17 Quotes by John Chernick

We challenged the girls at halftime to step up.

Coaching them is a pleasure. That's why when they come out and have a half like that, it's like you don't know what to do because you don't see it very often.

This is a smart team. When you tell them something, they go out and do it or at least try to do it. It was a credit to our seniors. Christina didn't have a good shooting night but had a good floor game. For some reason, we all battle it. You kind of forget what got you there.

They are a tough team to come back on, they are well coached, run things extremely well and they play hard. My hats off to them, they deserved it ... they won tonight. It was what a championship game should be all about. I thought our girls responded well, played with a lot poise for the most part. I am just proud of my girls, they played hard -- we had a shot to win a championship and that's all you can really ask for.

It's a nice start for the second half for us. We're 2-0 in the new year and, hopefully, we can keep it going.

I called time out and I asked the girls if anyone was worried. They weren't.

The girls were really excited for the opportunity (playing for the title). We went back a lot of years in the program and we couldn't ever find us playing for an in-season tournament championship anywhere. We had a real good idea what Marquette was going to do. I don't know if it was fatigue, but we just missed some shots in the third quarter and let them get a little distance between them and us.

The effort was there and that just kind of sparked us. Once we got that it was contagious.