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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: OKLAHOMA CITYMarch 27, 2015Erica McCallBonnie SamuelsonTara VanDerveerOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA Notre Dame – 81 TARA VANDERVEER: I think we just lost to a really outstanding team. Congratulate Notre Dame and Muffet. I thought our team played really well. They had some outstanding players, and they really played a great game. I also am really proud of our team, to work to get here, we came out I think with a really great effort, and we just had a lot of people getting some real good looks that didn't go down for us. I'm really proud of our seniors and the two young women that are up here. I think they battled the whole night. Q. Bonnie, you had five threes, you pretty much kept Stanford in the game for a while there. I was just wondering what was it like for you? Did you feel that at some point things kind of‑‑ you just ran out of gas as a team or what? What was the difference in the game? BONNIE SAMUELSON: I think that in the first half Allen was shooting extremely well, and in the second half I think we did a much better job on her. But I just think that some turnovers hurt us, and I don't know, like Coach said, we were missing some shots that we normally make but I thought we battled really hard the whole game. Disappointing way to go out. We kind of got within five a couple times, but it just kind of kept slipping away from us when it got to that point. Q. Erica, talk about battling down low and how difficult, because you did a great job on the boards. ERICA McCALL: They had really strong post players, so one of the keys was just keeping them up top and not letting them get easy buckets. I think our posts did pretty good as far as not giving them a lot of easy lay‑ups, but it was a really physical game, and we battled out there and just didn't come out how we wanted to. Q. Tara, did you have to change your strategy on Allen as far as coming off screens, coming in front of the screener or behind? How were you‑‑ I know you had a bunch of different people playing her, but did you change your tactics on her? TARA VANDERVEER: Well, I think in the beginning of the game, we had Amber on her, and we were looking to help off of her a little bit, and so, yeah, we helped less. She got going, and she got too many open looks. We were really concerned about obviously Turner inside and Reimer inside, and they did really well. But we definitely gave Allen too much space. We talked to‑‑ I talked to Bri about tightening up on her. Amber is our real defensive stopper, and we only have one Amber, so we kind of made the choice sometimes of who to put her on. Sometimes she was on Loyd. But we did make some, I think, better adjustments in the second half. But she got too many open looks in the first half. Q. What happened to Lili in the first half? TARA VANDERVEER: I didn't see what happened, but I think she bruised‑‑ came down on her knee. But she was cleared and was good to go, but she didn't seem to be moving as well as she needed to be. Q. Coach, as good as Allen was in the first half, it looked like Loyd was that good in the second half. Was it kind of just choose your poison? TARA VANDERVEER: Well, that was‑‑ I think they're really a talented team. Jewell Loyd is probably the Player of the Year. We were just dodging some bullets in the first half, and she picked it up in the second half. They have weapons at every position. They have‑‑ there's no one you couldn't sag off of. You had to guard every single one of them every minute, and if you just made a mistake, they made you pay. I mean, I think we worked pretty hard, but we did not play the type of defense that we needed to play. Q. Talk about what separates Jewell Loyd, and why is she so good? TARA VANDERVEER: Well, I don't think she's probably‑‑ if you talk to Muffet, I wouldn't say this was probably her A game. It might not have even been her B game. They isolate her. She can knock down the three. She went to the basket really strong, I think she was 100 percent from the free‑throw line, 7 for 7. 7 for 21 I don't think was probably a great game for her, but she ends up with six rebounds, second‑most rebounds on their team. She's a fantastic athlete, and they take care of the ball. They had nine turnovers. They're a very tough team to guard because at every position they're very, very talented. They're very skilled. Q. You've always been known for having a very disciplined offense. Would it be fair to say tonight maybe some of the individual players were trying almost too hard individually as opposed to getting the ball to the hot hand and really the ball movement and that sort of thing that Stanford has been known for in other years? TARA VANDERVEER: Well, this year has been a really different year for us. Without the post game that we've ordinarily had, whether it's Jayne Appel, Brooke Smith, you can go back to Val Whiting, you saw sometimes when we had lay‑ups, and we have to be able to‑‑ we're going to have to develop that part. We have not been‑‑ we have not moved the ball as well as we need to, and that's something that, again, you're running some new stuff and you have some young players. But a lot of it, the credit belongs to Notre Dame. Their defense was active. They forced us into turnovers. They really shot a very good percentage, and that's a credit to them. But we know that our team, we got some really good looks, and people have made shots. Lili did not shoot well tonight. Other people, Bonnie, I thought got some good looks that knocked down, but Bri, 1 for 7, Lili, 1 for 8, Brit, 1 for 4, 0 for 3, you're not going to beat a team like this unless you knock down shots. It was tough, but credit to them, their defense was excellent, and we have our work to do. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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