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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: LEXINGTON

March 27, 2016

Lexington, Kentucky

Washington - 85, Stanford - 76

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us for the Stanford women's basketball team. We are joined by Tara VanDerveer, and student-athletes Erica McCall and Lili Thompson. Also, McCall and Thompson have been named to the All-Tournament Team. Coach, an opening statement...

TARA VANDERVEER: First, I'd like to congratulate Washington. I thought they played a great game. I'm really excited that we will be represented by the Pac-12 at the Final Four. I obviously hope another team goes, too.

Secondly, I just felt that for our team I'm really proud of how our team battled. We played really well for three quarters and really outscored them in three quarters. But unfortunately we dug ourselves too big a hole in the first quarter. But we just for some reason did not come out with the intensity and aggressiveness that we needed to.

But I'm really proud of our team. We've had a great season. We have a very young team that I hope will rededicate itself in the offseason, and we want to be back here and going to the Final Four next year.

Q. Lili, that first quarter was it just shots not falling or what caused the team's slow start?
LILI THOMPSON: I think that they came out with more energy than us. I think that those first few possessions they really put their heads down, they were aggressive, and they kind of just came out and threw the first punch.

Q. What about the Washington 2-3 zone that's made you struggle all year against it?
ERICA McCALL: I think it's just something that just looking for the right shot. Yeah, we definitely struggled with that, and when we do get the shot, maybe it's the pressure of their defense, but just having a hard time knocking it down. They have a really good defense. As you said, we struggled with it all year, so hopefully we'll come back next year and find a way to solve that problem.

Q. Erica, you were 0-for-7 in the first half. Personally what were they doing to kind of get you to not produce at the clip that you usually do?
ERICA McCALL: Yeah, I just felt I didn't have the energy that I've had in the previous games where I could knock down my shots. I mean, they had good defensive pressure, but I think a lot of it was just on me and how my performance was and how my energy level was. I had teammates like Lili to pick me up, and that definitely helped me out in the second half.

Q. Erica, pretty physical inside, you held your own with rebounds today.
ERICA McCALL: Yeah, (Chantel) Osahor is a pretty physical player. One of our main things was to box out and limit their defensive boards. So, yeah, they're pretty physical, but I'm proud of how me and the bigs rebounded.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the head coach?

Q. Tara, did you feel coming in in the beginning of the game that you guys were kind of low on energy and maybe Washington would have had a run like this?
TARA VANDERVEER: Again, I don't know that I can ever get in the heads of 18-to-22-year-olds. It was disappointing. To come out -- but, again, I credit Washington. First of all, both Kelsey Plum and Chantel Osahor had tremendous games. Osahor was really the difference. She came down and hit two 3s in transition to a 10-0 run. I don't even know if it was a 12-0 run or 13-0 run. You can't start against a team like that. So defensively we were a step slow.

You could say, maybe it's so early West Coast time, but they're West Coast, too. I don't have really answers for it. It was disappointing. I think we did regroup and we had some people making some plays. But we count on Bird scoring, and I think that we have a very young team that I hope will learn a lot from this experience, and we know how fortunate we are to be here just with the close game we had with South Dakota State and also with Notre Dame. We're disappointed, but hopefully that will energize people to look to be more skilled basketball players.

They have a very skilled team. Kelsey Plum is an All-American, flat out, period. There is no player that we played on any other team all year that was harder to guard than her. So she ended up with like 26 points and that's her average. You can't foul her. You can't take away left, you can't take away right. She's really a great player. And Osahor had a great game.

I think for us we really struggled finding any combination on the floor. Like Bird is kind of more of a face-up, post player, so being inside against Osahor was really tough on her, and they're very physical.

Q. I know you talked about Osahor, but I think she made like three baskets in the first two games against y'all; a ton of rebounds, but not much scoring. What was the difference today that she was able to have so much success?
TARA VANDERVEER: Well, she came down the court the first five possessions and how many 3s did she have? She made two 3s right off the bat. And I don't know when her third 3 came, but she hit two 3s right off the bat where like where was our defense on that one? It was very disappointing to see that.

She's very capable. We know she can hit shots up there. So going 8-for-11, and then she's really out there and then she's very physical. Gets on the low block, scored on the low block, made free throws, rebounds in the zone. So, I mean, I think that she really doesn't play the fast pace, but we were not able to speed them up to make that be an issue. She still played 39 minutes.

Their team played really well. Their team is playing really well, and it would -- I don't feel like we lost to a bad team. We lost to a very good team.

Q. How difficult was the comeback with Karlie (Samuelson) going out like she did?
TARA VANDERVEER: Yeah, that was very disappointing. Karlie getting four fouls in the third quarter, we're in trouble without her out there. I did think that Britt (McPhee) came in and gave us some good minutes. We're playing two freshmen with Marta (Sniezek) and Alanna (Smith), and I don't think they have any freshmen out there. I mean, this is the big stage. This is great experience for people, but we didn't get the results that obviously we wanted or needed.

Q. Obviously that South Dakota State game you all were able to come all the way back, even trailing all day today, what did you sense was the attitude of your players down the stretch? Did you think they were still pumped?
TARA VANDERVEER: Definitely. We got it to four and then unfortunately turned it over. I think we kind of had to get over that hump. We had to tie it up or get some kind of lead. I won't tell you that it ever felt good. Like Bird said, I don't know. She had again -- she didn't feel like she had the energy. I think that's where we're not used to maybe playing -- we're used to playing a certain way and we weren't able to get out running. We weren't able to really move the ball. I thought we got some good looks against the zone, but we really didn't get anything inside. So we're all -- it's all threes. We shot 33 threes, which is I think probably the most we shot all year.

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