March 9, 2008

Recap |  Box Score

Summit League Quarterfinal
Oral Roberts 82 IPFW 67
Post Game Quotes

IPFW Head Coach Chris Paul

Opening statement...
"Tough draw. Oral Roberts has been playing pretty good basketball and to have to get them first round here in Tulsa was tough for us, but we knew that coming in. I have to give them all the credit in the world."

On ORU's shooting in first half...
"That first half, that shooting exhibition -- if you're going to come and go 8 of 12 from threes in the first half, I'm not quite sure how they lost eight conference games. They looked like the best team we faced in the conference right away. I don't want to say it was anything we didn't do. I want to say it was Oral Roberts that came out and did some things against us that we had a tough time handling. bouncing back "I'm very proud of our kids, though, to battle back and to make it a basketball game down to the final two or three minutes. Then you shoot some free throws and it ends up what it is. first time in conference tournament "For the first time here, I'm proud of our group because one of things I noticed when we walked onto the floor is that we had some players that were nervous and scared -- mainly because we spent six years as an independent. And now all of a sudden, this is our first opportunity at a conference tournament. We really don't know what it's like. We came out here and got through it the first time. The second half was different than the first because we relaxed a little bit. Now we'll just move forward and I think this will make us better as a program going into year two next year.

On Johnna Lewis-Carlisle's effort...
"Johnna (Lewis-Carlisle) has been doing it for four years. The fact that everybody in the conference knew who she was game after game after game, and still lead the conference in scoring, and still to come out here and get 29 against a good Oral Roberts team -- just talks about that maturity factor. I wish she had another year.

IPFW Senior Guard Johnna Lewis-Carlisle
On playing her final game...
"It's sad to be done, but I think we played hard this game. It just didn't go our way.

On the big offensive game...
"I guess that comes from my teammates. Jordan (Zuppe) has been hitting a lot and other people on our team has been scoring, and that draws the attention from me. That's why I had a lot of open shots.

IPFW Senior Center Natalie Roberts
Her thoughts on her play in her final game...
"I know I shouldn't say this, but in the first half I felt like I let my team down and tried to get it back in the second half. Like Coach (Paul) was saying, they were just hitting everything and they didn't miss. We battled in the second half and made it close.

IPFW Freshman Guard Jordan Zuppe
On the tournament experience...
"I think we just learned that we just have to come out ready to play. We can't get ourselves in a hole. We were down 9-2 today. Through the season, we've been down in the beginning of games. We just have to learn how to come out at the start.