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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 5, 2017

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

West Virginia - 62

Texas - 59

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the West Virginia Mountaineers, Coach Mike Carey and Tynice Martin his student-athlete. Coach, congratulations on the win and your thoughts about today's game?

MIKE CAREY: Give credit to Texas. Man, they come right at us, beginning of the game. We weren't ready for that quickness in the beginning of the game and then we kinda settled down in the second quarter. Then they came right back at us the third quarter and then we settled down a little bit. Give our players a lot of credit, too. They're playing a lot of minutes and that last five minutes we kept talking about you've got to have heart. Who wants it more? Who wants it more? Both teams played hard, and we're really happy to get the win.

Q. Mike, I don't know what your status was entering the weekend as far as the NCAAs go, but I would think two wins here, you're in. Can you say, one, what you thought your status was before the tournament and if you were in and what now?
MIKE CAREY: We felt we had to win a game or maybe two. We didn't know. You never know. We put ourselves in this position during the year, so we knew we was going to have to come and win a game or two in the tournament and fortunate enough we have been able to do that.

Q. Coach, some people might ask how come you guys weren't this good during the regular season?
MIKE CAREY: I would like to ask that, too. Tynice?

TYNICE MARTIN: I don't know, Coach.

MIKE CAREY: That's a good question. I've been trying to figure that out all year. To our girls' credit, they kept battling and we kept struggling, especially the fourth quarter during the season. We would be close and all at once we would get in foul trouble, and I want to give a lot of credit to Anja Martin the first quarter, came out and gave us quality minutes especially defensively and we got a little bit off our bench. But I don't have that answer. If I knew that answer I probably wouldn't be here.

Q. Coach, to expound on that, today your bench was able to get some things done when you needed them, especially late when you all needed to make defensive stops especially around that last media timeout.
MIKE CAREY: Yeah, they come in -- you know, I tell our players off the bench, you come in and you play defense, don't turn it over. You're going to get a lot of minutes. We're not looking for our bench to come in and get a lot of points, just come in, give some people some rest, the harder you play defensively and don't turn the ball over the more minutes you'll get. I thought they did a good job.

Also down the stretch we was trying to get Teana Muldrow involved in the scoring and she hit a big three and started scoring a little bit. Already if you look, I don't think Lanay, our center, had any points. So we needed to get another score, Tynice, we needed a couple of others to start scoring because she was getting more down a little bit.

Q. Tynice, you've looked completely locked in this whole tournament. What's been the difference for you?
TYNICE MARTIN: Just knowing where we want to go as a team. When we came down here our goal was to win the championship, so we had to take that game by game. And I feel like the energy that we brought to the tournament it led us to today. We've been playing good, especially defensively.

Q. Coach, you guys will now face the Baylor Lady Bears, played them close in Waco at the Ferrell Center. What is it going to take you guys to et go the win tomorrow?
MIKE CAREY: The same effort. The game is going to be won in the paint. We know that, so if we don't defend in the paint, stop dribble penetration and keep them off the offensive boards it's going to be a long game. We understand where the game is going to be won. It's going to be won in the paint. They got great players. Make no doubt about it, and they just keep coming in with post players. They got a great team. We'll come out, we'll fight and see what happens.

Q. Brooke McCarty, Big 12 Player of the Year, only 12 points tonight, what was your idea going into the game and how to defend?
MIKE CAREY: We was going to gap a lot of the guards and stay out on her. We're up 4 the last person we wanted to take that shot was her. She got two off. That's unbelievable. You want to know why we struggled sometimes during the year? That's the last person we said, do not let her have a look. We gave her two of 'em. I don't know. I got a question, are you the only two from West Virginia here?

Q. We're the only college radio station here.
MIKE CAREY: You know what? This happened to me one other time when we were in the Big East, and I don't want to mention Big East, but I will. Everyone thought we were going to come down here to lose. We had no media. I only brought one suit to be honest with you. So I had to keep washing shirts down there because we won the championship game against Connecticut. Isn't that amazing? We're in the Big 12, and none of the media comes. We appreciate you coming out.

Q. We appreciate you, too, Coach.
Q. Tynice, the shot you took, the 3-pointer right when the clock was going down, did you know where he were and was that just a moment you just said, okay, not so much my time, but somebody has to get something done and we've got to move forward?
TYNICE MARTIN: Of course. Well, you know, the shot clock was running down, so I really had no choice but to shoot it. So I shot it with confidence and luckily it went in.

Q. Mike, did you bring more than one shirt this time? Second, is part of the motivating factor you guys are the farthest school away in the Big 12 and a lot of the conference is concentrated here so sometimes you guys are viewed as outsiders. Does that motivate your team?
MIKE CAREY: I don't think. What motivated us was to get some wins to get to the NCAA. To answer your first question, I only brought two suits. But I did bring three shirts, so at least I don't have to go to the cleaners tonight.

Q. Tynice, I was watching you play tonight and I thought you had the eye of the tiger in you. Every time you made a shot you were just boisterous and trying to get the rest of your team up. Was it a case in your mind that you guys may have wanted it more because, one, you needed it more and you tell me.
TYNICE MARTIN: That's how we came down here. The first game we had high energy. This game we had high energy. It was a close game all game and we played it down to the wire.

We already knew that in order to win this game we had to get defensive stops, you know, and we had to -- we just had to shut people down and that's what we did. Free throws, I feel like we did everything we needed to win this game.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on the win. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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