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MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 7, 2018

Las Vegas, Nevada

Boise State - 76, Colorado State - 51

RYUN WILLIAMS: Boise was tremendous. We picked a tough night to have a tough night. But Boise had a lot to do with that. And so they're playing well. Boise was great tonight.

Q. This was your guys' last game tonight. Is there anything you're going to take away about Coach Williams, and what can you say about his impact on your lives the last couple of years?
STINE AUSTGULEN: He's been a great coach for us, obviously you can see by our success here the last few years. Personally I want to thank him for believing in me, even though I was injured and didn't play or anything the last -- my first two years here. I really appreciate that. He's given all of our players, and developing players, always having a good game plan ready for us to go.

HANNAH TVRDY: I want to say pretty much the same thing Stine said. Just the way he believed in me. And it's on and off the court. And he developed us as people. And just coming in as a red shirt and showed me my first year, and the past two years, him believing in me and giving me this opportunity, I just want to thank him for that.

Q. You guys were very good defensively early, and then they just really took it to you in the second and third quarters. Were they doing something different or was it focus you guys lost or something?
HANNAH TVRDY: I don't think they're necessarily doing much different. They went on the little run the second quarter and we were just making mental mistakes, stuff we talked about in film. So that was kind of frustrating, because we knew what was coming. So just mistakes we were making, and just kind of kept going from there.

Q. Coming off of such a hot shooting night, was it kind of frustrating to come out tonight and not find that same rhythm today?
STINE AUSTGULEN: No, Boise is a good team. They're good defensively, so we kind of knew what we were going into. And yesterday I only shot one time in the first half. So it's going to be like that, up and down. So, not really.

Q. You held them to 3 of 16 in the first quarter but then you were only up four points. Did you get the sense that you needed to have a bigger lead the first quarter after they shot?
HANNAH TVRDY: That first quarter was really good for us the way we defended. But we knew Boise is a great team and they can get back in this just like that.

Yeah, we wanted to push that lead as much as we could. They just really got going. And we kind of got stagnant and stale, also.

Q. Last year it was Lupfer that really went off against you, and this year her teammate Hodgins. Was it tough just keying on one and maybe letting the other one go?
STINE AUSTGULEN: No, we were talking about Hodgins before the game. She had a really good stretch here lately where she's been playing good. Really all of their guards, they're great. They all scored a lot today. Lupfer is a great player, but they also have other good guards, too.

Q. In that first half you were able to get 14 points and then kind of shut you down the second, you only had four. What were you seeing differently offensively in the second half?
HANNAH TVRDY: I mean like we said, Boise State is an amazing defensive team. And so I knew that they'd really be taking away my drive, too, which they were. I was really looking for the three. And it was falling the first half. I just kept going with it on the confidence building.

Yeah, the second half they did a really good job of defending, but I don't think my mindset really changed any, that's just how they were guarding me.

Q. Obviously you're a senior, but you've had tremendous success at Colorado State the last four years with regular season titles, being in championship games in this tournament other years. Is this a one-year blip for Colorado State or is it a sign there's other teams ready to rise up and take that spot?
HANNAH TVRDY: I think our history speaks for itself of what we've accomplished. And I know that these girls that we're playing with, that there's a bright future ahead of them, just looking at the way they work and their desire to compete and just to keep getting better. I think there's a great future ahead for this team.

Q. Does that make it harder this year just because you've had so much success to not be playing in that title game or not? It's a different year, different roster, obviously.
HANNAH TVRDY: I don't think we didn't have success this year. I think people look at, oh, you didn't make the championship game. I think, honestly, this season taught me the most and -- yeah, I just think that there's a lot of ups and downs this year. But it taught me the most as a person.

Q. Kind of piggybacking off of the effort question, in the final moments even when the score was probably out of reach, you guys never gave up. You got called for a couple of charges there at the very end, but they were kind of effort plays, Jordyn was going hard defensively. As an upperclassmen what does it mean for you to see the younger classmen fighting to the end?
STINE AUSTGULEN: It means a lot. They're going to do the very best to help the team out. They're going to keep fighting. And I think that's important for going onward to next year. It tells you what kind of players we have here at CSU, and just their fight is amazing.

Q. What will you miss most being part of this program?
STINE AUSTGULEN: I'm going to miss all my teammates. They're great. We always support each other. And just playing basketball. It's a great arena to play in. And of course all the coaches that have helped us a lot.

HANNAH TVRDY: Yeah, same for me. Obviously I'm going to miss the game of basketball, but I knew that was going to come to an end eventually. But I'm going to miss the team, the girls. I think this year out of all my years of playing basketball that this has been the most fun, chemistry-wise, and just the way we get along and love on each other. So I'm going to miss the team, for sure.

Q. Given how your career has gone, do you guys leave knowing that you have no regrets?
HANNAH TVRDY: Yeah, I mean, you know, basketball has given me everything it can. We've won championships and everything. And I've had fun. And I've had memories. So, yeah, I have no regrets with it. I think every time I stepped on the floor I tried to give my best, my best effort. So, yeah, I don't have any regrets.

Q. Is there a certain message that you want to give to Stine and Hannah, as well as Veronika as they leave CSU?
RYUN WILLIAMS: Well, we just thank you. Thank you. You can see what wonderful young ladies they are. You mention the no regrets, those kids came every day to work and to get better. And, I don't know, I think the compliment I give them is that they're leaving here, a kid like Stine, a kid like Tvrdy, a kid like Veronika, they took no shortcuts. It's human nature to take shortcuts. They put in effort every single day. They committed to our program, they gave us everything that they could. And we just thank you, thank you, thank you.

Those are tremendous young ladies who helped carry on our culture. We've established something special at Colorado State. And it was very evident in that locker room after the game. Yeah, it hurts, but that's part of sports.

And you tip your hat to Boise. But those kids, I think they appreciated the fact that they got to compete at a really high level for as long as they did. And just tremendous competitors.

Q. You addressed last night that from the outside looking in people may think that the season wasn't quite as successful, but you praised this team a lot. And as Hannah just said, she feels this season was successful. When you look back at this season what are you going to remember most?
RYUN WILLIAMS: We lost a lot of close games, I think we lost 7 games or so that are two possessions or less. And it didn't send us spinning and reeling. This team kept moving forward. And you've got to -- the maturity that these kids showed to kind of weather some of those storms a little bit. And to become a basketball team that was tough to beat towards the end of the season. So they played good basketball. We did.

Do you want to win more? Yeah. But they put themselves in the position to win a lot of of nights. And winning Division I basketball games is hard to do. And they've won a lot of them in their careers here.

This year we lost some close ones. But that's how it goes sometimes.

Q. Obviously the goal will always be to win basketball games, but are you particularly proud of just how well this team bonded together, embraced the community and was really just a team effort?
RYUN WILLIAMS: Yeah, they're wonderful young ladies. We're very blessed to coach just neat, neat people. And the community piece, I mean they love being CSU Rams. They take great pride in being a CSU Ram. Colorado State is an incredible place. And I appreciate that they took great pride in representing such a great university.

And they're all good teammates. That's hard to do these days, too, is to be a good teammate when maybe you don't play as much or you face a little adversity. So, yeah, proud of them.

Q. It was so weird to see your team getting scored on like that.
RYUN WILLIAMS: You ain't a-kidding.

Q. Is it catching them on a bad night?
RYUN WILLIAMS: I tell you what happened -- they made some tough shots. I think you've got to -- Boise guard play was tremendous tonight. They scored over 70 percent of their points, I believe, I'm not good at math, but I think it's pretty close to that. They went small. When they went small, that posed some problems. And we've tried to match them and that's maybe not our best defensive team when we go small, as well.

So we made some -- like Tvrdy said, we made some mistakes that we normally don't make. And the shots they made, they drove it at us. They drove it at us in transition, which we very rarely give up fast break points. We could not get any traction. We just kept reeling the wrong direction. And that's frustrating. But sometimes those nights happen.

Q. Just how frustrating when Boise State is shooting so well, how frustrating is to see So fie and Stine having the nights shooting like they did?
RYUN WILLIAMS: Yeah, it's just -- some nights they go in more than others. But Boise did a good job on those two kids. You saw some rushed shots, some maybe not as in rhythm as maybe we shot last night. And Boise made us play that way. And they make you drive the basketball. We were going to have to finish at the rim. It was going to be a driving type of game. It wasn't going to be a lot of wide open 3s or anything like that.

Tough nights happen. Those kids have had a lot of really good nights, too.

Q. You lost Ellen and Elin coming into this year, and now you're about to lose Hannah who was your best offensive player. What did you learn this year and take into next year?
RYUN WILLIAMS: We'll develop some new kids, that's what programs do. We'll get more kids ready to go. I think what you saw this year, I think you saw some kids just kind of evolve into accepting more responsibility. Tvrdy has never really been that big scorer. But she shouldered that responsibility this year and you saw her grow into that. And grow her game. She shot it. She drove it. And so that's what kids do, right? You get better. You come to practice and you get better. And that's what Hannah did. That's what Stine did.

And we've got some good young players that it will be their turn. And we told them in the locker room, that's how good you've got to get right there. Look at Boise, they won the league. They just -- they went through us pretty easy tonight. That's how good we've got to get. So it won't be long and we'll get back to work. That's what we do.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 7, 2018

Ryun Williams

Hannah Tvrdy

Stine Austgulen