Rick Soracco Quotations

We struggled and persevered - I love it. This is good for our team. They thought once they got through preseason, league would be a cakewalk again. Things aren't like they were last year.

We knew where their scoring was going to come from. They didn't know where ours would come from. Jenny made a couple of 3s, which I think they were surprised to see.

We have nine kids that had never played in the playoffs before, so that was a good first game for them. That's why you work hard in the regular season, to get a good seed.

If we come in and play like we're capable of, there's no reason we can't go all the way. We feel we can beat anybody we play, but we can also lose to anybody we play. It's going to be a real scramble.

I have a feeling it's going to be a knock down, drag out. It's two teams that are pretty close. Whoever plays the best, that's what it boils down to.

I think in that first quarter we could have been out by a lot more. We missed some easy shots.

I think we're getting to where we want to be. We still have a few pieces to go, but the main thing is that all the girls are playing hard and our defense has been really good.

Jenny and Rachel really stepped up and did a couple of big things for us. It was fun to see the juniors do things that nobody expected them to do. That's what it's all about.

Our second string came in and played really well.

That was a real battle and it was like a playoff atmosphere n it was real exciting. We played hard and it was a knock-out, drag-out game that was close all the way.

We had eight or 10 on roads. We had another six go down inside the sewer plant property.

We are playing really well now. Our three-quarter-court, man-to-man defense really pressured them.

We didn't play very well, and Colleen Smith came off the bench and ignited us. We took off from there.

We came out a little excited. Our first seven shots were all 3-pointers. In the second quarter, we started being more patient. That's when we really took off.

We knew it was going to be tough on their court and they're a program that is coming up. They really made us work hard and they hung in there.

We had some stupid plays at the end. But we went out with all our guns blazing. I'm very proud of the girls.

Up until the second quarter, we had not been a very good team in our three league games.

Those two are going to score. It's just a matter of holding the other ones down a bit.

We just picked it up and started playing good belly-to-belly defense. We picked up the intensity and started making things happen.

We were really flat. We played without emotion. The frustrating part is that we've been through this before. We went through it against Linden. If there's such a thing as a good loss, it's this one because it goes to show we better be ready to play.

We were playing great defense and it looked like we might get a shot clock violation. Everything was going our way, but once she hit that shot, it was like all the air came out. She came through when it counted. If that shot doesn't fall, who knows what happens. But that's basketball, it's a game of breaks.

Right now, we're not in a position to overlook anybody.

Defense has been our only consistent. Offensively, we score 70 in one game, then 29 in the next, it's been crazy. But our defense is always consistently tough and I'm real happy with that.

You're always disappointed when you lose, but the girls played their hearts out. We told them to hold their heads high. Last year, we were shocked, but this year we were the underdogs. We had nothing to lose. The girls went and laid it all out on the line.

This is what we look forward to. This is how it should be.

It's just a desire to succeed. Some kids have it and some kids don't. It's the kind of thing you can't coach.

It was a really good game with good defense from both teams. We got out early and they just wouldn't go away.

It's nice having her back. She was active inside and got some big rebounds. She's really improved as a shooter, probably because that's all she was able to do when she was hurt.

It was a playoff-type atmosphere. It was for first place, the gym was crowded, there was a lot of noise It was a big game, one we really wanted.

They kept hanging around and we couldn't close them out. I told the girls they better be ready. I think we might have overlooked them, but we still put the game away.

In the Calaveras game and this game, she's really stepped up. Sometimes it takes her awhile to get adjusted, but once she gets going, she's really starting to play well.

The girls don't feel good about it. They know we need to put it behind us and concentrate on (tonight).