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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2015Breanna LewisJeff MittieHaley TexadaDALLAS, TEXAS Kansas State - 57 COACH MITTIE: Thank you. Well, good, hard-fought game as you would expect, two rivals going at it. The third game of the year obviously, but just a good hard fought game. We struggled offensively most of the game but we seemed to find enough offense in the second half going through Bre Lewis, both Texada and Lewis had the best look offensively and those were the two we kind of rode to the finish. Q. Haley, how fun was it for you out there? HALEY TEXADA: It's always a good time playing in front of family and just a home crowd, but like I said, we just try to go out and play hard and in the end we got a win and that's what happens when you do that. Q. Breanna, you really came on in the second half, what clicked for you? BREANNA LEWIS: I just tried to blow off the first half and just not focus on the mistakes I've made, and just try to improve on the second half and just take it one step at a time. Q. Breanna, can you talk about the first half? They shot horribly, I think it was 3 for 22. Did you feel like you missed a chance to really put this game away early? BREANNA LEWIS: No, I don't really try to focus on the things that I could have done better or should have done better, I just try to improve on the next time. I mean, I didn't feel like I missed out on any opportunity to score because that's not really what I'm really about, but I mean I was just happy that we were up and that we were playing well. Q. Haley, what was Coach saying to you maybe in those last few timeouts as Kansas was starting to come back before you guys pulled away? HALEY TEXADA: Just do the little stuff. We kind of, you know, came out of focus and were kind of losing our heads towards the end and giving them open looks. Just stay calm, get yourself gathered and play smart. Q. You mentioned this was a game both teams struggled early on at first but it took key baskets. In a game like this, I like to call them grinder games, and I'm directing this to Haley, what do you rely on the most, the shooting, the defense, the combination of both? What do you rely on to pull you through? HALEY TEXADA: Personally, I would say defense, offense will take care of itself, but I'm pretty confident in our offense as a team. When we really want to get after it, we get it done. That's what happened late in the game with Ashia getting a couple tips, you know, pressuring a couple of players, Kindred there to take the steal and just being really amped up on our defensive end. Q. Haley, this is a sweep obviously over Kansas, three in a row. Talk to me how this game compared to the other two? HALEY TEXADA: They're all the same, every single one matters with them, every second we pour our hearts out because it's not only just KU, it's our rival, it's always nice to sweep them anytime we can. Q. Jeff, I just want to ask you the same thing I asked them. As poorly as Kansas State was shooting that first half, did you feel like you let a chance get away? And what did you tell them at halftime about what was going to happen from that point? COACH MITTIE: Well, foul trouble really impacted our rotation. We felt like we were getting good stuff with Lou early in the game, but then she had to sit awhile, and Ashia did, too, so we got out of rhythm offensively. Obviously I thought our defense was good. We thought Kansas was going to make some shots. I think they were 0 for 6 in the first half from three and they're the percentage leader in the Big 12, so you know you're going to make some. We just talked to our group, same thing we always talk to them about, four minutes at a time. I think because of the emotion of the rivalry game in the mid part we did kind of lose our discipline of the second half. Kristin, you asked about what we talked about. We really talked -- I thought the middle dribble was hurting us and then they were getting us rotating and then they were kicking out. Aldridge got hot. They started to get more people involved, so we just talked about getting back to keeping the ball on one side of the floor, if we would do that we would be in rotation less and cover up on the shooters better, so that was really the message the last five, six minutes of the game. Transition D was also a part of that because they were catching us early. Aldridge got her first two looks on an early push and then it kicked behind, and we just didn't do a very good job there. Q. Coach, the free throws, you miss only one, how key was that especially as it got close there toward the end? COACH MITTIE: It was big because we were four for four in the first half, we didn't shoot a free throw until the last five minutes of the second half and it was a big concern of ours because we were having trouble getting to the free throw line. We got there late, Texada got that thing started, Ash got a big rebound tip that kind of got battered around that Lou got to the free throw line but it was big to convert because points -- you know, you guys asked earlier about this game, when Texada says they've all been the same, the scores are 58-52, the first one. The second one was, I don't even remember. What was the score, anybody remember? That was Randy Peterson from the Sports Information Department. 55-48. You can see the similarities right there. 57-49. These games have been grind-it games. They have had many runs to them, they haven't had huge runs because both of us struggle offensively at times but they've been grind-it games. We're fortunate to come out on the top end but free throws played a big part in that. Q. Obviously a short turnaround to tomorrow, that's the way the tournament is, but you've got No. 1 Baylor tomorrow. How do you feel about that, and how do you prepare for that in the short turnaround? COACH MITTIE: Well, it beats the alternative, okay, so you know, that's this time of the year. Yeah, I'm glad to be playing tomorrow. Baylor's a great basketball team. They have gone through that 18-game gauntlet and been Big 12 champion again, so we know we have our hands full and we've got to play better than we played today and we've got to play better than we played previously, but the beauty of March is you get that opportunity and we're looking forward to it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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