SKY QUOTES
Coach Steven Key
On tonight’s fourth quarter
“We still didn’t close the game out the way we wanted to, like in that last 45 seconds, and that was one of the things I mentioned to the players is that I would like it to be a little cleaner. Because I do not want them (opponents) to have the feeling when they go in that locker room that if they had had two or three better possessions then they would have won the game. When in actuality, if we just spread it out a little bit and take care of the ball, the game would end a lot cleaner.”

On the Sky’s defensive presence
“Absolutely, any time that you can make a team that likes to pressure you turn the ball over themselves, they are not sure what to do because they are not getting the points they want off of our turnovers, which we had (14). But in the second half we were able to maintain ball control.”

On Armintie’s shooting
“What has changed is that Armintie (Price) has realized she is more than just an athlete, somebody running around who others can’t compete with. She can play basketball, her shot is coming along. What you guys don’t know is that she is there every day, first one in and last one to go. She and Sylvia shoot 100 free throws each day after practices. What you see is her hard work coming out onto the basketball court.”

On Armintie’s continued intensity in her second year
“That is what you want from her. You hear somebody just got the rookie of the year award and the tendency in that sophomore season is to sit back and say, hmm, I kind of got something already. But instead she came out like she did the first time she came out onto this floor.”

On the Sky’s defensive pressure
“That is exactly what we are looking for, that strength, that athleticism. We didn’t purposely funnel them into the middle because they made some very good moves. But we wanted to chase their shooters off the three-point line. And when they went in there, they were going over Sylvia (Fowles). And that, for us, is what we are looking for. Good thing for us is we were able to come in behind that and gather up rebounds after block shots.”

On Sylvia Fowles’ defensive ability
“If we can get her to rebound, which she does very well, block shots and just be an intimidating force in there, we can get out and do that running style of play, which you saw. I don’t know how many points we got in that quarter, maybe four, five or six break-away lay ups, but that is the style of ball we want to play.”

On the Sky’s run-and-gun style
“I don’t think that it was something Sacramento did that made us able to run, but they were putting up shots and they like to crash. They out-rebounded us. The reason were able to get it, turn and go is because they had ten offensive rebounds which means they are probably sending in that fourth player. I told them if we turn after rebounds, look up and take one dribble, we’re probably going to have an advantage.”

#22 Armintie Price
On the importance of Thursday night’s win
“It was really good for us and the fans because we surely want them to come back. We’re trying to expand our team, and all the fans coming tonight, hopefully they’ll see that we don’t play like girls; we get down and dirty like D-Wade.” (Dwyane Wade was in the crowd at the game.)

On shooting improvement
“I worked on it a lot over in Israel. Taj McWilliams-Franklin was my teammate and we worked on it a lot. We’ve been doing some things over here, too, so it’s starting to look better. She helped me work on my jumper all the time. I have to take my hat off to her.”

On being aggressive
“My teammates tell me all the time that no one can stop me. I think it’s starting to go to my head. I’m trying to just push it and go to the hole. I can jump and I can pass, but I have to be able to knock down shots when my teammates pass it to me.”

On Sylvia’s defensive presence
“It feels good to have her behind us because you know she’s going to block shots. It almost makes you not want to play defense. But we have to do a better job to keep her out of foul trouble. She’s not going to get every block. One of her blocks looked like a volleyball shot and we kind of froze up for a second before we started back playing.”

#4 Candice Dupree
On Sylvia Fowles’ blocks
“Amazing. There was one block when everyone on the court just stood back like, wow!”

On tempo
“We ran a lot today and got a lot of easy buckets. That is the way Steve like us to play basketball. We like it because we don’t get beat up as much. We are more conditioned and it makes things a lot easier. Steve tells us all the time that we should make more free throws than they attempt.”

On giving up lead in 4th quarter (against Seattle)
“With Seattle we had the lead until the fourth quarter, then it was like we gave up mentally. Today, we didn’t want that to happen.”

On tonight’s win
“Last year we lost a lot of home games. This win is huge for us because last year we did better on the road than we did at home. And it’s a great win because Sacramento is one of the best teams in the West. “

#34 Sylvia Fowles
On first home game
“For the most part I just enjoyed coming out and performing in front of the home crowd for the first time. Just having fun. It felt good just to be here.”

On the crowd motivation
“The fans play a big part in that. I have to give credit to them and also my coaches and my teammates, who stayed on me and talked to me. I just tried to stay focused. I told myself that I wasn’t going to pick up any silly fouls. And if I can get it, just get it.”

On Sacramento
“They are a good team. You have to be prepared. We did something that they do very well tonight. We played like we were them. You know, they run the floor very well, crash the boards and push it. We kind of turned the tables, we were crashing the boards and we were pushing the ball, getting easy layups.”

On forcing 21 turnovers, can we expect that night in night out
“It depends on our opponents and how our coaches prepare us. But if it comes down to just playing defense and giving it all you have, that’s what we have to do.”

MONARCH QUOTES
Head Coach Jenny Boucek
On how the team will bounce back from tough losses against the Seattle Storm and the Sky
“You know, this is business. I got a resilient bunch, high character, and a very close group. We are going to keep trying to learn and continue to work hard. That’s all we know to do.”

On the 2008 Sky team compared to last year’s team
“They are similar -- being very athletic. They just got even more athletic with (Sylvia) Fowles, they have more size and athleticism, but they were a good team last year as well.”

Kara Lawson
On ankle injury
“In the second half it was definitely tight, but I re-taped it at half time and it felt like it loosened up, but the hard part is when you go out, it kind of just pulled on me.”

On stopping the Sky in the second half
“Well, what we talked about at half time was grabbing the reins and getting a hold of them on the offensive end. We felt like we made things too easy for them and we didn’t really impose our will on the defensive end and that’s kind of been a trademark of our team. So that’s our big area of concern. We really have to get better on the defensive end and just know our coverages and improve.”