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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 3, 2017Jim LittellKaylee JensenDiana OmozeeOklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma State - 79 Kansas - 75 THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the Oklahoma State Cowgirls, Coach and his two student-athletes, Diana Omozee and Kaylee Jensen. Coach? JIM LITTELL: Really proud of our group for being very resilient. We made some adjustments at halftime on some dribble handoffs and ball screens that made a huge difference in the ball game. Stepped up and hit some big free throws at the end. Feel a little better about it if we don't blow a 12, 14-point lead in about a two-minute span. But we continue to find ways to make plays. Kaylee Jensen, thought she was really good for us tonight. Probably didn't get her enough touches on the box, but I think their pressure kind of feeds into that. Diana Omozee on the right played the best game of her career, here, scored 21 and she was able to break 'em down a little bit. They get up underneath you and force you to put the ball on the floor. With them it's kind of you can't make plays because they're going to take you out of it. You can't run plays you've for the to run plays, and I thought Diana made plays. Mandy Coleman was huge. Jessica Washington is a handful and Kylee Kopatich is a really good kid, as well. Proud of our kids and their ability to make plays there down toward the end. Q. Coach, you mentioned going into this game that you wanted them to have focus. Do you think they were focused tonight? JIM LITTELL: I thought we were focused and came out and played pretty well, especially late third quarter, early fourth quarter and got a little sloppy with the basketball and that allowed them to come back. But it's a real tough match-up for us on Jessica Washington, and you know you look at the end of the night she had 18. I can live with that and I thought we did a pretty good job on her. Sent her to the free throw line too many times. I thought our focus was good. The excitement to play in the game was good. Sometimes we've had a lot of ups and downs. I'm proud of our kids. We've played well recently if you throw the Iowa State game out, the last five or six games we've played really well. Q. Diana, the clock was running down and you threw it up there and it went in. What was going through your mind? DIANA OMOZEE: I just heard the bench counting down and I was looking for somebody to pass it to and nobody was hope, so I tried my best Jordan, Kobe impersonation with the fade away. Q. Coach, you guys usually have a rebounding advantage. Tonight it was at least double what Kansas had. What do you attribute that rebounding success to? JIM LITTELL: We talked about that, and when we've been successful and won games, we always do a good job on the offensive boards. It's a goal of ours to get between 18 and 20 offensive rebounds a night. I thought Kaylee in particular was very aggressive on the boards and Di to get 5 offensive rebounds on the board is just huge to get that type of production. We haven't always shot well this year and it's a chance for us to get second chance points. Our players knew we had to focus on that, and I thought they did a real good job of that. Q. Coach, 28 fouls for Kansas, 23 fouls for Oklahoma State, yet you shot 38 free throws to their 22. Big difference. You made more than they shot. JIM LITTELL: Well, that's what you hope for. We really didn't want to send them to the free throw line 22 times and I would have liked to have made a higher percentage out of the 38, but there was some key ones down there at the end of the game where it took to two or three-possession games and I thought we hit the big ones. Some players stepped up and wanted the ball and wanted to go to the free throw line at the end of the game, and that's what you got to have. Q. Kaylee, early in the game we could heard Coach screaming at you to get inside and hold that position and seemed like that was especially true in the second half. Talk about your game tonight? KAYLEE JENSEN: At first, I thought I wasn't doing my job and as you said he kept yelling at me to get inside, so when I started to my teammates did a great job of finding me on the open block or driving it, so that's what I have to attribute my success to is how well they were able to find me after they did penetrate on their person. Q. Diana, this being your senior season you have played well down the stretch. Is this your best outing every? DIANA OMOZEE: Yes, I know my basketball career is coming to an end so I'm just trying to leave everything on the court and just leave our fans with good memories of me playing. That's my main focus. Q. Kaylee, you're now going to play a Texas team that's been hard to figure out lately. Do you guys feel momentum? Do you think you are playing them when they are a little vulnerable, maybe? KAYLEE JENSEN: I guess and coming off a good win it will help us a lot coming into tomorrow. We just need to go into our game and stay focused and play for each other and hopefully get that win. DIANA OMOZEE: I agree. We just are focused on playing as a team and doing what we do and staying in -- everybody playing within themselves. So we're just going to play hard and see what happens. Q. Coach, your thoughts about Texas? JIM LITTELL: Very talented, and they played a tremendous schedule in the early going. They ran through a little rough patch, but it still doesn't change that they got incredible talent. They're very deep and that's why you play the game. We're going into it with the idea that we're going to win the basketball game, and, you know, we know -- we're very aware of how good they are and how talented they are and how many high school All-Americans they are. They're really, really good and we're going to have to play very well. But I have no doubt that our group is going to play hard and compete. Q. Diana, what was your mind-set going into guarding Jessica Washington in this game? DIANA OMOZEE: I knew I wanted to try to limit her touches and obviously they're going to run her off screens and stuff, so just making sure that every shot was contested and I tried to make her life really hard on the offensive end and just being a constant annoyance the entire game. THE MODERATOR: Anything further? Okay, ladies and Coach, congratulations. We'll see you tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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