Additional Quotes >> U.S. Women 34, South Korea 10

Kathy Richey-Walton, U.S. Women's Head Coach
Southwest DeKalb H.S., Ga.

On another good game in the post from Amber Henson and Kiah Stokes:
I think they were a little hesitant at first, this being the medal round and all. But once we got into a rhythm, we just took off from there.

How long did it take them to get into a rhythm?
A couple minutes, and I told them about it, because we got a different look from the defense from Korea. They sagged in on us to try to stop Kiah, but we have a whole lot of options. It took a couple minutes, but once we figured it out, we just took off. Other teams, we think, are going to try to sag in on us.

Have you shown everything the team can do?
No, we haven’t showed everything we can do. We still have three or four things that we haven’t shown yet. We showed one thing today that we hadn’t done before, but we still have a few more things that we’re saving saving. And we’re going to wait. We want them all to think we’re one-dimensional and pull the rest out when we need to.

You’re two wins away from a gold medal, now, how do you close it out?
I explained to them that tomorrow’s extremely important. But once you get to this point, they understand what’s at stake, so it’s not going to take much to get them to focus. They want it really bad, so we just need to make sure we have a good game plan to go forward, because the girls are really excited and motivated.

Andraya Carter
Buford H.S./Flowery Branch, Ga

Korea gave you a different look on defense tonight?
Yeah, they were sagging off on us, so it’s like they’re telling us to shoot it. But we attack so well and get it into the post so well, at first we were kind of like, ‘What?’ My girl sagged off me at first, and I tried to shoot it, but I wasn’t on rhythm. We knew we couldn’t shoot ourselves out of the game. So we just kept attacking, and that’s what we had to do.

What’s it been like to have Kiah and Amber dominating down low?
Oh, my gosh. Me and Bri don’t care at all who scores the points. We don’t need any of the glory, we just need the win. Kiah and Amber have just been killing this whole time, and it doesn’t make sense for us to go away from that, because in the end, we win. They’re, like, unstoppable so far. No one’s been able to stop it, so we just keep doing it.

How much does this team still have left to show?
We’ve got a couple of things still up our sleeve. We put in some new stuff, but we’re not showing it unless we have to. We’ve got a couple of things coming. Today we didn’t show it because we didn’t need to.

Two wins away from gold, how do you get it done?
One game at a time. We just have to play hard, play our game. We’re pretty much the best, we just gotta go out there and show it. We can’t take what they give us. We have to take what we want. Really, it’s been our defense. Everyone sees the score, and they see us scoring so much, but if the other teams can’t score, they can’t win.

Kiah Stokes
Linn-Mar H.S./Marion, Iowa

How have you and Amber been so successful during this tournament?
We just have to be physical with their posts, and we usually have a height advantage. So we just use that to our advantage as much as we can, and I think it works out.

How did you adjust to Korea’s different defensive look?
They started sagging on us, and coach just told us to try to use their defender as a screen to try to clog up the lane a little bit and to go off that. Mostly, we just tried to take outside shots, but they weren’t really falling, so we just kind of forced it back in and penetrated.

What does the team need to do to get the gold medal?
We’re confident. We know that if we play the best we can play, no one can beat us. So we just need to keep playing hard and getting stops on defense, and we should win the gold.

Overall, what’s it been like at this tournament?
Yeah, it’s definitely fun. Coming in, we really didn’t know what to expect, but it’s been fun. The game is a little more one-on-one, so it’s kind of like playing back at home with your friends on the playground. Plus, it’s a fun environment, and in the arena they have music and announcers. It’s a really fun and lively atmosphere to be in.