand on it. I just forced her to take a tough shot. I tried my best, because our defense was not where it should have been.

What did coach talk to you about in the time out with 43 seconds to play?
She talked about defense. She talked about as post players, we need to help on the screens when they’re curling around so the guards can get through. We talked about executing on the offense and I think we did a good job of that.

What have you been doing off the court?
Yesterday we went to the volcano and some people got to sled down the mountain. We kind of relaxed. We went out to eat. They have some really good restaurants around here. We’ve just been enjoying it here and having a really good time.