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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2018Jim FlaneryAudrey FaberChicago, Illinois Marquette - 76, Creighton 70 JIM FLANERY: Well, congrats to Marquette. It was a lot of Blockton today. Blockton in the first half, Blockton in the second half. Obviously Wilborn was really good in the first half. We did a better job on her in the second half, and we did a better job rebounding. The first half they got way too many offensive rebounds and 13 second-chance points, which I thought was huge. But I love our team. I love our fight. We did what we've done all year. We kept battling, and put ourselves in a position to win at the end. We just, you know, if Temi's three goes in and out, that would have put us up three. And Syd wouldn't have missed lay-ups right there that, you know, you make those. But credit to Marquette. They're hard to guard and Blockton is always good, but she was really good today. Q. Audrey, you played in a lot of really big games, not only in the regular season, but also in this tournament. Great environment today. What's it like from a player perspective to continually play in big games like this as you have throughout your career at Creighton? AUDREY FABER: I mean, it's awesome. That's what you want as a competitor. You want to be put in those situations. I mean, it's really fun. This arena was really fun to play in. Q. It seemed like it was a really physical game out there. So just talk about just having the back and forth (Indiscernible)? AUDREY FABER: Yeah, I mean, they were a really good rebounding team, so that was something we kind of stressed, and something we probably should have done a little better at. But just scoring-wise, yeah, they're really physical, just trying to get around them and trying to get open shots for other people too. Q. You guys had the lead most of the half, at that point what's going through your minds? AUDREY FABER: Just string together some stops and try to get some easy looks. We just needed to get in transition. We were getting beat there, and we just needed to continue to rebound and string some stops together. Q. Coach, you were down for 12, but you hadn't played poorly to be down by that deficit. Did you think you would come back that quick? I mean, you kind of came back in a hurry? JIM FLANERY: Yeah, we had a six-point play. We had the three, and then the push-through on the screen that Audrey made. Then ball out of bounds and Olivia hits the three. So went from 12 to 6. I mean a third of the bench, and I said that was nice. Get a lot of those. But, yeah, at the end of the first half, I thought really hurt us. That's kind of how the game in Omaha played out. We were, I think, up four with 1:30 or 2:00 left, and we were down 3 at half. I felt like that's what happened. To play, like you said, to play pretty well in that first half and go down six was a little bit of a downer. Then, like you said, they got up 12 but we fought back. Like you said, that 6-point play was huge because I felt like it propped our team up. I felt like our body language -- not that our body language was poor, but you know, that's a huge boost to a team to see it go that quickly back to a two-possession game. Then we downsized the last quarter and a half a lot. We played Audrey at the five, which is a better scoring lineup for us. It's not as good a rebounding lineup, but I felt like we were in pretty good shape. Then like Davenport or Valentine or one of their fives has to guard essentially a perimeter player. So we were in good shape. After that six-point play we were in pretty good shape the rest of the way until the last few seconds. Q. In the last four minutes, was the ball not going in? JIM FLANERY: Yeah, I mean, Audrey made the right play. We posted her off the switch. Got kind of crowded. Temi was wide open, and I thought stepped up like -- I mean, for a freshman to shoot that shot in rhythm and like you said, went in and out. Sydney missed a point blank lay-up right before that that would have put us up four. And I can't remember if Olivia's lay-up would have either tied it or put us up two. It was more contested, but we had a couple opportunities there. Once they got, you know, and then I think what they were up two and got the offensive rebound, think, and up four. Then it was difficult. I really felt like in that little stretch, that 3 to 5 minute mark we had chances to maybe take a one or two possession lead, and we didn't hit. Q. Do you feel secure with the NCAA berth? JIM FLANERY: No, no, I don't. But, look, I just told our team, you know, and I went through the mock bracketing process a few years ago, and I know how much work the committee puts in and how much information they have available, how many games they watch. If you're a committee member and we're -- you know, I love that the Big East plays when we do because I know that there are committee members watching, and if you watch our team today against a really, really good Marquette team, you're at least putting us right squarely in the conversation. We've got to hope that some teams that are still to play in some non-football leagues, that those teams win, because I think that would help us. But I don't know. I'd like to think we've done enough, but it will be a long week. Q. Allazia Blockton seems to do it all. What makes her so hard to defend? JIM FLANERY: Well, she made threes today at 5 for 5. She's an okay three shooter, but that's certainly not what she does best. But she's just -- she's good off the dribble. She's good on catch and shoots. They do a good job of getting her the ball at 15 or 18 or, you know, then it's one dribble. Then even though she wants to go right, she's still good going left. We've always tried to -- I'm sure they could tell you, we've always tried to play her right-hand, but she's still good going left. So you kind of get caught there. The deeper that she gets on the drive, the better rebounding team they become. So that was a big point of emphasis for us is just try to push the dribble enough laterally that when they miss shots, they don't rebound them. Because when your weight's going this way and you're six feet from the basket, even when you miss, you're going to get a lot of offensive rebounds, and that's a little bit of what happened. Yeah, she's always good, but she was really good today. Q. Obviously it didn't work out today. But one thing that stands out about your team is you've been really dominant. What is the fight like with this team and the leadership? JIM FLANERY: Yeah, like I said, even though I talked about body language maybe getting a little better. I thought our body language was good. I thought our communication in huddles. Before I go into timeouts, they were talking. I heard them in the pregame before I had come in, so I thought our leadership was really good. I mean, Sydney was a little tight. I probably should have rested Sydney a little bit today. She played 40 yesterday. I told her she was going to play 40. There were probably a couple times I could have gotten her out and gotten her a minute and a half or so. But, yeah, I liked our fight. We don't have maybe the most vocal leadership. I like that we're all kind of on the same page and we kind of hold each other accountable in small ways. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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