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WOMEN'S NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENTMarch 23, 2017Lisa BluderAlexa KastanekMegan GustafsonAlly DisterhoftIowa City, Iowa Iowa - 80, Colorado - 62 Q. Alexa, did the basket just look big tonight? ALEXA KASTANEK: Actually it did, yeah, just throwing things up there and hoping they go in. That's how I play most of my games. No, my teammates just got me open shots. When Ally passed me my first one it was open, my feet were set, and when that first one falls and you get the lid off the rim. I think that's when, as a shooter, know your percentages and just keep shooting. Q. Did you feel especially good going into this game during warm-ups? Were the shots falling? ALEXA KASTANEK: Not any more than usual, kind of just was having an upbeat warmup, kind of just staying light with things, trying to keep my teammates light, just knowing that every game, even thought there's the added pressure of, okay, now we're the only eight left and then we'll be the only four and then the only two, just knowing that keeping my teammates light is going to be huge for the rest of us and the rest of our journey. Q. Alexa, they've talked about how this postseason really benefits the younger players. For you as a senior, what does it mean to you to keep advancing? ALEXA KASTANEK: Just one more game. I mean, for us, it's going to be the last time we play basketball, so just knowing that each of these games is potentially our last and just going out with that mentality, and then, like you said, getting our younger people some more experience with. They throw on that press, now what do we do. We were up 20, so it was good that we got to play with it a little bit, and just getting the experience for the younger girls and just knowing them, knowing that we can pass on the information that we've had from the players ahead of us, as well. Q. Were you guys looking to drive, penetrate? In the first quarter it looked like you guys were at the basket all the time. ALEXA KASTANEK: I think we kind of just took what they were giving us really well in the first half. We drove, kicked out for wide-open threes, and then when they started to hedge more towards our three-point shooters, the basket was wide open. So I think we just really took what they were giving us. Q. Ally, what was going right in that 17-0 run in the second quarter when the crowd is getting into it? Just seemed like every single shot was falling. What's going through your guys' head at that point? ALLY DISTERHOFT: I think we were taking really good shots. I think we were sharing the ball. We were looking to make the extra pass. People were shooting up good shots for even better shots, and I think that shooting can be contagious sometimes, especially from the three-point line. So like Lex said, to see a couple of those early ones go down was big, and then we kept feeding people who were hot. Q. Megan, I don't know how many people have played basketball here in the last 40 years, but you're one of four people now that has scored 600 points in a season. What's the significance of that to you? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: I just have to credit my teammates again. They always do a great job of setting me up. Game after game, my coaches and my teammates believe in me, in practice every day. So my goal every day in practice and every game is just to work as hard as I can for them. Q. Did you feel like they were really concentrating on you after the terrific game the other day? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, a little bit. I think that's when it came into the inside-out game. They were collapsing, I was able to hit it to our shooters, and credit to our shooters tonight; they did a phenomenal job. Q. Ally, I think this is eight straight home wins; how much more confident are you guys when you set foot out here? ALLY DISTERHOFT: I mean, we love playing at Carver, especially with the fan support that we have. Fans don't know it, but the energy that they bring really influences the game, and I know that our team collectively gets so excited to just put the uniform on and go out and play in front of our awesome fans. We definitely use that home-court advantage per se. Every game we talk about defending our home court. That's really important to us and to our coaching staff, and so it's definitely something we lean on and we really enjoy. Q. Ally, is it safe to say you guys are playing your best basketball right now, and what does that feel like to be playing so well at this time of year? ALLY DISTERHOFT: Yeah, I think we are playing really good basketball. I think we're really developing our inside and outside game. We're getting better at reading the shots that we should be taking, setting people up who are hot, like you mentioned a little bit ago. But you want to be clicking at this time in the postseason, and so it feels good to kind of be on a little bit of a run, and hopefully we can keep that going forward. Q. What would it mean to be part of win 700 on Sunday? ALEXA KASTANEK: It's just special knowing that being a part of that, adding to a legacy that's known for excellence. So I know for us, it's just been a tremendous experience, and we're just grateful to continue to add to it. Q. Megan, are you okay? You took some falls that were -- MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I think that was their game plan coming into it, just to be a little bit more physical than usual. I was able to kick it out to our shooters again, because they were collapsing inside. So I was just trying to do my best to be physical right back, and it worked out tonight. LISA BLUDER: Well, again, thanking our fans for coming out tonight. It was loud. It was fun. And just want to reiterate what Ally said. It means so much to us when people come out and help give us energy and enjoy the game with us. When people are getting excited and we can bring some happiness, it's really fun. I thought our team came out tonight and played loose, they played focused, and it was really fun to see. It just felt great on the floor all the time, and to never not have the lead, to win the first three quarters, we valued the ball, we took care of the ball, and then of course you shoot like that. I'm so happy for Lex. Her senior year, having a game like that, it's perfect. It's absolutely perfect for her. I'm so happy for her. It's a season high for points for her, but I love our balanced scoring. We have almost five people in double figures tonight. That was terrific to see. I thought we did a good job defensively on Leonard. Q. What specifically were you trying to do against Leonard? LISA BLUDER: You know, we were mixing up our defenses. She's a sophomore point guard, which sounds old compared to ours, but she's still a sophomore, right? She's still a little bit more inexperienced, so we wanted to mix up our defenses and try to really make her think out there, not get into a rhythm, really identify where she was in the zone. But you know, I think we just tried to really make her work hard for her points and wear her out a little bit. Q. How were you able to get the ball to the basket? They have two gigantic post players. LISA BLUDER: Yeah, I think they were so focused on Megan coming into this game that it opened up the threes, and wow, isn't that a perfect time for us to hit our threes, when they are really -- because we were getting some pretty wide-open threes. Sometimes our dribble-drive action creates threes, though, for us. We're looking for rim or threes, so again, I think their concentration on Megan -- and Megan does, she has two assists out here tonight, so she did find her shooters out there, too. Q. All week you talked about keeping their three-point shooting in check; is this kind of what you expected out of that, or were you happy with -- LISA BLUDER: You know they shot 33 percent. I'd like to have been a little bit lower than that. But our focus was, okay, let's take away threes and make them take hard twos. And I think we made them take hard twos. I mean, their overall shooting percentage was 38 percent, so if you take out the threes, the twos weren't that great. So I think we succeeded in making them take some hard twos. Q. How quick does win No. 1 to No. 699 feel? LISA BLUDER: Actually it does seem like a while ago. When I think back to it, it was a long time ago. Yeah, it's been a while. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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