USF Women's Basketball
USF vs. FAMU
USF Sun Dome
Nov. 13, 2009

USF Coach Jeff Osterman

"A tough one, I think FAMU really came in and I give LeDawn [Gibson]and her staff credit. I thought they really came out and challenged us from the start. We told our kids that. They were prepared for that. Again, with the lights on for the first time and only having some closed door scrimmages pressure does different things to different people. Today it exposed some things. I thought we played out of character, I thought we forced some things. And obviously, you know, statistics would back that up. I thought we made some silly turnovers and then when KaNeisha [Saunders] came in, in the second half, I thought again, you know she got us, we ran some high ball screens and she did some good things for us. We started opening up five six range.  And then we'd make a mistake or we'd make a silly miss. We wouldn't get back in transition. We seemed back on our heels a lot today. Again, you know you can't really look and say who really played well. I'm happy with the way KaNeisha played, it being her first game..."

On how tough it's been without Coach Fernandez and if that affected the game...
"I mean, and again, it's their coach, it's my friend, besides a coworker, so of course your thoughts go there. Yesterday's practice was not good. The previous two days I thought we were very good and we were very focused. Again, it's a combination of new kids. I don't think we can use coach not being here as a crutch. I think, again it's some new kids that got to learn the name on the jersey and the Big East patch that people are going to come attack us. And you know we just got to get better from this."

KaNeisha Saunders and Melissa Dalembert

Dalembert on if she was nervous at how close FAMU stayed the whole game...
"They just put a lot of pressure on us. I probably reacted towards it and there are things that we're not used to doing, playing faster than we should. So it caused us to turn the ball over and not play our game actually."

Saunders on how hard it's been with Coach Fernandez not there...
"You have got to let God be with that, with our coach and everything. And just keep on going. We have other coaches that are going to step up and do what they're supposed to do. We just got to keep on moving."

Saunders on how she played...
"Yeah I just stepped up to the plate because my coaches asked me to. He told me to play my game and I did. I made a couple mistakes but I just learn from it as the season goes on."