Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant
On the production from Julia Ayrault…
It was good to see her knock down shots. We need more out of that position. I talked to Tory (Ozment), Ju (Julia Ayrault) at the four spot, and Steph (Stephanie Visscher) at the swing spot. As upperclassmen, we just need to get more offensive production out of them. We had opportunities on the road against Ohio State, we just did not knock down those shots. It was good to see Julia do that tonight because we are going to need that from her for sure.
On the Spartans’ three-point shooting…
I think our free-throw shooting is our bigger problem. I do not think we are doing a good job there. It is great, we are getting there. Again, it did not matter as much in this game, but I do not see the three-point shooting being an issue. You are going to have nights where those come and go. So, we have to be able to take advantage of opportunities when we can, and I think the free throw situation is one where we just got to do a better job of stepping up and knocking them down.
On Isaline Alexander’s 10 rebounds…
We have been getting on our five men especially more about defensive rebounding. I mean, offensive rebound is great, and you got to get in there and get extra possessions, we would like that too. We work on that. But, for us our five spot being able to box out and really dominate the boards, that’s something we are looking for in our five. She had 10 boards and six of them were on the defensive end. So, that was certainly a positive. I thought Ju (Julia Ayrault) rebounded pretty well for us as well, so that kind of helped us secure and get our fast break for sure. So, when we get defensive rebounds, it allows us to play more up-tempo and push the ball in transition.
On how good the win feels…
We have had four heartbreakers. I think they kept it in perspective. One of those teams was a top-15 team. The other two were top-five teams in the country. On the road, we were right there on the ropes. The two that haunt us the most are the Georgia Tech and Purdue games. I just think those were opportunities, again, the free-throw one kind of reared its head in those games. We had opportunities to finish and do some things, I did not feel like it was that. I felt like if you could have thrown different games in there between those times, we could have…
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