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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 4, 2018Karen AstonJatarie WhiteAriel AtkinsAlecia SuttonOklahoma City, Oklahoma Texas - 68, West Virginia - 55 THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the Longhorns, Coach, your thoughts on the game? KAREN ASTON: Well, it much wasn't the most pleasing to the eye, but I think that's a reflection of, first of all, West Virginia really, really playing hard. I knew that this game would sort of be like this just because they were playing with a sense of urgency. I think they knew this would be a win that would help them as far as getting into the NCAA tournament. Our team was prepared for that. I thought that we stayed more competitive throughout the game as opposed to yesterday when we had too many lulls. We stayed competitive. Just didn't shoot the ball great today. I thought we got a lot of contributions from our bench. I thought Jada Underwood gave us a lift in the first half when we had guards with fouls and our bigs sort of got into a rotation where they could all contribute in some capacity. But, again, West Virginia is shorthanded and you could probably tell that our bench was I would say the difference in the game because we had more fresh legs. That's what tournament play is about. So I'm pleased and proud of our team. We have a chance to play again tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes? Q. Sug, it's hard to say that there was a turning point in the game like this but you hit back-to-back threes at the end of the first quarter that gave you a pretty good lead. Do you remember sensing that was a big deal at the time among your teammates? ALECIA SUTTON: Yeah, I just know that my role off the bench is to bring energy to this team with whether it's offense or defense and I take it seriously to help this team out. I took it seriously to help the team. Q. Talk about how important it was to keep attacking the paint and not letting up on that specific factor throughout the game? ARIEL ATKINS: It was part of our game plan to continue to attack them. They're a very aggressive team defensively and the coaches felt like it would be to our advantage to attack. JATARIE WHITE: They're also a pretty good defensive, I mean rebounding team. So we had to make sure we got in there and boxed out and got a lot of rebounds as a team, not just post play but guards as well. Q. Ariel, Coach said the bench was a big difference tonight. Looking ahead to bigger and better games coming in a few weeks, how vital is the bench going to be to the success that you're going to have at the next tournament? ARIEL ATKINS: We play tomorrow and we're going to try to focus solely on that, and I think our bench will do a good job of helping us tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you very much. Questions for Coach? Q. Coach, they talked about it was the game plan to attack the middle. What did you see from West Virginia that let you know that y'all were going to be able to have success in the paint? KAREN ASTON: Well, as the players said, they're a fairly aggressive defensive team, and most of the time there are some driving lanes, and because they're at the line and they play really, really super aggressive. It also leaves some isolation for your big players, and I thought we kind of established that early. Then we just couldn't get into any kind of flow really after the first quarter. This game had no flow to it on either side. We tried. I think we got some pretty decent shots and we missed several layups in the third quarter that I thought would have really, really pushed us ahead. But it was definitely part of the game plan to try to get paint touches. Q. Coach, Sug's back-to-back threes at the end of the first quarter, how vital was that to get the team energized going into the rest of the first half? KAREN ASTON: I think it was just good in a sense of part of our conversation in the locker room before the game was finishing quarters well. It was one thing that West Virginia, because they don't have a deep bench sometimes you can take advantage of maybe a substitution or fatigue maybe at the end of the quarter. We talked about that in the locker room before the game which was to try to really amp up our energy late in each quarter. I will say this much, for whatever reason Sug ends up with the ball in her hands in late game situations and late quarter situations and she has dramatically improved from the first half of the season where she kind of looked like a deer in the headlights when she had the ball. Now I think she is very confident with either getting us in a certain play that we're trying to run late game or taking a big shot. She has done that several time if you've noticed late in the year. She is playing really well right now. She went through that little bug before the Oklahoma State game when we played in Stillwater and it took a little while for her to get her strength back, but I feel like she is in a pretty good flow right now. Q. Coach, you played Baylor during the regular season. What do you take from those match-ups that's going to help you tomorrow? KAREN ASTON: We'll spend tonight looking at the game in Austin, because, you know, you try to have a short memory and turn the page pretty quick in Big 12 play which I think our team has done a good job of that, not letting either one of the Baylor losses affect our next games and part of that was for me to move on and go to the next thing. So we will spend tonight looking at the previous game in Austin and try to see if there are some things that we could have and should have done better. But, you know, they're bringing in the Offensive Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year, so we have our work cut out for us. Q. Does it help your chances more tomorrow knowing that Wallace is not going to be out there? KAREN ASTON: First of all, obviously I haven't commented on her at all, but my sympathy goes to her. I had a situation like that a few years ago with our best player in (indiscernible) and it's heartbreaking to have a senior not be able to finish their year when they were having that kind of year, especially and she'll bounce back, clearly. But I feel for her. I mean, if you base it on the last couple of games it doesn't look much like their team has missed a beat. So, again, we have the best offensive player in the league and the best defensive player in the league, so that's a pretty good combination that we have to try to compete against and do a better job than we've done. We have to be ultra competitive tomorrow but I'm really proud that our team is playing tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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