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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2015Lisa BluderMelissa DixonBethany DoolittleHOFFMAN ESTATES, ILLINOIS Ohio State – 91 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Iowa State head coach Lisa Bluder and student‑athletes Melissa Dixon, Samantha Logic and Bethany Doolittle will be joining this press conference. Coach, an opening comment. COACH BLUDER: Want to congratulate Ohio State. It was a great game. I thought both teams battled extremely hard. I thought our kids maintained composure, played hard, kept focused the whole time. I'm proud of my players' efforts out there tonight. It should be a great battle tomorrow for the championship game. We wish we could be a part of it. But obviously Ohio State is an excellent basketball team. But I think we are as well. And I think we're going to have a nice run in the NCAA Tournament. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Melissa or Sam, either one of you, in the second half you had a seven point lead about five and a half minutes left. What happened? It seemed like you guys were kind of grabbing control of the contest, what happened‑‑ what did Ohio State do or what happened for them to come back? MELISSA DIXON: I think we just kind of lost personnel at certain times. Kelsey Mitchell got a couple of open 3s that shouldn't have happened. I think it was just a matter of losing them a little bit. Q. Melissa, you started the game shooting really well. But then as the game winded down, you didn't really get too many attempts. Was that something that Ohio State did, or was that just how it worked out? MELISSA DIXON: I was getting more open looks early on, but after I made a couple they started to limit my touches a little bit. Q. Melissa, I know it doesn't feel as good after a loss but you moved into top 25 for all‑time 3‑pointers, what does that mean to you? MELISSA DIXON: It means a lot. It just goes back to our program and my teammate and coaches. As always, my teammates are so unselfish and I've been able to benefit from that, so it all goes all back to them. Q. Bethany, in regulation, seemed like you guys were a little bit lost offensively. Then the kicked ball happened. Was that one of the best things to happen, the moment you get the ball out of bounds? BETHANY DOOLITTLE: I think in that situation it was good for us because we got the ball back and we were able to have the opportunity to get a look at the basket with the clock winding down. But I think we worked hard down to the last second. And we were just fortunate enough to get that basket at the end. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. Sam Logic fouled out there towards the end of regulation. Just how much did you miss her leadership on the floor there in overtime? COACH BLUDER: I mean, I think the worst thing we could have happened was go into overtime without Sam Logic. We probably needed a 3 on that last inbound play that we ran, because we got the 2 from Bethany to put it into overtime. But realistically, without our floor general, our most experienced player, our All‑American, we probably really needed to get a 3‑point basket at that point to win it instead of pushing it to overtime. Q. Halfway through the second half, five minutes left you had a seven‑point lead, you had possession coming up the floor. Looked like you guys were ready to take firm control. What happened? COACH BLUDER: We had two possessions we didn't score. I think we had a turnover on one. And we had control, I felt like, at that point as well. And we just kind of got into too much of a hurry. Didn't really run our offense and worked for a high percentage shot. We kind of forced up a quick shot, and that's not what you want to do when you have a seven‑point lead going into crunch time. So we just let the pace of the game overtake us, I think, a little bit at that point. Q. Given the season you guys had, a loss like this in the semifinal, does it make the NCAA Tournament in a couple of weeks a little more important to end on the right note? COACH BLUDER: They're both important. This is important to us. We wanted to be playing in the championship game tomorrow night. This is very important for us. We wanted to win a Big Ten championship. That's what my seniors set out to do. We didn't do it. So that's disappointing, but NCAA Tournament is the next step. That's the next thing. I think we're going to be a great seed. I'm confident we're going to have home court advantage. We're undefeated in Carver‑Hawkeye Arena. There's no reason why we should not have a good run in the NCAA Tournament. Q. With Melissa moving into top 25 in 3‑pointers, how have you seen her develop into such a prolific 3‑point shooter in her time at Iowa? COACH BLUDER: She's always been a good 3‑point shooter. It's not something that she just developed into in the last couple of years. When she was a freshman she was doing this. You don't really go into the top 25 without doing it all four years. You can't make those type of numbers up in a couple of years. She didn't become a starter until last year, but she was the sixth player of the year in this conference as a sophomore. And she was a part‑time starter her freshman year. Melissa works hard at it. She puts up thousands of shots. She works really, really hard at it. I'm glad to see her accomplish this. But she's wholeheartedly honest when she says it's all about her teammates, because that is her to a T. She's just a great kid. Q. You mentioned last night turnovers were an issue and again tonight it seemed at times you guys didn't value the basketball. Is that something you'd like to see shore up for the postseason here? COACH BLUDER: It's uncharacteristic of us. The last two games we've had too many turnovers, especially the first half we had 14 tonight. We could have had a lead if we would have taken care of the ball in the first half tonight going into halftime. But it's something that's uncharacteristic. We gotta get back to figuring out why it happened the last two nights. Because it obviously hurts you in tight games, in overtime games. You look at those turnover numbers and you look at rebound numbers. We gave up too many offensive rebounds in the second half. We gave up 10 offensive rebounds in the second half. We couldn't keep Hart off the boards. Those are high‑percentage shots. I think the turnovers the first half, the lack of boxing out the second half was really the story of our demise tonight. Q. Coach, could you talk a little bit about drawing up that final play which Beth got the layup to send the game to overtime, what were you thinking drawing up that play? COACH BLUDER: We had two things, two possibilities. One was for a 3 and one was for Beth on that roll‑back. And it depended how they were going to set up what one we were going to do. We took the roll‑back and had that good high‑percentage shot, put us into overtime, but again without Sam, probably, you know, I mean she's a person that plays every single minute for us. And to not have her for those last five minutes, that was really huge. So we probably needed to get the 3 at that point. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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