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MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 7, 2016Jane AlbrightNyasha LeSureTeige ZellerLas Vegas, Nevada Utah State - 59 Nevada - 35 THE MODERATOR: Coach, if we can start with you. Some thoughts on tonight's game. HEAD COACH JANE ALBRIGHT: First of all, congratulations to Utah State on winning the game. It wasn't like we wanted it to be. And we shot the ball poorly. I don't know that we've shot 18 percent, I don't know if I remember that in a game in my career like that. Obviously it's not the season ending that we wanted. Nobody wants to end. It's pretty documented that we lost three of our starters, ACL's at the beginning of the year. We had really, really high hopes, even if nobody else had them for us. We were practicing well. And then in the last week and a half Nyasha has been out, she hasn't practiced with the team. She played today, she practiced yesterday. She got a concussion the last time we played Utah State. We played the last three games theoretically without four of our starters. That being said, our young team really showed a lot of youth today. I thought the first quarter, if you look for a positive, the score was 10-10. Did a nice job, didn't have two turnovers in the first half. Did some good things defensively. Utah State is long, lean. Funda is a really good point guard. We knew we had to contain her. We knew we had to keep them off the free throw line. And the second quarter they get nine free throws. So that was definitely the difference in the second quarter. But, again, their defense probably had something to do with it. Shooting 18 percent and hats off to them. We've got a couple of seniors, Kelsey and Nyasha. Nyasha had a tough night offensively, but she battled really, really hard and got 10 rebounds. I was really pleased with her. Congratulations to her for getting honorable mention All Conference. And Riana for getting on the all freshman team. But we'll go back and see if we can get those three -- actually, we have four people that have ACL's, and see if we can get them healthy. And see if we can do a better job next year. Q. I'd asked the coach of Utah State the same thing, on the reverse side, they really weren't dominant all year as far as their scoring defense. They finished 8th in the league, allowed 68. But in the regular season they averaged 60. Tonight 35. What is it about the matchups that makes it so tough for you, for the players? What do you see from the three games total that makes it hard to play against this team? HEAD COACH JANE ALBRIGHT: Well, I'm not trying to be a smart aleck, but if I knew that I wouldn't have let it happen. Their hide is really hard. They doubled our post players. Our leading scorer had 7 points. Guards missed layups. I don't know if that's because of their defense. They're very well coached. But we fouled them. We did. We had a hard time getting to the free throw line. Funda, I think, is one of the better players. I think she could have been a player of the year type candidate. She's a really tough player, she demands a lot of attention. I know one time a little bit later in the game, we doubled, did a lot of good rotation, and she found the only open person on the court, who hit a three. Those kind of things, they had some people that made some really good shots. And I don't know, they made their shots and we didn't. I thought we got good shots in the first half and some pretty good ones in the second one. But I can't exactly answer. Watched a lot of film. I thought we had a good game plan. What we thought we would have to do was keep them out of transition, off the free throw line, and then out-rebound them, and we didn't do any of that. Knowing what to do and doing it is a different thing. But we did battle hard for a long time. I don't think we finished it. It was hard. But it's pretty devastating to be -- I didn't think this team had a lot left in them, they gave us what they had. Q. On their defensive effort? NYASHA LeSURE: I would say their length. We're not the biggest team in the conference. So I think definitely we got the looks that we wanted first half, at least, and I don't think they really stopped us. I think a lot of it was us stopping ourselves, and just not putting the ball in the hoop at the end of the day. Their length really bothers us. And they pack the paint and we're more of a driving team. So that might be -- I guess that could be it. TEIGE ZELLER: Yeah, I think our game plan to drive and be quicker against them was good. But I do prefer like being on the block. And their length and size does bother me. So I was just thinking in the locker room like for next year I've got to come up with a game plan to figure out how to be better against bigger posts. Q. Regardless of what the lead was, even if you got aggressive and you made, as you said, when there was a double team, she found an open person. They hit so many timely shots from around the perimeter, wherever it may have been. Did that slowly just methodically wear you down and take you out of your rhythm mentally? HEAD COACH JANE ALBRIGHT: Well, yes, it did. And that combined with the fact that we didn't get to the free throw line. How many free throws did they shoot? 22. They're the best free throw shooting team in the league, we knew that. That was the top of the list, we can't foul. And I saw a lot of frustration fouls in the first half, we had every player on our team with two fouls, that's not a lot of players. I think maybe one didn't have two. Five of those were frustration fouls. And again, that is what it is. They were on the bench then because -- a lot of reasons. But, I mean, did it that answer it? It was offensively and defense. We didn't get any easy buckets. Our goal was to get ten points on easy buckets. Kelsey is a two guard. She played one guard. And she did really battle Funda hard. But it's hard for us to get the ball down the middle and create a lot of openings for our people. So that was one of our problems offensively. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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