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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 4, 2017Sharon VersypDominique OdenAshley MorrissetteIndianapolis, Indiana Purdue - 71, Ohio State - 60 THE MODERATOR: Purdue has joined us. We'll go to Coach Versyp for an opening statement and then we'll go to Dominique and Ashley for questions. COACH VERSYP: Ohio State's an exceptional basketball team. And when we played them at home we felt we did some good things against them. And tried to do some of the same things, adjusted some things on our defense, and our players just did a great job of executing our game plan defensively. And then offensively we tried to control the tempo as much as possible. Ashley did just an amazing job controlling the game the whole time. And when the ball was in her hands, breaking the press, she just did it exceptionally well. Sometimes we're aggressive. Sometimes we pulled it back using clock as much as possible. But this is obviously a big win for us getting to the finals and our free throws were exceptional today. Q. Ashley, just managing their press, the job you guys were able to do, you in particular, and being able to get the ball in the front court and take advantage of the opportunities when they were there or back into the half court, just take us through the decision-making process there and how you think you were able to manage that? ASHLEY MORRISSETTE: They definitely were trying to deny me the ball. But when the ball got in and they would collapse, I would just find the open person, because if two people are on me then somebody has to be open. So I would try to get the ball to the middle as much as possible so we would have an option on both sides or up the sideline if nobody was at the sideline, to Nique or Keys. Q. When you're playing against a team who is Big Ten champion, they're going to be heavy favorites in this game is there a sense you have nothing to lose in this one? Does that affect you at all? DOMINIQUE ODEN: Definitely, because there's nothing to lose when you're playing a team that everybody expects to win. And it's just, well, you feel like we're just going to win anyway because y'all expect us to lose. Q. Ashley, while you guys wanted to control the clock, how important was it to pick your spots and be aggressive and attack them when you had those opportunities? ASHLEY MORRISSETTE: You know, obviously we had a wide-open layup, take it. That's what we were talking about in huddles. But definitely we wanted to make them play defense 30 seconds. They like to push the ball. They like a fast-tempo game. They want you to take the first shot that's open so they can rebound and run on you. But sometimes we would just slow the tempo down, run some time off the clock. If it got too hectic, that's when we would do that. Q. Ashley, what do you try to do against Mitchell, because that was her second off game against Purdue? ASHLEY MORRISSETTE: We, as a team, you know, in huddles we were just like on a string, you know, one team. So we definitely did a great job on her. We surrounded her with two people almost at all times. We wanted to make her play on the right side of the floor. They ran a couple of plays where she got open looks on the left side of the floor. But I thought as a team we did a great job defending her. Q. Ashley, can you talk about your role in the zone against Mitchell? ASHLEY MORRISSETTE: You know, when we ran one, which is 1-2-2, at the top I would just want to force her to the right side of the floor. And then we would have a wing that would crowd her, and then I would just try to not let her go back left. And then we ran a 2-3 zone. I thought Nique did a great job, whoever was at the top with me, did a great job of just extending the 3-point line. She has deep range. So we didn't want to play a regular 2-3. It was almost like an extended 2-3 because she can come down and pull from anywhere. Q. Ashley, first, what's going on with this team? Three weeks now, seven straight. You got your marquee win that you've been searching all season for, what's up? ASHLEY MORRISSETTE: Honestly, we believe in each other. We have great team chemistry. We trust in each other, you know. We've been through some tough losses, you know, to ranked teams, and we just pretty much said we're not losing again. Q. Dominique? DOMINIQUE ODEN: I agree with Ashley wholeheartedly. We trust each other as a team. We're together with everything. We win and lose together, no matter what. It's like everybody cares about us as a team; it's not about individuals. Q. Dominique, you set the school record for 3-pointers made, what does that mean to you? DOMINIQUE ODEN: It just means, for me, I just helped my team win. And it doesn't mean anything personally because like, yeah, I've set a record, but it's helped us win and that's the most important thing. Q. Dominique, are you kind of growing up these last two games, the ability to hit some big shots in key moments? DOMINIQUE ODEN: Definitely. I feel like my mindset and my mentality has definitely grown since coming into the tournament. I don't know why, but it has, and I'm glad it has. Q. Sharon, 31 defensive rebounds. You guys cleaned the boards. You eliminated a lot of second shots that Ohio State loves to do. Did you work on that pretty hard? COACH VERSYP: We work on it every day. Why work so hard on defense and then not secure the rebound? And our identity is defense, and that gets our offense going. And so, you know, we can't -- we shouldn't change who we are. This is what we've been doing. We've been successful. Q. Coach, you held Kelsey Mitchell under ten points. It's only the second time in her career that's happened. What goes into that defensively and is that something you thought your team could do going into this game? COACH VERSYP: We defended the team very well at our place, and it always starts -- we were playing more 1-defense at home and it started with Ashley at the top and then everybody else joins in. Like Ashley said, we're kind of trying to corral her where two people are on her all the time. And today we went to 2-3 zone because they had 2-guard front more. And they just adjusted. It takes a lot of time and effort. It takes focus for these kids to execute the game plan and what we needed to do. They executed it and trusted it and said let everybody else shoot the outside shot and just corral her. So again it comes down to a lot of planning, it comes down to a lot of hard work for these kids, and they're just playing really, really good basketball right now. Q. You guys were trying to be patient there in the fourth quarter but there were several instances where you needed a bucket and weren't able to get it. Did you feel like in those instances it got down to five, you had the rebounded basket, Ashley took one to the hole and scored. Did you feel in those instances you guys were smart with what you did with the ball? COACH VERSYP: I think we were very smart. I was just going to keep the ball in the Ashley's hands. People have got to understand: Give Ashley the ball. Keep it in her hands. She's the one that understands what we're looking for. She understands double, triple teams. She's our ball handler. So we're just trying to run some time off, trying to find some mismatches. They're very quick so you saw some steals during that time. But just trying to have Ashley go to work. Our offensive board, like you said, Bridget scoring and Ashley being able to score that layup was big. Q. Sometimes Bridget Perry plays a little soft -- hasn't been soft in a while. And she was very physical in there battling all night long. Talk a little bit about Bridget. COACH VERSYP: Bridget's played very, very solid for her team. I just thanked Ashley and Bridget for carrying us to the finals. They deserve that. They're the most competitive, most fierce competitors. I'll be on their team any day because I know they have my back. And Bridget did just a great job on the boards. She's intense. She challenges all the time, and when you make her angry she plays better. So she got a little angry out there today. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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