Mike Steele Quotations

Philomath put some pressure on us and we didn't handle it very well. I thought we'd handle it better. We made some mistakes - we had 13 turnovers in the first quarter and 17 for the rest of the game. It just kills you. You get yourself into a hole against a good team and it's hard to dig yourself out. Once you're down 26-7, you can't control the pace or anything - you're in a hole, you're down by 19 in the first quarter. It's just crazy.

She's a good shooter, and she worked really hard this year. She did a really nice job of getting herself in position to score, and she's got a nice touch. She improved a lot on defense and did a good job on the boards.

Hats off to Taft, they played hard. They tried. They never gave up. The coaches at Taft are doing a nice job of keeping those kids squared away.

Stephanie was starting to dominate the boards a little bit at the end there. And we were starting to get the ball into her (on offense) a little bit. She's learned a lot about playing the post, and she's going to learn more. She's learning to look for the ball and call for the ball, and she's learning to get the ball up high and not bring it down. She's been getting some really good shots.

I talked to (the team) before the game about assists and about being team players. We had two assists against Philomath (Friday, Jan. 20) and we had 14 assists against Y-C. We only had one in the fourth quarter and once again they caught up with us in the fourth quarter, so maybe that was the problem.

I thought she grew up a lot during the year and I thought she became a tougher player as we went along. I thought she played more controlled as we went along. I thought she shot the ball better as we went along. I thought she defended better as we went along. I just thought she had a nice year.

We played hard. We dug ourselves a hole - like we often do, but we stuck with it and didn't give up.

Back when we had good rebounding teams we rarely got to 40 - 40 is a lot of rebounds.

A longer-term closure (of the container terminal) would have an impact on us.

After watching that Y-C game, I would say recognizing each other and talking to each other and making adjustments on the court that I don't have to make. I'd say that's the biggest improvement. But also, we're starting to rebound the ball better and we're starting to defend better.

I had to kind of relearn how to throw.