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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: SPOKANEMarch 24, 2018Muffet McGrawJackie YoungMarina MabreySpokane, Washington Notre Dame - 90, Texas A&M - 84 THE MODERATOR: At this time we are joined by Notre Dame. We'll begin with an opening statement from Coach McGraw, then open the floor to the student-athletes. MUFFET McGRAW: I'm just so proud of this team and what we accomplished, especially Kathryn Westbeld playing basically on one leg. I thought the jumper she hit from the free-throw line was the difference in the game. That was the game winner. Really, really thought Marina shot the ball extremely well. Jackie took over the game I thought for a stretch late in the fourth quarter. Just phenomenal play by our guards. I thought Howard really, really she was just a nightmare fun for us. We couldn't keep her off the boards. She picked today to decide she was going to be a great three-point shooter in addition to the other things she does so well. She was phenomenal today. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Marina, talk about how you guys were able to exploit the three-point shooting, how you were able to have so much success. MARINA MABREY: I think a few times in transition, they might have mixed up some players. Got some shots there. Also Jess got some good driving kicks. Also in transition finding the open player was working for us. Q. Marina, six threes in the first game of the tournament, seven today. Is it the quality of the shots? You just shooting the ball well? Any explanation? MARINA MABREY: I practiced for it (smiling). I don't know. I think when the shots are open, they're a little bit easier to make. My teammates are finding me in great positions. Q. Jackie, that kind of stretch you had in the fourth quarter, what were you seeing that made you so good at the offensive end? JACKIE YOUNG: Yeah, I knew (indiscernible) was in foul trouble. We were just going at her. We knew she didn't want to pick up another foul, so we were running a couple plays for me. I was able to get going off of that. THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll dismiss the student-athletes. We will now move on to questions for coach. Q. Defensively when they jumped out to the 31-19 lead, did you change anything defensively to help cause that? MUFFET McGRAW: We did. We were so worried about Carter, we kept leaving the high post really exposed. That's where Howard I thought was having a field day on us. We tried to go to a couple different things, went to the triangle-and-two, then went back to the zone. Had a little more success just trying to guard the high post. That was an area that we had worked on. It was really open. We had a hard time matching up to them in our zone. They did a really good job early on, especially moving the ball and hitting the open man. Q. The stretch you had late second quarter got you guys back in the game. Third quarter is when they shot poorly, you moved ahead. How important was that first stretch? MUFFET McGRAW: It was huge. We got down big. We've been down in other games. We feel like we are poised and can come back. I thought we showed a lack of discipline in the first quarter. Our shot selection was bad. We didn't get any rebounds. I think we had one offensive rebound at halftime. We weren't getting the ball to Jessica Shepard, which was a big part of our game plan, then we couldn't get any stops. We did a lot of things wrong in the first quarter. I thought readied the ship a little in the second quarter to pull within two, then third quarter I think we relaxed and played our game a little bit more. Q. Talk a little bit about Westbeld, coming back from the injury. Not a lot on the stat sheet, but drawing charges, setting screens. How has she been in terms of recovery from the injury? MUFFET McGRAW: I thought she made a huge impact in the game. She hasn't recovered yet. Unfortunately she wasn't able to practice this week. She was in the boot. It's probably not going to get a lot better by Monday's game. She shows tremendous toughness. We need her in the game because she does so many things for us that don't show up on the stat sheet. She's a great facilitator for us with the ball on the high post. That huge basket, that free throw jumper she hit, that was the play of the game. Q. I know you've been asked a lot about how a few number of players have carried you. But talk about they're iron horses out there, aren't they? MUFFET McGRAW: I'm sorry? Q. They're iron horses out there. They carry the load. MUFFET McGRAW: We have a great strength and conditioning program. I think they're in great shape. They know they're going to have to go the distance, I think they're ready for it. I think sometimes they rest a little bit on defense because of it. Foul trouble was a huge worry today with Jackie picking up two quick ones in the first quarter. Danielle Patterson came in and gave us great minutes. Coco came in and gave us great minutes. Generally those three guards are going to have to go the distance for us. I think that's all thanks to our strength and conditioning program. THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time, coach. MUFFET McGRAW: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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