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MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 9, 2016Yvonne SanchezKhadijah ShumpertBryce OwensLas Vegas, Nevada Colorado State - 60 New Mexico - 42 THE MODERATOR: If we can start with you and get your thoughts on tonight's game. HEAD COACH YVONNE SANCHEZ: I first want to congratulate Colorado State. What a great team they are. They've ran the table the entire year. And you've got to give them a lot of credit. They've done a great job and everybody's been close, but they really haven't caught them. And I think now that it's tournament time and they know if they don't win they're not in, they were really locked in. I want to congratulate them on not only a great game but a great year. I want to say thank you to my seniors, who had a great career. I told them in the locker room my seniors signed and verbal to this program when we just lost five freshmen, had a coaching change and won nine games the year before. And what they've done to help me turn this program around has been exceptional. And so thanking them is probably not enough. But what they've done here is helped us get back to where we needed to get back to. And we've got to get a couple more games in, but I think we will. Q. Obviously last night and tonight two very different games. They talked before you got up there about you being the focus and keeping the ball basically away from you. What did you see as the biggest difference between how they defended you and what you were able to do last night? KHADIJAH SHUMPERT: The biggest difference is the fact that I couldn't make a shot tonight. I went two for ten. Every shot I put up, most of them didn't go in, except for one that I didn't think was going to go in. That was the huge difference and also the fact that they were double teaming me with girls that were just as big as I am if not bigger. So it was definitely a whole new ballgame because San Jose, they would try to double team or they wouldn't, and their girls were smaller, so I didn't have as hard of a time to try and make post moves or go over the top or go around. Q. Did you notice a difference in trying to get her involved in what CSU was doing to kind of prevent it, as a team, what were they doing to prevent you guys and you guards from getting her going? BRYCE OWENS: There was definitely a difference. I think they denied her really hard at times. And I think it was tough for us guards to get her the ball at times. And there were times we definitely should have. And the times we did they double teamed her. And when they weren't double teaming her, they were denying her. Q. This is a team in CSU that probably isn't in if they don't win this tournament. Yet they just ran through this conference undefeated. 18-point win tonight obviously. Is that a team that you guys played that you guys think should be an NCAA tournament team? BRYCE OWENS: Definitely. They've proven that, don't you think? One loss the whole season. I think CSU is a great team. And I think if they don't win tomorrow or if they do, they deserve to go to the NCAA tournament. Q. You are obviously both seniors. What you guys have done for this program she just spoke about. What are your thoughts, I know there's still hope for basketball beyond tonight, but if that was your last game as a Lobos for both of you, what are your thoughts on your career? BRYCE OWENS: Personally I've had a great career here. I wouldn't change it for the world. I'm glad that four years ago I signed here and I came here. A lot of life experiences, a lot of basketball experiences and I think, I don't know, I just take it as head up going on from here. KHADIJAH SHUMPERT: I've definitely had a lot of experiences, as well, ups and downs. And I've built a family and I've been accepted into a family that I know that I'll have even after basketball. And that's what's important. I'm definitely disappointed with the last game but overall the four years I wouldn't change. Q. Do you still hope that there's a game beyond tonight? HEAD COACH YVONNE SANCHEZ: I would love to play. I'd love to play tomorrow. And I'd love to play Colorado State tomorrow. If you're a competitor, that's just how you are. But I hope so. I hope for their sake we can play a little bit more. You always want to get your younger kids involved when there is postseason. And I don't know if those seniors are necessarily ready to be done. Q. The Shumpert factor tonight, obviously two very different stat lines. Was it just what CSU did tonight or was it just shots not falling? What did you see as the difference for two very different stat lines? HEAD COACH YVONNE SANCHEZ: It was both. If you watched our first game when we played Colorado State, they did the exact same thing. At the Pit we played a little better defense and we hit shots. That was the biggest thing. We just didn't hit shots, we had guards with open looks. We had some that were just playing up-tempo, you know, and not really at their speed. CSU is really long at every position. Even when they pack it in they make it very difficult because they can contest shots very, very well. And they did a nice job of that tonight. You can't penetrate and get it off the bounce because they have so much help. When you're not making outside shots like we didn't do, they can pack it in even tighter. I thought the difference for us is we had to make the midrange shots and we didn't do that. We were shooting the three a little bit too much. And I thought we had the probably 15-, 16-foot shot available for us. But it's a bad combination when -- they scored 60 points and they're a good team, and you're not making shots. So that's a bad combination in one night. Q. Since the one-point game in the Pit they've now won five straight by an average of 19 points. Was there a sense that that was the shot to knock them off and you guys missed that opportunity and sort of maybe woke them up a little bit? Is there a sense in hindsight that that happened that night? HEAD COACH YVONNE SANCHEZ: I don't think so. I don't know if teams really think that way. I don't know. Maybe it did. You'd have to ask him. I don't think teams think that way. I think they're just really locked in. We had a shot at them at the Pit and it didn't fall our way. We had another shot today and they went on a pretty good run. We couldn't recover. The third quarter -- scoring six points against the best team in the conference in the second quarter is not good enough. You credit them. They're a good team. They're 22nd in the country. They do a good job at taking away your strengths and making you beat them with your weaknesses. And that's really good. And when we don't hit shots, and at times, we haven't hit shots, like we did tonight, it's just not a great combination. Q. There will be time a week from now or two weeks from now to step back and look at it a little bit bigger picture. Right now if this is the last game of the season, what would you say about this season, how would you mark your team and your performance this season? HEAD COACH YVONNE SANCHEZ: It was pretty much of a roller coaster, it really was. You're picked second, you come in fifth. So that wasn't what we envisioned for this year's team. We had some injuries, but there's no excuses for that. I thought we had the team that we could do some good things with. And it just didn't materialize. We lost some games early at the Pit. We won some road games. We lost some road games. There were times we looked good, there were times we just didn't look very good at all. We've got to get back to work. There's no excuses. There's no pointing fingers. You have to go back to work. We've got a really good class coming in. I think we've got some really good young kids coming back. And who knows, there could be one more along the way, who knows. But we've just got to go back to work and get better. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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