Gina Nolan Quotations

She had a huge bump, but she wasn't sure what hit her. It swelled up when she was out there. She didn't want to come out of the game because she's such a tough kid. It was big (losing her at that point).

She might be a freshman in class but not on the basketball floor. She plays with the same intensity that any upperclassmen does.

Only two teams, the third place and state champion, go out with a win. I think we surpassed what many people thought we could accomplish.

Only two teams finish the season with a win -- the team that wins the state title and the third-place finisher. The fact that we ended up where we did, I think we surpassed what many people thought we could accomplish. That's a credit to our girls.

I was impressed with our balance tonight. A lot of kids stepped up and contributed.

I thought she did a great job. She really played great defense tonight.

I thought our defense was the key for us tonight. We talked about that before the game. We knew that was going to be the key for us. The last time we played them, (Kate) Norton and (Melissa) Olsen combined for 25 points.

I think for us offensively, our catalyst has been our defense, and so to get some steals or a break off the rebound, we play best when we do that.

I was really pleased with our second-half defense. I expected better and they came out in the second half and it all came down to communicating better on the floor.

We couldn't have played much worse the first time we played against West Chicago. And they shot incredibly well, while we shot incredibly poorly.

We came out strong to start the second half, and I think that helped set a tempo for us.

We stayed in our zone and it probably looked more like a saggy man-to-man when they went four out in the second half.

We knew we had to come to play tonight, especially with it being their Senior Night. They're a good team. They fight. They're scrappy.

We couldn't hang onto the ball. I'd say a good portion of our turnovers were unforced errors. The ball came right to us and it dribbled right off our hands. I don't know if that's being afraid of them coming at us, but that's something we definitely have to work on, just being in more control and stronger with the ball on offense.

Some shots didn't fall, but it's part of the game. We had a few shots blocked early, and I think that had an effect. It made us a little tentative the first half to attack the basket.

They're a good team and they came back and scrapped in the second half. We knew we could never sit back. We knew we had to keep attacking.

It was a tale of two halves. The first half, we came out flat and couldn't hit anything. They (North Stars) were scoring, it almost seemed, at will. At halftime, I challenged the girls to come out to play with a lot of pride and heart and not to give up. There was a lot of basketball to play. I'm very proud of them.

Taylor and Bailey hit such important shots. Taylor's defense is amazing. She has no fear. She just went right at them and did a great job.

Sycamore was much improved from the last time we played them.

It was a nine-point game, but it sure felt a lot closer than nine points.

No matter what, now we have this conference championship. There's a lot of celebrating in there (the locker room).

It's very good for us when we get this kind of balanced scoring.

They came out and hit some shots early and we got a little flustered. I took a timeout to try to get them to relax and told them to take it to them and they did it. They responded and it was such a team effort tonight. Everyone contributed offensively and defensively.

They just never quit, and they always played with such passion and such heart. Those are the things we can control out there, and they really believed that when they played.

I'll take seven girls scoring rather than one having 25 points any day. I like to see that balance.

I think our defense was the key tonight. They played hard, and with heart and passion, like they've done all year.

Candace was due to start scoring again. She's too good a player to hold down. Our lack of offensive execution especially in the third quarter hurt us.