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PAC-12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 4, 2016

Seattle, Washington

Oregon State - 63, USC - 53

THE MODERATOR: Welcome and congratulations to the Oregon State Beavers, head coach Scott Rueck, Jamie Weisner and Ruth Hamblin. Coach, I'll let you make an opening statement.

SCOTT RUECK: It's nice to sit up here with a win. Really proud of this team. I thought tonight we saw progress from a year ago, and the experiences from last year, I think, really paid off. They have certainly all year, but this is a veteran experienced team now that understands what tournament play is about. I love the energy we started the game with. I loved our defense to start with. And you really have to give USC a lot of credit. I thought they played an excellent basketball game tonight. I thought they really scrapped and found ways to disrupt us defensively. Keep us out of an overall rhythm and turn us over, and then they hit big shots. I thought they hit really timely shots to stay in the game and keep it close. Then Syd's three, I felt was the shot of the game tonight. I thought that corner three iced it. I don't know if you can ever ice a game with time left, but she did. I think our defense just overall. 53 is a special number for us. It seems like it's kind of that number that people have a hard time getting past when we're on our A-game, so it's fitting, I think, that they were stuck there. So, proud of the effort.

Love Beaver Nation, what an incredible crowd. The people that come to support us. It's such a special thing that we don't take for granted. So they created a great atmosphere for women's basketball tonight and especially for our team.

Q. Ruth, I know you've had a couple of big games lately. You just really seem to come out and get into the game. How much confidence did you take from the last couple games that you've had some success tonight?
RUTH HAMBLIN: I think there is a lot of confidence, yeah, just being more aggressive. I think that's really paid off in a lot of ways and whatever I can do to help the team advance in the postseason, I'm going to do it.

Q. Jamie, obviously your experience from last year probably sharpened you guys a little bit. Did what happened with Arizona State sharpen you even further?
JAMIE WEISNER: Not really. I mean, that's all out of our hands and we just have to be focused on our 40 minutes. I think we were coming into it, and we didn't really mention that at all. So it's nothing we can control.

Q. Early in the game you were smiling a lot on the sideline and you seemed very, very happy. Was there a particular reason for that? Usually you're pretty stoic with your demeanor?
SCOTT RUECK: I'm a happy person, and they were allowing me to be. I just loved our energy to start with, especially. It was just nice to see. Hustle plays, you know, getting steals, Marie getting the steal, getting out in transition. It's just we got to play a really fun brand of basketball, especially in that first quarter. So, I just love coaching this team, and why not be happy? I'm teasing. But, no, I did. I loved the way we defended. That's what I was talking about. I thought our energy was phenomenal to start with.

Q. Scott and Jamie, what's it like to have, you mentioned it, but what's it like to have such a big fan base in Seattle? Buses? And it's kind of like a home game away from home. What's it like to have such a big, strong support three, four ways away from Corvallis?
RUTH HAMBLIN: It's huge. I love looking up and seeing a sea of orange and familiar faces. This is family here and just community, and they expressed that tonight very well.

SCOTT RUECK: To me, this is what it's all about. This is bigger than us. We understand that we represent a lot of people. We take great pride in representing them well and putting smiles on their faces. That's what this is about. So the way this team carries themselves, the way they play, they've earned that support. It's fun for us to play in a way that gives it back to them. A year ago it was tough this opening night because those people weren't real happy right now, and we weren't either. I actually felt worse about that than anything else. Tonight, to come out and play the way we did and to find a way to win this game, it's a good night for Oregon State.

Q. Jamie, early in the third quarter I think USC cut it to three and you scored eight straight points. What were you seeing during that stretch of time?
JAMIE WEISNER: We needed to get stops, and I think that's what really drove our offense. We turned them over a couple of times and made them shoot and miss and got the rebound in, kind of got out in transition and got some easy buckets. So I think that was very key for us.

Q. Coach, I mean, obviously 54 points from your big three. They did the bulk of the scoring, but talk about some of the big buckets they had and that 8-0 run that Jamie had and Syd had three down the stretch.
SCOTT RUECK: That's when we're at our best when it comes from everyone, and those three carry a big load for us, no doubt. I thought transition freed them up. I thought our ability to attack. When Gabby puts the ball on the floor, help comes and she finds people. Deven puts the ball on the floor, and the same thing happens. Tonight you get in a situation like this, and it's a do or die in this tournament. You need your all-conference players to play like it, and tonight they did. That's when we're at our best. Ruth commanded a lot of help tonight and commanded a huge effort from them the way she played, and that tends to open things up. I thought they did a nice job on Jamie too, but she still got free and got hers. Syd did what Syd does. I don't know. I just think that's what we need every night. We need that going forward and some.

Q. Scott talked about the veteran team and the experience you guys have. Today when USC made a couple runs, how much could you tell that experience really showed through in the way you were able to regroup and push the lead back?
JAMIE WEISNER: Yeah, we just regrouped and got to get stops on defense. We never really waiver and get down on ourselves and get frantic. We just stay strong and come together as one.

Q. Ruth, Scott made a comment that sort of indicated that maybe last year you guys didn't know what you know now about tournament play. Can you talk about that a little bit? What do you feel you know now that you didn't know last year?
RUTH HAMBLIN: I think last year we were coming off going to the championship the year before, and we forgot how hard it was to get there. And I think we relaxed a little bit and that really showed in how we played. We weren't playing our best basketball when March rolled around. I think this year we've been focusing towards this point. We haven't relaxed and we're just continuing to get better every day, and that's really showing.

Q. Jamie, Scott mentioned that they were really keen on you and yet you finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds. You were Player of the Year in the conference. Who is the best defender in the conference do you think? Who do you have to work the hardest against?
JAMIE WEISNER: Gabby Hanson. No, I think, yeah, for sure Gabby every day in practice. She pushes me.

SCOTT RUECK: It's epic. It's epic.

JAMIE WEISNER: Yeah. I think for me length is what I struggle most against. I don't know one particular person, but, yeah, definitely length.

Q. Scott, is the one negative tonight the 20 turnovers? And how do you clean that up tomorrow?
SCOTT RUECK: 21.

Q. Sorry, 21 turnovers. How do you clean that up for tomorrow?
SCOTT RUECK: Just talk about it. I mean, that's the number one thing we just talked about in the locker room. That's too many. You play against a team like SC that has to do what they did tonight. They have to press up and take chances and gamble. They had to be scrappy. We were up on the boards, so we knew that. But we've got to be a little bit grittier and tougher than we were tonight with the basketball. I think there are times when that's been our number one focus where we've been laser focused on it, we have. So it's just something we need to continue to address and discuss, and I think once some of it happened because we were out of position a few times where things just weren't right, a little out of sorts. Some happened because we relaxed, I felt, or didn't see clearly. So we've had stretches of both this year. So I think tonight certainly that was the negative. If you look at the stat sheet, that's the one negative. I thought they got a few many too O-boards, but other than that, I think it was our turnovers. If you look at our shooting percentage and so on, I thought we executed very well when we didn't hand them the ball.

So credit them for creating them, but we need to be a little tougher in that regard.

Q. Jamie and Ruth, I want to follow up on a question that was asked a little while ago about last year's experience in the Pac-12 Tournament. As you're getting ready for this game, how much of that was a rallying cry for you guys that this isn't happening again to us?
JAMIE WEISNER: To be honest, we didn't really talk about it too much. I think it was in the back of everyone's minds though, and just that feeling we had last year is enough to drive us to never let it happen again, I guess.

RUTH HAMBLIN: Yeah, pretty much what she said. Just like we knew that pain and we didn't want to experience that again. So I think we were really focused in how we scouted and prepared for this game.

Q. Obviously you don't know yet who you're going to play. But do you have thoughts? Do you want to play Stanford to have another rematch?
SCOTT RUECK: I think just either way it's a great scenario. One would be a rematch with Stanford where we split on each other's home court. The other one would be Washington which is the home team, so obviously there would be a few people here tomorrow night for that game. So two exciting awesome scenarios.

Q. Scott, you beat so many teams by large margins at points during this year. What is the value in having a closer first game for you in this tournament?
SCOTT RUECK: I think that's a good point. I think we had to execute down the stretch and get stops. They had to be timely. I think that gives us confidence going forward that we can finish a game out like this. I thought we leaned on all of our strengths down the stretch, and that can only help our confidence. So I would have liked it to have been slightly different, but that's the silver lining right there. And credit SC for playing a great game. They made it close. So proud of our team for being resilient and finding a way.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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