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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 1, 2018

Nashville, Tennessee

Texas A&M - 82, Arkansas - 52

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Arkansas head coach Mike Neighbors along with student-athletes Malica Monk who had 13 points and 5 rebounds and Devin Cosper who had 15 points and 3 rebounds. Coach?

MIKE NEIGHBORS: Congratulations to Texas A&M. They continued to show why they're one of the most potent offenses in the league, in this part of the country. We couldn't stop them for a long period of time, physical fatigue from how many minutes we had to play and how hard we had to play yesterday to get here and the mental fatigue of how well they were playing.

I thought we kept battling. These kids never quit. That's been the thing I will always remember this team for is how they continued to show up, show up no matter what the circumstances and we'll be proud of them for a long time.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes?

Q. If you can wrap up your career with Arkansas being a graduate, playing in your final SEC Tournament?
DEVIN COSPER: It's super emotional, but it's been a good ride and all good things come to an end and I'm ready to start the new chapter in my life and move on from basketball. But I appreciate Coach Neighbors for allowing me to come back and play for him and gain the love I had for the game back and I appreciate that from him and I appreciate my teammates for accepting me as a leader and as a student at the University of Arkansas.

Q. Malica, your performance today and continuing on coming back with another year on your resume?
MALICA MONK: Excuse me?

Q. Your thoughts on your performance today and being able to come back next year as a junior?
MALICA MONK: I feel like my energy -- I think it lacked a little bit today, but, you know, I was able to, you know, keep it going for the sake of my teammates. Throughout the course of the year, I feel like next year coming in we will be way better than we are because we had our leader, Devin Cosper, she played a huge role in her leadership and we need that to carry on through next year.

Q. What was it about today the shooting performance wise? Was it something that Texas A&M was doing or what you were talking about as far as energy?
MALICA MONK: We got good shots today. They just wasn't falling. That's all I can say.

Q. Devin?
DEVIN COSPER: A&M shot 50% from the floor and 56% from the free throw line, can't beat that. They played really well today. Our shots wasn't falling. The same shots we got yesterday. And even better shots today. It happens, and congratulations to them for moving on.

THE MODERATOR: We will dismiss the student-athletes back to the locker room. Thank you very much.

Q. Coach, was it about Texas A&M's defense or was it your shooting or a combination of both?
MIKE NEIGHBORS: I think you want to credit what they did. They have a game plan and they tried to execute it and we'll credit it. But I think we got the exact same shots that went in yesterday, but like I said, I can't expect them to go in after how many minutes we asked them to play yesterday and come right back around. There is a reason the seeds are set up the way they are in tournaments. It's to reward the team that had the better year. So you don't have to turn around and play those. It was a tough draw for us. When I saw how many different opponents we could have potentially played in the second round of it, A&M was by far at the top of that list for worst possible match-ups because they can score and that demoralizes you. I don't care how tough you are, how mentally tough you are. When you're seeing their shots going through the net and yours don't it just compounds the effect and you see that in a team -- we take 81 shots, 81. We missed almost as many shots as they took. That's a huge stat. So I can't be upset with our group. I am not upset with them. A&M is a team known for their defense and we only turn it over 5 times and we forced them into 18 of them. There are a lot of positives. But it is a stat sheet. We don't focus a lot on the results. This team had a tremendous year. There are a lot of things we will look at our sports banquet and be really proud of.

Q. You mentioned five turnovers, single turnovers, is that one of the things you can build on heading into next year?
MIKE NEIGHBORS: Sure. If we can continue to keep that number low and attempts high, we will make more. We will have time in practice and we didn't have much of a summer this year because of the transition we were in limbo and we didn't know whether Devin was going to play. We're going to miss that kid, her leadership and her play, but that will be a staple of our team, a lot of shots and very few turnovers.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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