|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2015June DaughertyLia GaldeiraSEATTLE, WASHINGTON Washington State – 66 THE MODERATOR: Welcome, and congratulations to Washington State. We have head coach June Daugherty, and Lia Galdeira and Tia Presley. COACH DAUGHERTY: First of all, congratulations to Kelly Graves and University of Oregon. First year he's taken over that program, and we watched them get better and better, and better. The three games we've faced them, I think the point total has been 6 total. Being able to beat them today was, back in my day it was a barn burner, that's what they called it. Back and forth, and the ties, five minutes to go, and both teams battling it out as far as both teams played. I'm just really proud of the fact that I thought our team turned it up a notch defensively, and we were able to get the stops that we needed. We were able to get into our running game a little bit, and it seemed like Lia put on the Superwoman cape again and said let me take it from here and had a career high. So really proud of our team for the win. Congratulations to Oregon on their season, and looking forward to getting it done tomorrow. Q. Lia, looked like you ate your Wheaties this morning and you had a career high. Did you change anything with your mentality coming into this game? LIA GALDEIRA: No, not at all. I was just focused on getting the win for the team and focused on playing to Tia and Sha out there. Q. Lia, speaking of Sha, can you tell the audience why you wore her number? LIA GALDEIRA: Because she should be out there playing and things happen. I want her to feel like she's out there with us even more than she's on the bench. Q. And Tia, being that you're a senior, how does it feel to move on? TIA PRESLEY: Yeah, it's the best feeling ever. I'm just so proud of how hard the girls fought tonight. We always battle with Oregon, so it feels really good to be able to come out with the win. Q. Lia, so Lexi Petersen guarded you most of the night but you were hot the majority of the night. How were you able to create separation and find open shots? LIA GALDEIRA: I just took what the defense gave me, what any scorer would say to anybody. Q. You've seen the Ducks three times this season.  How have you seen them change game to game to game? Do they do anything differently tonight that you felt like? COACH DAUGHERTY: I know that they had some injuries and kids came back off injuries, like Loera has been instrumental, Bando has been hurt for a few games, but they all came out and I thought they played their hearts out. The only thing that was different about them because the offensive sets were what we expected. But I thought pretty much just how hard they were playing and with great intensity. They left it out on the floor, no doubt about it. But that team, we saw them really early in PAC‑12 in January, and they've just improved immensely on both ends of the floor. Q. Coach, they shot 64% the first half? COACH DAUGHERTY: I know. Q. How do you defend that? Obviously 20 points lower in the second half. COACH DAUGHERTY: Well, as a coaching staff, we weren't really happy when 64 went up on the whiteboard in there, and our defensive coordinator had a lot to say about that. You know, these guys, especially upperclassmen, they've really hung their hats on the identity of being a better defensive team this year. We've been top 5 in all defensive categories, we've made a huge shift that way as a program. And we just reminded ourselves we're not ourselves out there right now. We really aren't. Let's get refocused, talk more, get the rotations right, and the shifts. Because of that we didn't give up the threes that we normally gave up the first two games against them, and we were able to get a little bit of help on Jillian Alleyne. She's an amazing talent. It's not one person that's going to be able to guard her. You saw us digging down and mixing it up a little bit, but we tried to limit her touches as best we could. She's come off a 33‑point game two games ago, and also I think overall this was probably the best that we've ever done on her even though she had a great game and a double‑double. Q. Sticking with that, what was the plan in trying to limit her, as you said? There were a lot of bodies on her. First off, she had just four shots. COACH DAUGHERTY: I thought we were really efficient on the pick on ball and the roll because she's the one that's rolling. We were trying to show it as best we could and get back into the passing lanes. You saw, we had four straight steals in that and then they got out of that set for a little bit. But it really helped us with the pick on balls on the front line to kick it out and show a hedge to the guards and get back to the high side so we were able to make them. It was good for us in the first half, not so good in the second half. Q. It's tournament basketball. So you've got another one tomorrow. What about tomorrow and how do you prepare now? COACH DAUGHERTY: Well, we haven't seen them for a long time. We only had the opportunity to play against Arizona and Arizona State once this year. But we remembered that we didn't play our best basketball down in the desert. We've been working hard to improve as a basketball team. We've gone through some adversity. We've been adjusting our lineups, adjusting what we do offensively and defensively. We have some young kids, true freshmen that are helping us, and get some really valuable minutes like Caila Hailey, for example. I thought she had a tremendous game for our freshmen out there. So we're looking forward to the rematch with them. Obviously with Arizona State, you have to handle their pressure defense, move the basketball, move the cutters, and they'll let the ball sit on one side because they're too good at denying the passing lanes and with the pressure of the basketball. But I think we're going to be up to it, and we're looking forward to the challenge. Q. In the second half of the game, you were looking over the bench and shaking your head like no one could guard you out there. Was there something you were seeing or feeling about Oregon's defense that made you feel unstoppable at times? LIA GALDEIRA: Absolutely not. I was looking at the bench for Sha because I'm playing out there for her and Tia, like I said. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|