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PAC-12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 5, 2016

Seattle, Washington

Oregon State - 57, Washington - 55

THE MODERATOR: Coach Mike Neighbors, Kelsey Plum and Chantel Osahor. Coach, I'll let you start.

MIKE NEIGHBORS: First and foremost, before we start about us, I want our Seattle fans to come out and support The Finals tomorrow night. We've got a chance to break the all-time record for attendance at this Pac-12 Tournament. And the good crowd tomorrow night, The Finals deserve it. UCLA and Oregon State deserve a great crowd. So everybody come out and support that game tomorrow night.

About our team, I'm as proud of our team tonight as I was last night, y'all. And maybe more proud. I think they raised it up another level. To compete after last night like we competed tonight with another quality team, even though we were not a results oriented team, I'm so proud of them, even more proud tonight than I was last night.

Q. (Indiscernible) in the country, and you've said before that it's really tough to score against Oregon State. Tonight what did Gabby do to kind of keep you off your game, and then at the end can you take us through that play with that runner?
KELSEY PLUM: Oregon State's a phenomenal defensive team. What they did so well is Gabby will get up on me, and then if I go by her there are two 6'5" girls standing in the paint. And I didn't hit shots tonight, and credit them, they were all over. That last play caught the ball, went left, and I had a good look at the end. I didn't think I had time to shoot like a shot, so I kind of shot a runner and missed it. So, you know what, it was great for my teammates who gave me the ball at the last second, even though I shot terrible throughout the game. Credit them, they played great, and best of luck in the championship.

Q. Chantel and Kelsey, Coach said yesterday that he told you guys if you win that you can win on your legs and you can win in the semis on adrenaline. Were you tired by the end? You didn't look like it, like exhausted.
CHANTEL OSAHOR: Yeah, we weren't tired.

Q. Coach, I was wondering if you could talk about the defensive effort you guys showed down the stretch. That game was 57-50 seemingly forever. And that's usually kind of a stretch where the underdog would kind of fade away, but you guys kept on getting stops there.
MIKE NEIGHBORS: We did, and they really dug in. Changed defenses a little bit, changed a couple things. They saw on the floor the changes we made during the timeout. They made adjustments. Got settled in, gave ourselves a chance, got it to one possession. It was a really, really good effort. It's nothing technical. These guys are so balanced. They can hit you from every spot on the floor. Their defense is what they're known for, but their offense is equally efficient. One of the Top 5 offenses in the country. I thought Gabby Hanson hit a huge three there. You'd have to look on the ticker how much time. But it probably was under two minutes. I thought that was a huge shot for her that, as you look at the score now it turned out to be the difference in the game. Regardless of when it was taken. In a one-possession game, the last shots always get magnified, but it could come down to any shot along the way. We had lots of opportunities throughout, but for us to shoot 32%, they're not tired, but their legs are tired. We missed some shots, and they're mentally tough, so their bodies aren't telling them they're tired, they are exhausted, okay. We are not built for three games in three days. There is no other time in your season when you're asked to play three games in three days. You don't have to do it in the NCAA Tournament. We don't do it during league play. So we're always going to be a team that's trying to build to already be in the tournament and then make a run if you need to. But for us to play back-to-back with the effort that we had for three days, I am so encouraged going into our week between now and Selection Monday, knowing that whatever our draw is we're going to be in good shape.

Q. We have two great games tonight, Mike. You've been in the Pac-12, but East Coast bias is real. How good is this conference?
MIKE NEIGHBORS: It's the best conference. Well, I think we have gotten it. I think Chris Dawson has done an amazing job of continuing to spread the word through the committee. We've had three in every reveal. We had Stanford in the talk as well, a fourth team in that. I think the way it's played out, we might not get the most teams in the tournament, but I think our average seed is going to be by far the best. It's been a tremendous year. We had them (indiscernible) could have beat each other up, or we could have had a seven or eight lead too. There was a really unfortunate injury in our league that could have cost a team an at-large bid because of the way an injury is perceived nationwide this late in the year. So I've followed the league. Though I've only been in it for five years, I've been following it for 15, but I've not seen a year impact wise, quality-wins wise the year this Pac-12 team has had. I think it's going to be great for the tournament to finish the way it has. You have Cal battling to the last second, and us kind of being the upstart too. I think it talks about how deep the conference was this year.

Q. Chantel, that match-up you had down low, what made her such a tough opponent to go up against?
CHANTEL OSAHOR: Ruth Hamblin? I mean, she's 6'6. She's really strong. She knows how to really bear you deep and get good angles. So, yeah, she's a challenge. But I think we all as a unit did pretty solid on her.

MIKE NEIGHBORS: I think she's taller than 6'6" because we've got some guys on our team that are 6'6", and she's taller. I think it's a cool number to have beside your name or something. Because her wing span, she's an incredibly hard player. But, again, Chantel around the basket gets as tough of rebounds as anybody there is, and she got a bunch of them when they were 50-50 balls tonight. I thought we did a good job in there. She's playing really well down the stretch for them. I think in hearing and following their social media and their talk, I think her in her senior year, she's in the Pac-12 Tournament, this is the best she's ever been ready for the postseason since she's come there. She looks like she's starting to peak, and I think that's what makes Oregon State one of the -- if I was on the East Coast, nobody wants Oregon State in their bracket.

Q. Mike, with Selection Monday still being another nine days away and you're not going to play your next game for another two weeks, how do you handle this next week?
MIKE NEIGHBORS: Everybody's got a different formula for it. We've got a good one. We got to try it last year and it worked out pretty well. We'll make some tweaks in it. It's a healthy balance of rest, but not getting rested. We'll do a lot of individual skill work. That's what we do during our normal week. We'll bring our practice squad guys in and kind of play a simulated game in there. We'll take some time off as well, and we need just to let our bodies heal up and get back a hundred percent. Then once we find out our opponent, we'll go to work.

But it is a long time to wait, but not as long as it has been for us because we've been getting beat out before the weekend. So these are the first two Huskies to ever win two games in the Pac-12 Tournament, our team. Nobody at UW ever won two games or played in a third game. So we're in uncharted territory. We'll handle the league very positively, but we've got to make sure that we keep our competitive edge, because I think we are playing really good basketball right now, despite the loss. I think we're playing really, really good.

Q. There was a 6.2 second difference, I believe it was at the end between the two clocks. What's your cut off for playing it out or fouling?
MIKE NEIGHBORS: We've timed it. We timed it in practice earlier in the year, so I know it takes us 5.5 for us to get rim to rim. I thought we could touch the shot, get the rebound. It was really close. But they're too good of free-throw shooters. I feel like if they would have gotten it in the person's right hand, they would have fouled and now it's a two-possession game. I felt like our only chance to win the game was to dig in, get a stop and go fast. And it worked out. It worked out. To answer your question, about 5.5 would have been the number.

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