The Golden Eagles tallied 76 points in the paint this weekend in the games versus South Florida and UAB, while their two opponents managed only 38. Most of the damage was done by sophomore center Christina Quaye, who finished the weekend with 41 points.

Head coach Terri Mitchell felt that the team was able to cue off of "Q" Sunday.

"Christina Quaye played with a lot of energy and passion today," Mitchell said. "We went with the same mentality as Friday of getting the ball inside. We were going to give her a lot of looks early as long as she can stay with it."

Help me out if you can

The team also finished the weekend with a total of 45 assists. Going into Sunday's game, the Golden Eagles were second in Conference USA in assists, trailing only DePaul.

"We're unselfish kids and it doesn't matter how many points we score individually as long as we win and that's what we go into every game thinking," junior point guard Carolyn Kieger said. "After the Tulane game we decided that we had to come together to be successful as a team," sophomore forward Danielle Kamm said.

Everybody hurts

In the Sunday game versus UAB, the Blazers' Carmen Guzman injured her right leg in the second half and was on the court crying in pain for several minutes before UAB assistant Daryl Oliver had to carry her off the court.

Break the presses!

The Golden Eagles were faced with a full-court press in both games this weekend, but handled the pressure with relative ease, bringing the ball up the court successfully.

"We stressed breaking the press every day in practice," Mitchell said. "We watched them on film we knew how good they are and that they could get going using the press. It started with breaking the press, taking care of the ball and taking the shots we wanted."

Share the burden

In the first half against UAB, Quaye, Kieger and senior forward Lesley Juedes were the only players to score for the Golden Eagles. More players got into the act in the second half as nine players ended up scoring.

"Coach Mitchell came in the locker room and told us that (only three players scored in the first half) and that more players needed to attack," Kieger said.

"I think we did a good job of that in the second half."

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 1 2005.