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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: OKLAHOMA CITYMarch 27, 2015Lindsay AllenHannah HuffmanJewell LoydMuffet McGrawOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA Notre Dame – 81 MUFFET McGRAW: Well, I'm just thrilled that we're advancing to the Elite 8. It's exciting having both the men's and women's teams in the Elite 8. Today we did just a good job, so many different contributions. Lindsay Allen, Hannah Huffman, great minutes off the bench and of course Jewell Loyd, what can you say about the Player of the Year. She did everything that should could do to help us win. Really, really pleased. Stanford is a great team. Lili Thompson's injury in the first half I think hurt them a little bit when she came out, hurt their depth at guard and I thought maybe a little more fatigue in the second half without having the rotation when she came back. But just so, so happy right now. I've got to get to bed, so if we could... Q. Jewell, talk a little bit about Stanford's defense in the first half and how it allowed you to get Lindsay involved and then in the second half you kind of took over? JEWELL LOYD: I think just the ball screen was really effective for us. We came out, got great screens from the post. Lindsay is a great guard. She realizes her shot is right there and she lit it up. It's another day in the office for Lindsay. Q. Jewell, with about five minutes into the second half they cut the lead to about four, and then you guys called a time‑out. What was the huddle like at that point and what was kind of the turnaround? JEWELL LOYD: Well, we knew we had to refocus ourselves. We knew that we've been in situations like that before, so we had great leadership from Lindsay and just everyone else was communicating, it's not over, keep fighting, keep your heads up and get it done. It was very effective. Q. Hannah, you were really fired up out there on the court, obviously had a big second half. What does it mean to you to be able to do it on this stage in a role just kind of playing what was there and then having the opportunity to score, as well? HANNAH HUFFMAN: Well, Sweet 16 is very exciting and I am just really happy that I was able to help out my team. When you are feeding off that energy ‑‑ when Lindsay is playing like she is playing, when Jewell is playing like how she's playing, it's such a fun environment. As a basketball player these are moments that you live for, so I was just happy I was able to go out there and help out my team. Q. Lindsay, do you recall being in a zone like that at the college level in any way? LINDSAY ALLEN: I want to say the UCLA game was also like that, but our posts did a really great job of setting screens and we were just reading the defense really well and getting open shots for our offense. Q. Lindsay, Jewell, Hannah, talk also about the rematch right now. I know it's right after the game, but you've got a rematch from last year going against Baylor. JEWELL LOYD: I think we're just really excited to play another game. We're focused, ready. Baylor is a great team. They're very consistent, good point guards, good post players, and I think we have good post players and good point guards, too, so we're really excited and we're ready to play. LINDSAY ALLEN: You know, we're really excited to make it to the Elite Eight and play a great team in Baylor. Like Jewell said, they have great guard play, a great post player in Nina Davis. They're a really athletic team and we're looking forward to that match‑up. HANNAH HUFFMAN: We'll be dialed in at practice tomorrow. Coach will come up with a great game plan and I cannot wait. Q. Coach, can you talk about Lindsay's maturity in recognizing that she needed to step up and produce some offense? MUFFET McGRAW: You know, we came into the game working on the ball screen, and we felt that Lindsay was going to get a lot of free‑throw jumpers. I didn't expect she was going to get so many threes. That really surprised me. She is somebody that's a very selective shooter, and I thought today she just felt it, and she had the green light, and she kept shooting. And then you saw in the second half she tried to get everybody else involved, and I think that's the true point guard coming out in her. Q. Talk about your defense. You guys really shut Stanford down. They really struggled a lot with their shots. MUFFET McGRAW: Yeah, I thought except for Samuelson. I thought she played really well. We couldn't seem to find her standing on the three‑point line. I thought when we started switching, and that's when Hannah came in, and I think that's one of the best things she did for us. We went with a switching 1 through 4, and I thought that was probably the difference. We were able to guard them a lot better off the ball screen. I think the posts were able to loosen up inside and take anybody that came to the rim. I thought that was probably the difference. Q. Can you talk about the impact and energy Hannah Huffman brought you guys? MUFFET McGRAW: You know, Hannah has done a great job all year of bringing us energy. She comes in, she plays as many minutes as we allow her, and she is thankful and happy to have them. She always gives us 100 percent in practice, and she came in today, she was a great spark, and I thought with their lineup with the four guards that we wanted to keep her on the floor. Really, really pleased with her numbers. Statistically, she makes some great passes, she doesn't turn the ball over, she rebounds, she defends, she does everything we need her to do. Q. Can you talk about Jewell? She's just getting so much attention. People are getting really physical with her. Talk about how she handles it and how your team reacts to needing to take some pressure off of her? MUFFET McGRAW: Yeah, I think that teams are going to be physical with her.  She's strong, but I thought today she made some really great plays around the basket. I thought the three‑point play that she had was critical. She got fouled a couple times in that stretch where they were‑‑ I think they cut it to four and we went on a little bit of a run. I thought it was almost all her. She did a really good job in the second half, but she is going to draw the most attention, which is why you see Lindsay Allen making so many shots. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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