Chris Kempf Quotations

She's the best player we've faced so far. It's pretty scary to think she's only a sophomore. She works hard at it, too. She's playing all the time.

She does all the little things for us that need to get done. I think her ankle was a factor in some of the shots she took (Friday). As every day goes by, she'll get to practice more and more and get a little stronger. With (WIAA) playoffs rolling around, we hope to get her close to 100 percent.

She had to do a lot for us. Most of the time she was guarding a player on the defensive end who was three or four inches taller than her. Her endurance was nothing but incredible. There weren't many games when she sat out for very long. She played a lot of minutes for us.

We made some adjustments at halftime that paid off for us. In the first half we were a little impatient and forced some things that weren't there. In the second half we took care of the ball and ran some time off the clock.

I thought the girls played hard. I feel bad for them because I know how hard they work and how bad they want it. Lakeland worked a little harder than we did.

Jess is another hard-worker with a great attitude. She had credibility the last two years, and the coaches knew who she was. Any time we didn't have her on the court, it hurt us. She's a tough kid who endured a lot of pain to play.

Our clock management is where we need a little improvement. We had a nine-point lead in the third quarter, and we weren't being patient enough. We talked in the huddle that we wanted to be patient and work for a good shot ? not necessarily stalling. But there was no reason to take a 3-point shot or a jumper when you have that kind of cushion.

Looking at these last three games, I would like to see us win at least two if not three. They're winnable games for us. We beat Phillips already.

We have to start playing more consistently with our offense and tighten up our defense more. We're keeping the scores down to where we're in the game, but offensively, we're not scoring enough.

We're a good-hitting team and that's going to get even better.

We got off to a slow start. They crashed the boards offensively just like we knew they were going to do. It took us a quarter-and-a-half to start getting defensive rebounds.

There are a lot of good, young talented basketball players in this conference. Wolff, being a freshman, she plays like a junior. You can tell she plays a lot of basketball.

We were down by seven, but our girls saved their best for last. Our girls created a lot of turnovers and converted them into points. We put the game away at the end by taking care of the basketball.

We finished strong. We got some shots to fall, and we got aggressive on defense and got some steals.

We did a lot of things well and bounced back from some tough losses. We need to carry that over to Denfeld and the second time through the conference. We're playing for a home game in the playoffs.

It was two different teams. (Friday) night I felt we came out ready to play, and that was a big game for us. One thing I was afraid of was having a physical and emotional letdown, and I felt that definitely happened today. The feeling in the locker room before the game was mellow, and there wasn't much talk about basketball. Rice Lake came out and got after us. That's what good teams do.

It was another good start by us. But I felt we needed to put more pressure on them. The way it started out, it looked like it was going to be a slugfest.

The start of the game was outstanding. We got the shots we were looking for, and we made the shots when we had them wide-open. You could see the confidence grow in the kids as we went through the quarter.

The second quarter was definitely the difference. We had a rash of turnovers, and they weren't even forced. It was a lot of little mistakes like dragging the foot before you pivot or taking a step before putting the ball on the floor.

They made their free throws. We had our chances, but it didn't go our way.

They're physical, and they like to get position on rebounds. It will be a huge key whoever wins off the glass. Their tallest player is the same size as our tallest player. It could come down to who wins on the boards.

It was good to get a game in. It's tough to keep practices as intense as games.

They came out in a zone, and the girls were open. One thing I tell the girls, when they have a good shot to take it. Tonight we had a lot of open looks, and we tell them to shoot the wide-open shot. We got our feet under us and shot the ball.

They work hard. I feel if we play well and handle the pressure that I'm sure they're going to put on us, make easy baskets and knock down a couple of 3-pointers, I think we'll have a good chance at winning.

I just feel the competition will be down a little bit. And, then of course, there's trying to fit in all the games.

The main thing that happened tonight was that we found a way to win. We hit some big shots when we needed to, and we protected the ball down the stretch when they were putting on some serious pressure.

These girls are recognized because they play more than one sport. These are three-sport athletes, and the coaches recognize their names. That's one thing that helped both of them. The coaches know how hard they work.

Alex did a good job of opening up the inside. She hit a couple of big 3s to give us some breathing room.

The girls didn't quit, and I'm proud of them. They worked hard until the end. But we have to make the most of the opportunities given to us, especially against the good teams.

All of the girls did a good job of boxing out on the glass. Holding Bushman to two points she's an outstanding basketball player. She's got it all ? height, athletic ability and basketball smarts. I can't say enough about how well we played against her.