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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 6, 2016

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Texas - 67, West Virginia - 51

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the Texas Longhorns, Coach Karen Aston and her two student-athletes, Celina Rodrigo and Brooke McCarty. Coach, congratulations and your thoughts about this afternoon's game?

COACH ASTON: I was extremely pleased with the way we started the game. Our team seems to feed positively off of having fast starts and good starts, so I thought that it was probably a good thing that we played West Virginia pretty recently. So we were pretty familiar with what our game plan was the last time we played them, and I thought we sort of carried it forward to today's game the way we played them at home in Austin.

I thought our guards played terrific and in particular obviously these two up here, Celina was really, really good today and I thought Imani came in with a different presence, which I thought helped our team get off, again, to a positive start.

Great contributions from our bench which has been sort of our trademark all year long, to be able to play several people and I think that's been a plus for us in tournament.

Q. Celina, West Virginia is a very good basketball team, yet you guys beat 'em fairly easily all three times. What is it about the match-ups, so to speak, that makes Texas a better team when you played them?
CELINA RODRIGO: I think it's our energy on defense. We feed off of that. So when we're getting tips and getting steals and people getting charges I think our team feeds off that and it translates to the offensive end as well.

Q. First Celina then Brooke, Baylor, what do you guys do differently that you haven't done the first two times?
CELINA RODRIGO: We're just excited that we're in the position that we're in, and we're just going to come tomorrow and play with all the energy we can and hopefully pull out a win.

BROOKE McCARTY: Yeah, I think we just stick to the game plan and just go out there and compete.

Q. Brooke, first, Celina second. There was a time this year when you guys got off to a great start almost every single game but not so much as of late. Was there something different today that let you get off the break that you did, that 9-0 run or 11-0, I think?
BROOKE McCARTY: I think we stuck to the game plan. Coach and them had been stressing we play really good when we start off fast, so we stuck to the game plan and it worked out for us.

CELINA RODRIGO: I think we -- like I said before, when our energy is good we all feed off that and we play well. Coach has been mentioning to us we need to play freer and not as tense, so that's what we've been trying to do here lately.

Q. Celina and Brooke, both of you had success taking your defender off the dribble today, it seemed like. Is that part of the game plan? Was it something that you saw that you were going to be able to take advantage of?
CELINA RODRIGO: It was just kind of like a read while you're out there. Our posts were stealing for us, so they gave us the opportunity to take it all the way to the basket.

BROOKE McCARTY: Yeah, it's just like Celina said, when they're paying attention to our posts and our posts are still in the offense that's an opportunity for us to drive. We just fed off our posts and saw what they were doing, so we took advantage of our opportunity.

Q. Couple of times they had Roberson on you, in particular she is a bigger girl and you were able to get around her or feed her off the dribble easily?
CELINA RODRIGO: I think we were able to recognize because they switch a lot so we were able to recognize some of the mismatches that were created for us.

Q. Brooke, you made a long 3-pointer at the last second of the first quarter. Do you remember that giving a spark to the teammates in the huddle or did that change anything?
BROOKE McCARTY: I think it brought a lot of energy and we kinda fed off of that going into the -- what quarter was it? Second quarter. So I just -- yeah, it just brought a lot of energy.

THE MODERATOR: Okay, ladies. We're going to let you go back to the locker room. Congratulations on the win. Questions for Coach?

Q. Coach, you got Baylor again now. What has changed to let you guys win tomorrow?
COACH ASTON: You know, they're really good. I think that to be able to beat Baylor, you have to compete for forty minutes. That's part of it. That's part of it. It starts there. You have to compete for forty minutes because they're going to. So I think you have to start with that kind of conversation with your team.

Then, you know, I think to be able to play with them also you have to be able to put the ball in the hole because they're obviously capable of doing that and that's a little easier said than done because I think their defense is really, really good. But, again, to be able to compete with them and have a chance, you have to score the ball.

Q. It hasn't even been a week since you last played them. With that loss being fresh in your mind what are the advantages of playing them so soon from that last game?
COACH ASTON: Well, I think we obviously do know each other really well; everybody in our league knows each other well. So the tournament doesn't present a lot of complication for preparation time because you either just played someone last week or two weeks ago or you know each other so well at this point. It's really just a little bit more enjoying the moment. I would like to think that our team is happy and very proud that we're in the championship again.

We've talked very much at length about trying to get Texas back to where we belong, and, you know, getting a chance to play a second year in a row for the tournament championship is a step in the right direction for Texas. I would like to see our kids really compete. I would just have to start with that. We haven't competed against Baylor for forty minutes. That's really important to me, is that we show up and compete. We competed tonight, and that's important.

As far as, you know, what happens in the seeding and all that kind of stuff, I don't know that either one of us are going to change our seeds with what happens tomorrow night so it should be a fun game, should be competitive, our players should have fun and enjoy the moment.

Q. West Virginia shot 23 threes tonight. Were you expecting that? How happy were you with your defense tonight?
COACH ASTON: I was extremely happy with it, particularly in the first half. I thought they shot more threes than they particularly would because they got behind. I don't think that was necessarily the game plan for them to shoot that many threes; but, again, we played well defensively and got a lead and I think they probably shot a few more than they planned on. But I was very pleased with our team. I thought our bench was great.

Q. Coach, your leading scorers were 12, 11, 11 and 10, I think 9, how gratifying is that for you to see so many people contributing and not a lot of selfishness, it appears?
COACH ASTON: I love that and I think that's the way our -- I think we played tonight the way we play when we are a good basketball team. When we get too locked into trying to give one person the ball or give one person shots we seem to stand around a lot. So I do think that's when we're the most successful is when we share it well and people hunt shots. I think that's the other thing.

I'm so impressed and pleased with Celina Rodrigo just because she hasn't necessarily been looking for her shot lately and to see her do this her senior year in the tournament is really rewarding for me as a coach to watch her because of the effort that she's put into being a better player.

Q. Coach, obviously your team has played well against West Virginia. Do you think when you get into the NCAA Tournament a team like West Virginia could be a difficult match-up for a lot of people?
COACH ASTON: They're terrific defensively, and it just is one of those things where a couple of their really go-to players have sort of struggled against us the last couple of times we played them. I think Bria Holmes is a phenomenal basketball player, and she has struggled in both our last two match-ups.

We're probably just a good match-up for each other, I don't know. You never know. We beat them in Morgantown for the first time since we've been in the Big 12 with them, so you never know. I think they're really good, though.

Q. Coach, you hinted at it a little bit, but is beating Baylor kind of the next step that you guys need to take in this building the program? If you guys win, do you think a number one seed might be in the conversation?
COACH ASTON: Well, I think -- I hate to say beating Baylor because the whole goal is to win the conference. But obviously that goes hand-in-hand right now and I would be stupid to say that's not the case. They've won it however many years in a row, so obviously the next step is you want to win a championship and to win a championship right now in the Big 12, I mean, that goes through Baylor.

I'm happy that we have an opportunity to play for one tomorrow, but I'm also extremely happy with the body of work that our team has put forward this year. To go from where we were four years ago to a solid 2 seed is terrific. I'm really proud of this team.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, congratulations. We'll see you tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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