Quotes vs. Cal
Head Coach Scott Rueck
On tonight's game...
"It's hard to put something like this into words when you have been where we were. It is an emotional day. Everything Ali has meant to us and to celebrate her. A year ago it was Alyssa's time and we got to celebrate her time with over five-thousand people with a huge win against Arizona State. It meant a lot and it was the next step in our progression. Tonight was another step and we got to celebrate Ali Gibson and her incredible career. It has been, to say the least, a grind to get to this point. This team is not only capable at winning at this level, but deserves it and that is the thing I am so happy for. You don't always get what you deserve, but when you do you have to be so grateful. Grateful to be part of this, grateful to be the coach of such an incredible group - great people from great families. It was a movie scene out there tonight. If you know the whole story, that was a movie. When we got the trophy, I was shaking my head wondering if it was real. Love the way they bounced back coming off a disheartening loss [to Stanford] when our focus was in the wrong place. Very grateful that we had one more game and we played another great team, but our mind was right. I knew we would play well today - it had that feel.”
On pulling away in the 2nd half...
"I love the phrase 'leave no doubt' and when you have the opportunity, that's what you want to do. We did that today and against a great team. When they made their run at us it was important to remain composed and [our] team was laser focused. We broke out and became ourselves again. Syd really lead the charge, but the shot of the day was Jen's. She hasn't got the minutes that anyone would want, but for her to be ready with the sun in her eyes and hit that shot. The shot had such an impact on our team and that is what makes us a great team - you getting it from everywhere.”
On preparing for this game after the loss to Stanford...
"We talked quite a bit about it yesterday and it was a concern of mine that we would put too much on it. It was what it was. I didn't do a good job of putting their minds in the right place before [the Stanford] game and everyone put too much on it because we hadn't beat Stanford. Everyone was looking to close out [the Pac-12] that night instead of focusing on the possession. Today's sole focus was to play the best possession of your life at the moment.”
On winning the Pac-12...
"Arizona State is a great team, but we don't want to share - no one wants that. If you control, you're at home and have the opportunity to win it outright and what greater feeling is there than that? This team had the opportunity - created for itself- and came through. Now we just have to be better tomorrow that we were today.”
Senior Guard Ali Gibson
On how emotional it was at the beginning of the game…
“I always imagined it, going into the game and hoping we will win. I never pictured for it to be like that, it was just so special and I am so grateful for all my coaches and teammates that go us here.”
On Sydney’s shooting performance tonight…
“One thing I learned is never doubt Sydney. Sydney always pulls through, always hits the big shot, and she is also someone that when not shooting well she will inspire you. She wants you to do well and always encouraging you. I am so happy that she had a great shooting night tonight and led us to this win.”
On coming back after the loss to Stanford…
“We just knew that game wasn’t us. We knew that we wanted to come out strong and our goal the whole year was to cut down nets. We didn’t want to share it but to do it just by ourselves. We knew we played for each other, which played a big part. We had to come together and play for each other because you don’t get that many opportunities. I am so happy that we got to do that.”
Sophomore Sydney Wiese
On falling behind 8-0…
"I knew it was just a matter of time. There are so many words to say about Ali, of course a lot of us were feeling emotional, excited whole range of emotions. I give credit to California - they came out strong they saw a weakness in us and they exposed it. I’m glad did right off the bat, because then we started to step up our games and we never looked back from there.”
