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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 3, 2017Sharon VersypAshley MorrissetteDominique OdenIndianapolis, Indiana Purdue - 66, Indiana - 60 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Purdue Coach Versyp and student-athletes Ashley Morrissette and Dominique Oden. Coach, an opening statement. COACH VERSYP: It's definitely a tale of two halves. The first half they just kicked us in every category. And at halftime we just talked about games that we've been in before and we have an opportunity to change what we need to do. We made adjustments defensively. And then obviously on the offensive end being able to rebound and run, got us going, and we were able to knock down outside shots. Ashley and Nique hit some big, big shots. And then we made free throws, which is always big. So this is a huge win. IU is a really good basketball team. They have three 1,000-point scorers so whenever you play against teams like that you know they can score the ball, but our defense prevailed. We wanted to keep them to 60 and we did. Q. (Question off mic)? ASHLEY MORRISSETTE: Coach came during halftime and she gave us a choice: Go home or come out and win or come out have some pride on defense. Purdue is known for defense. In that first half we had very little. So I think that's a big reason everybody responded. Q. Dominique, (indiscernible)? DOMINIQUE ODEN: In the second half, we switched to switching one through four, and that just helped us stop the penetration more than when we were just not switching. I don't know why, but it was a big help for us. And that just helped get our energy up because we know we were going to stop them because we were switching one through four and there's no reason to get beat. Q. Nique, you got going pretty early. Did you feel pretty good? DOMINIQUE ODEN: Yeah, I felt pretty good. It was just I didn't want to go home. So I was just going. Q. Ashley, what's it say about Nique being a freshman, stepping up in this environment (indiscernible)? ASHLEY MORRISSETTE: It says a lot about her maturity, pressure situations. You know she stepped up and she hit big ones for us. And I think that she's done that all year. I think she's been in a tad bit of a slump but I think she's definitely come out of it with this game. Q. What does it feel like to have a deficit going into halftime and coming back and winning? ASHLEY MORRISSETTE: It just says a lot about this team's character, how we believe in each other, how we believe in the coaches and the coaching staff and their scout. And we just wanted to implement what Coach V said. She said switch 1 through 4 and we switched 1 through 4 and it definitely disrupted them on offense. DOMINIQUE ODEN: Going into halftime, losing by so much, it's like you think you look at yourself and you're like we shouldn't be in this situation because we know we're better than this and that's why when we came out the second half we played like we did because we knew we were better than we played in the first half. Q. Sharon, you're really searching for something defensively obviously in the first half. What did you think you were able to get out of that? COACH VERSYP: First half we played one defense, 2-3, played man. They kept getting the edge on us, being able to penetrate going right. All their offenses are set up that way to set up their shooters on the other side of the floor. So in the second half you switch 1 through 4, then you don't let them get the edge. You keep them out of the paint and you don't have to help as much because you're not hedging, getting over the top. The post has to be able to find their players. But our kids just believed in it and they did a fantastic job doing it. I thought Nora Kiesler played amazing tonight. A big key to our success, being able to guard Jenn Anderson down there. She was the only one that could matchup. I thought she did a fantastic job. She's a great communicator, brings great energy, and she really helped with our defensive stops during that time as well. Q. Were you just searching for someone to be a force down low tonight? COACH VERSYP: We were searching for anybody on offense. Anybody at the time because our first half was sluggish. I knew if we could play defense we'd be okay. If we played defense we were going to be able to run get some momentum going and then our kids' energy level would go up and that's what helped our defense. Our defense helped our offense and our offense getting up and down and when Anderson came out, we put our smaller posts in and then put Nora back in. I thought our staff did a good job of rotating coaching the game down to the wire. I think that's very, very important. But kids are the ones who play the game. They've got to execute it. They executed it. Believed in it, like Ashley said, and for us to only have six turnovers and then to shoot 7-for-32 in the second half and have 11 turnovers, that was the game. Q. From a coach's standpoint, how proud are you of this team right now that they took into consideration what you told them during halftime and just ran with it and were able to come out with a huge win? COACH VERSYP: We've been doing that our last six games. We've kind of been on a roll, we feel. We've been playing great basketball. This group, it's about their character. It's about their heart and grit. And I think when you believe, when you believe in the process, and this group has, it starts with Ashley, and she's believed in the process from the get-go and everybody is going to follow. And that's how you have good basketball teams. I've never been so proud of this group, being 21 wins already and being in the top four of the Big Ten. This was just a nice way to end the day. THE MODERATOR: Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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