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MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 7, 2016Chris GobrechtDee BennettCortney PorterLas Vegas, Nevada UNLV - 55 Air Force - 42 THE MODERATOR: Coach, if we can start with you, your thoughts on tonight's game. HEAD COACH CHRIS GOBRECHT: Oh, I thought it was the kind of game that happens in a tournament like this, where you have two teams that want it very badly and are playing really hard. And two teams that pride themselves on their defense. And so it was kind of an ugly game. But if you like defense it was a beautiful game. So I thought obviously the difference in the game was their rebounding and we just had a very, very difficult time. As I told my team, you know, points don't come easily to us. So for us to give up 22 possessions, we need to get them all, but that's 22 times they had another possession and we didn't have a possession. And that has to be resolved for us to beat this team. I think if we can take care of that we should be in pretty good shape. But obviously we felt like -- we came to win the game. You have to learn a little bit about us, we don't care about records, we came to win the game, so we're very disappointed. Q. You kind of just led me into my question. You guys are far from a one-win team, with the heart that you play. Even the Lady Rebels, they said, These are ladies that go out and fight for our country, they're not going to give up on the court. Can you talk about the season in general and the heart that your players have, and ladies, that your teammates have? DEE BENNETT: Well, it was a learning experience for us all season, a whole new system and whole new coaches. Each game we got better, and you can see that throughout the season with everybody that came to our games and saw us play we got better. We talked about it throughout the conference season saying we needed more tangible wins to feel better. We saw the heart that each player went out and played. We appreciate each other. We're going to keep this going into next season, because we're not going -- we're never going to have a season like this. CORTNEY PORTER: I think she said it very well. We're always going to play with heart, no matter if we're playing No. 22 Colorado State or whoever we play, we're going to play with heart, we're going to play to win, and that's what we've done this season and that's what we'll continue to do. HEAD COACH CHRIS GOBRECHT: I told the team in the locker room that I have tremendous respect. They never wavered from coming out on the court and playing to win the game. I think there are a lot of teams that would go in the tank with the kind of frustration and kind of win/loss record that we had. And they came out and prepared every day. They came out and were excited to play the game. They were actually really pumped about coming out here and playing UNLV. We were pretty excited to get that matchup. We felt like that was an opponent we competed well against. So, yeah, you do need to have a great deal of respect for all the young women on this team. Q. When you say excited about the matchup, was it the game that was here? Because you guys were in that game for quite some time at the Cox Pavilion, just like you were in this game. What is it about this matchup? Is it timely shots that UNLV made that they were able to pull away, but the matchups that you had with this team that keep it close? HEAD COACH CHRIS GOBRECHT: We felt like at our place we should have won. We actually had tied it up with under a minute to play and just lost track of somebody on an out-of-bounds play, what we thought should have been a five-second call, but that's water under the bridge. And they were able to score and that was the difference in the game. So that one really was a game we could have won. And then the game here, both the games here were about the same. Actually, we played them much tougher in the first quarter here. We hung with them and hung with them and battled, whereas last time around we got behind early and then we fell back. I don't know, I think it's -- I don't know why it's a good matchup for us. You'd think with the fact they're so much bigger and quicker and stronger we shouldn't think it's a good matchup. But I think we just have a pretty good idea of what we need to do when we play them, I think that's the main thing. We held them to 55 points and they had 22 offensive boards. Q. I don't think I've ever asked this for a women's game of a UNLV opponent, even with the men so far removed from their glory days, they still hold that stigma you want to beat them. When you play UNLV, Las Vegas, is there something you want to beat UNLV more than you want to beat other teams? DEE BENNETT: I don't think so. I think it's so competitive when we play them. If you just feel the atmosphere of the game, it's competitive on both sides. You want to go after it and I think it's competitive with the game, I don't think it's the name on the chest, just the atmosphere for the season and it just carried over. CORTNEY PORTER: I think it's style of play. We're upbeat around the floor, get out and run. And both rely on defense very much. I think that's the type of game we both play. HEAD COACH CHRIS GOBRECHT: We get excited about beating anybody, so just for the record, not anymore for them. We're going to get excited about trying to beat anybody. I do want to say that, and I apologized to Kathy when she was walking out, I honest to goodness looked up at the shot clock and I thought they got the ball at 27. I was getting a little heated. Maybe Aley shouldn't have shot it after she got the rebound, but I honest to goodness thought they had the last shot. I apologized for getting worked up about the fact that I thought she was shooting the ball with a 13-point lead. We've had some people do it that in the conference. So I'm a little sensitive to it. I think one thing that comes out of an experience like this, and these -- Cortney and Dee in particular -- their game has grown so much this year and I couldn't be prouder of the development of these two players, in particular. But one thing that comes out of having an experience like this is that you don't forget. And when you get good and you get better, you know, you remember what it's like to be on the other side and you also remember that you have a few little scores to settle. So there's a lot to motivate us in the off season and we are excited to have next year come. And we need to take all this and the way we feel and put that into fuel for the spring. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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