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PAC-12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 5, 2016

Seattle, Washington

Oregon State - 57, Washington - 55

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to Oregon State, we've got Coach Scott Rueck, Jamie Weisner, and Sydney Wiese. Coach, an opening statement?

SCOTT RUECK: All right. What a night. I mean, what a game that was and what a semifinal night for our conference. Just a phenomenal first game tonight. Then this one had us -- everybody in suspense. What a fight. I thought Washington played a great game tonight. Certainly, it's two games is what it felt like. The first one wasn't quite as comfortable for us. We're trading baskets. We're not used to that. But I loved the way that we responded. I thought we jumped out, hit our first however many shots we hit, and next thing you knew, we're down and they hit tough shot after tough shot. Attacked us, beat us off the dribble, created good shots and made them. 7 for 10 at the half. Second half turned into what we're a little more used to, and that's a defensive battle and a defensive struggle. I didn't realize we hadn't scored for six minutes or something like that until after the game I was asked about that. But it didn't feel that way. I thought we tried to go inside and they were able to defend us and make us miss. So fortunately we relied on what we relied on, and that's our defense. And our defense was outstanding. I thought we forced them into tough shots and did a great job rebounding and held on. Credit Washington for a great game. I thought -- we have a lot of respect for that team and those players, and certainly coach neighbors. It was a great atmosphere here tonight.

Q. Coach, you held Kelsey Plum to 14 points tonight. What do you think you did so well against her?
JAMIE WEISNER: Gabby Hanson.

SCOTT RUECK: Gabby Hanson. That's who she is and what she does. We talk about Deven a lot of times being understated on our team, and that's who she is. So many things go through Deven and she usually has a huge defensive assignment. And this series since we've been playing against Kelsey, we've had Gabby. And Gabby has done a phenomenal job on her. She's as underrated a defender as you'll ever see. What she does, she loves it, first off. She's got the personality for it and the ability. She's so quick. Laterally she gets the game. She's so smart and savvy.

We have Mandy Close on the scout tonight and she's had Washington for the last two years and maybe three years, actually. We know exactly what Kels wants to do. The hard thing is she does a lot of things. But Gabby is where it starts. I think it really slowed her down and pushed her off spots and I just love that ability. Our team, certainly was a big role in that. They put Ruth in a lot of on-ball situations and Ruth did a great job moving her feet. Just one foul against Kelsey tonight. That's one more than we want, of course, but she changed her shot and that was our game plan, obviously. Make her work. Do not foul that kid. Do not foul her. 90% free-throw shooter you don't foul, and we did a good job. Team effort but it starts with Gabby.

Q. Can you talk about how you feel right now compared to last year, and what maybe that experience has to do with this one?
SYDNEY WEISE: I think we learned a lot from last year. Thankful that we were able to repeat as conference champions, but I think that was a different vibe to winning it. I think we were a lot more focused going into practice this week. We knew that we're not satisfied and we still aren't satisfied. So definitely thankful that we're still alive in the tournament, but we have to get back to work tomorrow because UCLA's a great team.

SCOTT RUECK: Tonight.

SYDNEY WEISE: Tonight.

Q. Jamie and Syd, can you just take us through what you guys saw in the last six seconds when you have to get that one last defensive stop? What were those moments like for you both?
JAMIE WEISNER: Yeah, so it was out of bounds and they obviously inbound it to Kelsey and we knew she wanted to take that shot. I think Gabby fouled her right away, which was very smart because we had a foul to give, and there were 3 seconds. Obviously, give it to Kelsey again, and we knew we had to defend the three-point line and just force them to take a tough shot.

SYDNEY WEISE: I think another thing too, if they were to get it inside was not to foul a lay-up. Because we've seen a lot of teams this year that foul on a lay-up, they make it and they have a chance to win it with the free throw. So I think that was the big focus for us was to take away the three-point line, and if they get the lay-up up, make sure our hands stay straight up.

Q. You and Syd are basically locked in, probably a 2 or 3 seed regardless what happens in this game. What's that do for your confidence? You've gone back-to-back, but this is still kind of new for you. **CHK CHK I don't think we've thought that far ahead yet. The NCAA Tournament is close, but I honestly haven't put too much thought into it.
JAMIE WEISNER: Yeah, I agree. Just trying to win this one tomorrow, and we have a tough UCLA team, so just focus on that.

Q. Scott, can you just talk a little bit about what you guys learned the first time you played UCLA and you how you feel you match-up with them and your concerns?
SCOTT RUECK: Transition. Kelsey Plum is just a jet on the floor. We saw that tonight. She created so much offense for them and gave them easy buckets when they needed them to get momentum and it starts there. Defensive transition, rebounding, and they're going to come after you, so ball control and taking care of it.

The first time we played them, we didn't take care of the basketball. We didn't have Syd, of course, in that game. So we were new at the one. Second time we took care of it much better, and then we really did a great job in defensive transition. They didn't get out and we didn't turn it over in situations where they could run and we kept them out of transition. Did a great job on Korver in that game, which we'll have to do again. They have a lot of weapons with into Nirra, and Jordin, and Korver out there, and Billings is going inside and Drummer. You just go down the list. So making them work for everything and playing our game.

Q. Scott, talk about Gabby and the defense, she hit the big three to put you at 7. But you weren't able to score again. How frustrating was it that you weren't able to get something? Because it felt like if you could get a bucket, you could put the game away?
SCOTT RUECK: Yeah, they did a nice job switching defenses, I thought, down the stretch. You know, we had a couple good looks. I thought Ruth had a hard time getting in position tonight. Normally she's able to establish herself. Tonight the way the game was she wasn't, and so those inside shots that are normally shots that you get something from, we weren't. So I don't know. It was a struggle. I thought we executed pretty well. The ball just didn't go down for us.

Q. How much will your team have to gain from playing in a tournament at this level? This has been a tough, tough tournament.
SCOTT RUECK: Well, it's the number one conference, and this team has been battling all year and finding ways to win. Most of the time winning by double figures. Tonight Lindsay asked a question about the confidence we gained. Anytime you're in a close game and you find ways to win, it's a great experience, first off, and it does build your confidence. Knowing that you can get stops when you need them and we did tonight. The shot they hit was off a transition. The three hit was a transition three, kind of a strange play. That's atypical. But this is the perfect lead-in to the NCAA Tournament. Every team that makes it in is battle tested and going to be ready for the NCAA Tournament. There is no doubt.

Q. Syd, Coach just talked about earlier, and kind of the different halves as far as the pace and the type of style it was. First of all, what was it like to be at that frantic pace early on in the game when you were trading baskets? What do you think flipped it in the second half to go into more of a defensive game which is kind of the style that you're more comfortable with?
SIDNEY WIESE: It was a lot of fun in the first half. Obviously you don't want to trade with Washington. But if they're going to score, I think we did a good job responding consistently. Then come second half, we talked about it halftime that we need to be a lot more gritty on defense. We need to control the boards, and then on offense, not settle for outside shots, but try to get into the heart of the zone and get Ruth good positioning. So I think we focused a lot more on getting her the ball, and then getting more stops defensively.

Q. Coach, since you've seen this team twice already in UCLA and you played them pretty recently as well, a couple weeks ago, what are these next 18, 19 hours like for you? How much more video do you need to watch on them? How much differently do you need to game plan a third time around?
SCOTT RUECK: I'll tell you tomorrow. That's going to be looking at film tonight, going over what the coaches all saw tonight when we watched them play and making adjustments as we go. I mean, we work to prepare for shootaround of course, so to me that's a work in progress. I don't think it's just we're going to do these three things and let's go. I think it's a comprehensive attack. There won't be a lot of sleep tonight, and it's a quick turnaround, certainly. But I don't know. Then we'll adjust as the game goes. So it's a fluid process, kind of like tonight's game was.

Q. I kind of mentioned this yesterday, Scott, but tonight Washington being the home team also had quite a number of fans here and then you guys brought even more fans tonight. What was it like to have the two teams to have almost a dual home game, even though you're pretty far away from Corvallis, and this is Washington's backyard?
SCOTT RUECK: I'm so grateful for that. We talked about it in shootaround today. This is going to have a bowl game feel where half the arena is split down the middle. It wasn't quite that, but it was close. Beaver Nation was unbelievable. It did seem to grow tonight. There was more orange tonight and there was a lot of purple. It was a great atmosphere. It was fun.

Q. Jamie, you guys were in this title game a couple years ago and you guys fell short. You have accomplished so much in your career. How special would it be to add this to the list of championships in this tournament?
JAMIE WEISNER: It would be incredible. Think a lot of us remember that Game 2 years ago, and then obviously last year. And so especially for the seniors to finish our career off with that checked off would be huge.

Q. This was your second game of the weekend and Washington`s third. Did you have any sense that they were starting to wear down?
JAMIE WEISNER: You couldn't tell. They were hitting shots playing hard and scheming us defensively. But definitely I think in the second half we tried to push it a little bit more and get our legs underneath us. We had a little bit more depth. We tried to use that to our advantage, but I think they did a good job with that throughout the game.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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