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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 5, 2016

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Baylor - 82, Texas Tech - 51

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Texas Tech, Coach Candi Whitaker, student-athletes Ivonne CookTaylor and Zuri Sanders. Coach, your thoughts about this afternoon's game.

COACH WHITAKER: Baylor is really good and they're extremely difficult to guard. They have great perimeters, huge inside presence that keeps coming at you. In order to beat 'em we wanted to really try to take away as much transition baskets way as possible, as many second-chance shots away as possible and we need we needed to hoot it well from the three.

At the time we were in the game we were shooting a good percentage and battling on the boards and definitely got away from us just not being able to score the basketball and they make it difficult to get to the rim so you've got to be able to shoot it from the three and score from the perimeter.

Q. Zuri, you led rebounding again today. How did that affect the whole team's game today?
ZURI SANDERS: Coach emphasizes on crashing the boards. She likes us to play our roles and that's something she gets on to me about. We usually try to get as much people on the boards as possible and that was just my perspective of the game going in and, you know. I was doing that and I was lucky to get the ball in my hands and being able to push it out and get it to my teammates.

Q. Ivonne, what did Baylor do to limit y'all from the perimeter today?
IVONNE COOKTAYLOR: I really don't know how to answer that. Baylor played their game, and we played ours. We took what they gave us and we capitalized on some things.

Q. Zuri, can you talk about your last five games of the season since Coach put you in the starting lineup? When did the lineup go on for you and what changed to make you so effective?
ZURI SANDERS: I would say the K-State game turned things around. I'm used to running the floor in transition and pifs do that in that game and I was getting on the boards crashing, and I was lucky enough to be able to do the things that I'm really strong at, so with being able to do that to not only my coach but my teammates, my coach was able to believe in me and that is something I looked forward to doing that game and every game after that.

THE MODERATOR: Ladies, we're going to let you go back to the locker room. We will take questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, now you've seen Kalani Brown three times this year in her freshman year. What kind of player do you feel like they have in terms of a prospect to be a great player at center?
COACH WHITAKER: I think they have a lot of great players. I think Kalani -- Kalani is someone I've seen a ton just in club basketball. So I've had the opportunity to really watch her over the years and I felt like mid-year she really started to figure things out and you saw her turn it over less, have less offensive fouls, be more under control and be able to score the basketball.

She's a big woman and she's got great talent and she is really starting to hone in on her skill and her feet and her hands and that sort of thing, and there is no doubt she is going to be a great player for Baylor moving forward.

Q. All right, Coach, obviously Japreece Dean has come on strong and now Zuri is coming on strong. What do you think about this lineup going forward for next year?
COACH WHITAKER: That became our focus is how can our young kids get better? How can they get more experience? And how can we get a lot of value out of this rough season? And we couldn't ask for more from our two freshmen and the kind of year they had and how they finished. I think they've both learned a lot and you learn the most from getting to experience it and when you can go to -- you know, when you can come to Texas Tech and get in as a freshman and get the valuable minutes and experience they're just going to be that much more valuable moving forward. So excited about them and their future and the cast we will have around them next year.

Q. 45-3 edge on bench points, is that what sets Baylor apart from everybody else's -- their depth?
COACH WHITAKER: No question. They keep comin'. That's what makes them -- especially inside, they're not necessarily deep at the guard but all their guards can play, so they can keep 'em on the floor. And you probably want continuity within your guards and who plays, but when you can keep your 4 and your 5 fresh and you have the luxury of continuing to bring in 6'6 and bring in great size and bigger, there is no one else in the country that can do that, to my knowledge. There are some teams with size, but not the kind of depth they have with the type of size. So when you can keep post players fresh, you know, you're in business.

Q. All right, yesterday against Wichita State you had one of your better shooting games especially from three, today Baylor really shut y'all down. What did they throw at you? They knocked your shooters off.
COACH WHITAKER: No question Baylor guards you, but I thought if you go back and look at the threes we got I thought for the most part they were pretty good looks and open. They didn't go. Did they not go because you're more uptight because you're playing Baylor? Possibly. But I thought our threes were pretty open. I thought Ivonne hit hard contested mid-range jump shots. And obviously you're not going to get much inside around the rim, but for the most part I thought our looks from three were pretty good, so, just didn't make 'em.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. Good luck.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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