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UTA (15-5, 8-2) 69, Texas State (11-10, 6-4) 75
Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017
College Park Center • Arlington, Texas
Postgame Quotes

UTA Head Coach Krista Gerlich

Opening statement …
"Obviously you guys saw the game. We did not come out attacking and with a purpose which was very disappointing. I did think that Texas State came out, threw the first punch. They had a lot of energy and a lot of determination. They really played that way the entire game. Our kids at times started battling and looking like themselves. But at the same time, we not necessarily dug ourselves too big of a hole but obviously we did in the first quarter, but I did think we didn't stick to our gameplan like we needed too. Or just come out with the fire that we needed to to play an in-state rivalry game like that. Or anybody in the Sun Belt. When we are chasing championships you have to be ready to play. You have to come out with that same mindset every single night, no matter who you are playing. We didn't do a very good job of that tonight."

On having a balanced scoring effort …
"We are capable of doing that on a nightly basis. I like that we can spread the ball around. Really our problems were on the defensive end. I felt like we didn't guard (Taeler) Deer or (Toshua) Leavitt very well. Obviously they combined for 45 of their 75 points. But offensively once we started taking care of the basketball - we had too many turnovers in the first half - but once we started taking care of the basketball and really working it and finding the openings that they were giving us, I thought our kids did a good job of knocking down shots."

On the defensive attention placed on VanDijk …
"They were definitely keying on her tonight. They had two on her, particularly in the first half and we had a hard time finding other players to score for us, particularly in the first quarter. I did think we adjusted well and started getting her some touches in the second half."

On getting ready to face a tough Little Rock club …
"Right now it is all about us. Everybody knows that Little Rock is leading our conference. They are very well coached. They are tough defensively. We really have to figure out how to make sure we have the same effort every night. We just talked about it in the dressing room - what we try to do and how we try to play, we have to have extraordinary effort. When we don't we get beat on the boards 40-20 or our turnovers are even, instead of us dominating on the turnover margin. That is the fewest we created, it might be on the season, I'm not sure. But it is certainly below our average. We get a lot of offensive off of our turnovers so our defensive intensity just wasn't there. We just have to go back to work on Monday and get focused on Little Rock. We can't cry over this one. We did it to ourselves. We have to turn around and get mentally prepared to go in for another battle."

On Lauren Billie hitting some key shots …
"She is definitely a good shooter for us. She and Aysia both. We decided to go small towards the end of the third quarter and see if we could loosen it up a little bit, knock down some shots and see if we couldn't get some of our better shooters out there. She did a good job with that. She is one of our better defenders in the full court. She can give us some energy like that. I was proud of her for coming in and knocking those down."

UTA Student-Athlete

#44, Jr., Rebekah VanDijk, C

On the game …
"They did a good job of coming in and working hard. They outworked us and that is our fault. We can't have that. I could've worked harder. We just have to work to find open spots. They did a good job but it was still definitely us too that could get better."

On moving into the league record books for blocked shots …
"I didn't know that. Thank you. That is just how I can help my team defensively. It is a good accomplishment but I definitely couldn't do it without my team."