March 13, 1998

University of Virginia Head Coach Debbie Ryan

Opening:
"SMU was teriffic in the first half. They hit everything, it was a battle. Second half we had momentum and then got tired and wen down by 20 or 21."

On come back:
"Walker, McKinney, and Stoval weren't going to lose tonight. They just decided that they did not want to go home early, Elena certainly helped change things."

On going to a zone in the second half:
"They (SMU) were hitting the three so well in the first half that I was a bit tentative to go to a zone. But we were X'ing well, and by using DeMya's athleticism on the wing, it made it difficult for SMU to reverse the ball. Elena rebounded well in the zone."

Preference on next opponent:
"No preference, we match up well with Arizona. They have alot of athleticism, as do we. They have a good inside-out game, but it will be a battle."

VIRGINIA PLAYER'S QUOTES

DeMaya Walker---
"Basically we don't want to go home, We want to be here as long as possible. No one expects us to do anything adn when we get down by 19 our coach just told us to step up. We knew if the lead got any bigger, we'd go home. some of us want to go swimming tomorrow."

Mimi Mckinney---
On the challenge of playing off the bench--

"There really is no challenge on coming off the bench, it's about being out there. It doesn't really matter to me, this is my last year. If we paly like this in the scond half, I don't mind being disciplined."

On how big the emotions were when they were down--

"The way I let my family know I care about them by going out there and playing. But, my emotions got high from my team's support. When I get fired up, DeMaya gets into it and then everybody else, it's a chain reaction, a domino."

Rhonda Rompola, SMU head coach

Opening comments:
"We can sum this game up that we just lost focus and just played passive. I'm extremely disappointed with our effort. We had a 17-point lead in the NCAA Tournament game and we got that lead by playing aggressive. Aggressive teams like Virginia, if you let your guard down like we did, they'll eat you up."

Reason for loss:
"When you're not aggressive, you're not going to get good shots. We played not to lose and that'll kill you. What can I say, I'm extremely disappointed."

More on reason for loss:
"I felt like we lost our competitiveness. I felt like we did not take care of the basketball. During their run, we had players that didn't want the ball in their hands."

On SMU post players:
"When our post players go six, seven minutes without touching the basketball it's a long evening for us."

SOUTHERN METHODIST PLAYER QUOTES

Karen Blair

"I think it was harder for me to take it to the hole because everyone else on the team was taking it outside. I really don't think we handled the switch better when they went from man to zone. ... As it turned out, we kind of went over the lane and ended up scoring."