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PAC-12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 2, 2018Charli Turner ThorneKianna IbisCourtney EkmarkRobbi RyanSeattle, Washington Arizona State - 57, Oregon State - 51 CHARLI TURNER THORNE: I'm just incredibly proud of our team. We've obviously had a great season and we've had a lot of close games. But we've come up short quite a bit. Not only to Oregon State, but other top teams in our conference, we've also beaten some teams early in the conference season and we've played Mississippi State to one possession. So, now it's March Madness and you want to be playing your best basketball. To see this team come together today and dig deep, and I think went on a 13-0 run to close it out and take the game was really special. I'm very happy for them and really proud of them. Q. There have been opportunities over the last few weeks to close out a ranked team, and it hadn't happened for whatever reason. What was your confidence level with a clean slate and postseason tournament that you guys would be able to do it this time? CHARLI TURNER THORNE: We were very confident. We were very confident because we've done it through the season. I just felt like we were in a good place. There were games I remember at UCLA, KiKi Russell goes out in the early second quarter. I just knew. I think our team is really in a good place right now physically, but also just so we're healthy and just excited. I think failing, we try to fail forward, if you will. We've had a lot of takeaways. We just tried to learn from every game throughout the entire season. We'd look at other teams, okay, they're waiting on their screens. You see them? I mean, they're getting to two feet and finding the weak side. So we've done that all year long. So we had the utmost confidence today. And we're not done yet. Q. So to the players, you guys were responsible for 44 of the total 57 points. Was there something you guys were seeing the Oregon State defense versus the first two games? ROBBI RYAN: I think we were just looking to stay aggressive and looking to play for each other and play with each other. That was the biggest thing, moving for each other, taking good looks and trying to stay poised and not settle on offense. Q. Courtney, you're a three-point shooter. When Kay McWilliams was hitting that three-pointer at the end of the quarter, did that rally you guys a little bit? COURTNEY EKMARK: Yeah, that was my fault. I shouldn't have been so sucked in. But, yeah, I think we bounced back really well. I was proud of the team for the grit and toughness we showed throughout the entire game, and just kept playing. Really stayed with things. Q. You guys didn't score in the third quarter until about 3 minutes, 30 seconds left in the period. But when you scored, one thing led to another, and you went on a 13-1 run to end the game. What was different in that portion of the game? KIANNA IBIS: I would just say the sense of urgency. Like we were coming down to the last quarter, and we knew we had to take it, so we just tried to stay as aggressive as we could, and just find, play to each other's strengths and find our teammates when we were open. Q. Though she didn't necessarily stand out on the box score, tow points and two rebounds on Charnea, she was very important in locking up Gulich, so what can you say about her performance tonight? CHARLI TURNER THORNE: Yes, I reel appreciate that question. I thought nay was unbelievable in her effort. It was tough. She picked up the two fouls in the first half. So as long as we were going to stay close, we were going to kind of savor. Obviously, it was a team effort on Gulich. We helped. We weren't going to let her beat us single-handedly again. But I thought Nea, it was just a phenomenal effort. We said the exact same thing as our coaching staff. You look at Nea's stats, and you wouldn't really appreciate how much she helped us beat Oregon State tonight. She also set a lot of great screens. Q. Charley, Stanford tomorrow night. I know you want to enjoy this for another 20 minutes or so, but what do you think? CHARLI TURNER THORNE: No, we've been waiting a long time. I know everybody's ready to get out of here. But, obviously Stanford is a tremendous team that knows how to peak and knows how to play in March. They've been playing their best basketball, just getting better and better as the season goes on. So this is just going to be a fun, great game for us. There is no easy games in March. So it's going to be, obviously, it's going to be a grudge match. We won at our place, they won at their place. I think we're excited about that. We really liked our bracket, just kind of where it played in terms of just how our Pac-12 season went. It will be challenging, but we're going to be up for it. Q. You allowed some access into your locker room, so there was a lot of joy in there and some preparation to cover coach's hair. Can you just talk about that moment, and just letting it out and releasing and explain why that was so hilarious? COURTNEY EKMARK: Yeah, we didn't want to mess up her perfectly blow-dried out hair. Still looks good over there. CHARLI TURNER THORNE: I told them I didn't have an a appointment yet for tomorrow. ROBBI RYAN: We had to grab a towel real quick and put it over her head. It's just awesome. It was an awesome team win. We just can't stop from smiling because we never gave up and we just kept playing for each other. Finally put it all together and got a win. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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