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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2015Natasha AdairDorothy AdomakoDominique VitalisROSEMONT, ILLINOIS Xavier – 70 COACH ADAIR: Can a sigh being an opening statement? We fought. You know, we talked to our kids about March Madness, we talked to our kids about leaving it all on the floor, and I thought they played one heck of a game. I thought we battled, and we battled. When Xavier got up, we battled back, and it was a credit to Dominique and Dorothy, but I thought it was by committee. You hate to come in here just on this note because it fell short, but I don't want to negate what our players did as far as giving 100 percent effort, 100 percent fight, and 100 percent toughness. You can go down the course of the game and see where we could have probably changed a couple of things, but I'm proud of the way our players fought. Q. Dorothy, you look at the game and it's not exactly what you wanted to come out with in terms of results, but what can you say about just how much you've learned throughout your freshman year about being a part of this program and playing under Coach Adair? DOROTHY ADOMAKO: Tonight definitely we didn't get what we wanted, but I learned just to fight and keep a positive attitude, even when there's adversity, and Coach A has taught me a lot my freshman year. This is not the result that I wanted coming into my freshman year because I always have high standards, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to go back and start working. It's the off‑season now, so just go back in the gym and keep working hard. Q. Coach talked about it earlier this week, about playing 40 minutes. Do you feel like as the season has gone on, you've really come to the point where you're playing 40 minutes of basketball, a complete game? DOMINIQUE VITALIS: I mean, we definitely work hard. The effort is there, but focus, I feel as though some plays we had mental lapses, and I think that's key. We need to focus for 40 minutes. So I definitely think while the effort is there, we don't focus completely for 40 minutes. Q. Dominique, do you feel like there's something that you take away from this one that didn't go right, that could have gone your way had you done something different? DOMINIQUE VITALIS: I mean, overall, I believe we fought. I do agree that the game‑‑ we wished it would have gone a different way, but at the end we fought, but we can only learn. We continue to work hard, be humble, but we just have to learn from this here on out. Q. Dorothy, how much have you really‑‑ at the end of the day, you didn't rack up all the wins but you're the freshman of the year. How bright is that for you going forward? DOROTHY ADOMAKO: I mean, I have to keep working hard. I couldn't really get the award without my teammates and Coach. All the credit is not to me. It's definitely to my teammates and Coach. Q. Dominique, after you get the fourth foul, does that change your mindset going into the final few minutes knowing that you're one foul away from fouling out? DOMINIQUE VITALIS: I tried not to let it. I mean, I want to be as aggressive as I was even if I had like two fouls. I do think I am conscious of it, but I try not to let it get me out of my game as to where I'm just not aggressive enough and I'm hurting my team because I'm not as aggressive. Q. Coach, tough play there in the final stretch where Aliyah Zantt gets that rebound. Take me through that one. COACH ADAIR: You want to take me through it again? My hat goes off to her. You know, at the end of the day, that was a winning play. That was a hustle play, a free throw rebound. Every coach knows, box out the shooter. That's just kind of the deal. We say it every day. I don't want to highlight that one play because I never want to put that on any student‑athlete because we could go through just a list of‑‑ we get 78 shots; 20 of them are lay‑ups. That one play obviously could have changed the game, but I think throughout the game we could have made some plays, especially finishing around the rim.  I thought we just left a lot of plays short around the rim. But as a coach, first year with my players, I'm always thinking what's the big picture, what's the bright side, and we don't have any seniors. We have five freshmen. So the way that our student‑athletes feel right now, especially for Dominique, who played eight minutes a year ago, she's playing 24 or 25 minutes now, there's so many different players in different roles. They don't like this taste right now, and this taste is going to carry over in our off‑season. It's going to carry over in how we prepare, and Georgetown women's basketball is going to be a team to be reckoned with. You have to take this and motivate and just keep moving forward. Q. On a bright spot for you in this game, who kept you around was McCormick with several big shots. What did that mean to see that? COACH ADAIR: It was great. We've been just really going to Katie all year shooting. Katie is probably one of our hardest workers, team first, and sometimes too unselfish. Katie, you have a gift, you have a talent, and we need it, and just for her to finish on that note is going to give her confidence as we go into obviously postseason but in preparation for the upcoming year. So it was great to see her finish that way. Q. Your players talked about maturity and focus. Do you think that's something that next year really could pay off because of everything you've learned through this year? COACH ADAIR: Absolutely. We will have five seniors next year. This year they were all in different roles, and we talked about just leadership and just listening to Dominique in the gym and in practice, when I first got here she didn't say two words. They've taken, embraced it as juniors, and I'm excited for them as rising seniors for how they're going to lead, what examples they're going to set, and just what goals that we're going to have individually and as a program. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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