Recap | Box Score | Notes
Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Ohio State
Jan. 29, 2015
Kohl Center- Madison, Wis.
Head Coach Bobbie Kelsey
Opening Statement:
"We ran into another hot team. They couldn't miss in the first half and then we picked up our scoring in the second half, but then they scored a couple more baskets. And that's the difference in the game. Nicole Bauman really showed her ability to knock down open shots, but we should probably do a better job of getting her open.
"I'm proud of the kids, they worked hard. They had 24 assists, and I like that number. The turnovers were a little high, but not as bad as we can sometimes be in that area. We'll just keep working."
On the approach to slow down Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell:
"When you've got another 20-point shooter in there, it's hard to slow her down and leave somebody open. There were a couple of times where we didn't know where she was. How does that happen? No disrespect to the other players, but this girl is standing on the wing by herself and no one is recognizing that. I don't get that. You are going to have some of those mental lapses in the game, but with a player like that you have to be urgent about where she is at all times. And that kind of hurt us."
On why it was difficult to maintain the momentum in the game:
"Well, you have All-Americans over there. We don't have All-Americans on our side. Not to say our kids can't score, but we needed another scorer tonight. They're very athletic and when they catch it, they are ready to shoot. They're shot ready. There's not thinking about it. And they can all handle the ball and create a shot for themselves or others.
"We don't necessarily have a lot of people that can do that. We just need a couple more scorers on our end, and it's hard when you don't have somebody in the block that they need to double. Malayna Johnson and Cassie Rochel did a good job in there, but they're not going to score 20 points on the block, so it puts some pressure on our guards."
On Bauman's teammates getting her the ball:
"We talked about sharing the ball, and we really tried to focus on that the last couple of games. There's no reason to take contested shots. With the offense we are running, if you start to dribble and everybody is moving, you should have somebody to pass it to if a hand is in your face. That's what we did tonight, but a couple of other people weren't able to hit those shots. Jacki Gulczynski had some that just rimmed out, everybody had one or two that just wouldn't go in. They were good looks, but the difference is that they hit theirs and we didn't hit ours."
G Nicole Bauman
On her career-high performance:
"When I was open, my teammates were able to get me the ball, because they knew that my shot was going in."
On the matchup with Mitchell and what type of player she is:
"She's the best scorer in all of the NCAA. We were just trying to contain her. Obviously she's a very good player, she can do almost everything. And they were hot tonight, they hit their tough shots and that hurt us."
Ohio State Head Coach Kevin McGuff
On how much anxiety having three players in foul trouble so early causes:
"It's definitely not fun. Some of those fouls we had were self-inflicted wounds for sure… those were bad fouls on our part. With our numbers, we certainly have to play a smarter game than that."
On Nicole Bauman and putting Cait Craft on her:
"Nicole (Bauman) was outstanding. In the first half, we were kind of mixing man and zone (defenses), and in zone, we couldn't find her… she was getting too many open looks and we started the second half and the same thing was happening. So, we went man and I thought Cait (Craft) and Asia (Doss) did a good job down the stretch, kind of taking her away. But she was outstanding tonight, and really, really hurt us from the 3-point line."
On the difficulty in stopping Kelsey Mitchell:
"She's very good. She's extremely talented… she plays hard. She's really improved this year already within the framework of what we do. Tonight, I thought she made sure the ball was moving. We had four players in double figures, and that's why I think we're at our best. Overall, I thought we were really good on offense. We had stretches where we were good on defense and stretches where we weren't. When we weren't, Wisconsin really made us pay."
On Kelsey Mitchell's big 3-point shots:
"She was very timely with her shots. We told the team afterwards that we had some stretches where we played really well, but we had some stretches where we didn't. Wisconsin kept making runs at us, but Kelsey hit some big shots to quiet those runs."
