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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 6, 2019Coquese WashingtonTeniya PageKarisma OrtizIndianapolis, Indiana Wisconsin - 65, Penn State - 57 Q. Coach, you guys were able to kind of fight back in it in the third and fourth quarter and get into a three-point game late. What does that say about your group that's down double digits and able to still come back and keep fighting? COQUESE WASHINGTON: I thought we had some good spurts defensively in the second half and showed a lot of fight. I thought the foul trouble, Lauren Ebo picking up her fourth foul in the fourth kind of hurt our momentum there for a second and allowed them to -- we were kind of coming back, and her fourth foul, I thought that was a pretty big play for us. Q. You had two freshmen that started and three freshmen that got playing time. What do you say about that group and kind of the experience that they can get from their first postseason play? COQUESE WASHINGTON: Well, I think there's a lot of lessons for them to learn. The first time you play in this tournament it's certainly a learning experience, the atmosphere, the time and being here. I'm hoping it gives them a bit of a hunger to come back next year and stick around a little bit longer. Q. Kind of on the flipside of that, you have seniors who are leaving the program. What has that group meant to you and what are you hoping that they can kind of pass on for the younger players? COQUESE WASHINGTON: Well, you know, it's always an emotional game for the seniors, their last game. Being in the space where they've got to move on to the next phase of their lives, and the one thing I can say about this group, these five seniors that we have, is they're ready. They're ready for the next level, the next step in their lives. They're ready to graduate from Penn State. They've been tremendous scholars and the experiences that they had being a Lady Lion and being a Penn Stater I think are things they're going to carry with them the rest of their lives, so they're ready for the next phase for sure. Q. What about Teniya specifically, what she's been able to do for the program and all the accolades that she's -- COQUESE WASHINGTON: Yeah, she's a kid that has a tremendous work ethic and an outstanding basketball IQ, and I think those two things combined helped her to come here and put her fingerprints all over the record book and rack up scoring titles and accrue some of the accolades that she has. It's definitely a result of the work that she puts into her game. Q. You guys played Wisconsin twice close during the regular season and then today. What's kind of the difference between this postseason match-up today that you guys had versus kind of the first two? COQUESE WASHINGTON: Well, I think the first two games were fairly close. They were competitive games, and I think that Wisconsin came in with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder, feeling that they let two get away from them during the regular season, and they wanted to right that wrong, so to speak. I thought they came out and played with tremendous heart. I thought they came out and played with tremendous energy. And I thought specifically Lewis and Howard took advantage of the speed that they had, the speed mismatch they had against our bigs, and then when we went small, they kind of went inside on us. That was a tough match-up for us. And those two played with a lot of energy and a lot of toughness. Q. Thoughts on the game today? TENIYA PAGE: I mean, there's been a lot of games this year we've fought through, and I mean, it's just what happened. Everybody fell back and everybody still had confidence we could win the game. Q. You guys had two freshmen that started and some younger players that got some experience and things like that. What have you seen from that group, not only today but this year, that they've been able to develop? TENIYA PAGE: Everybody has grown a lot since we started. I don't know when, feels like a long time ago. I mean, they got the experience. All of them have years of eligibility left, so it's good for them, and they have this experience going for them the rest of their careers. Best of luck to them, and I'm happy that they got the chance to get this experience. Q. Obviously it's a tough ending for you, but what does it mean for you to wrap everything up but then also what do you look to kind of leave for this group? TENIYA PAGE: I mean, they all know I didn't quit, and I kept fighting through whatever I had to get through, and for the people that saw me last year through my ankle injury and for the people that saw me this year with another ankle injury, I kept fighting every day. I mean, I feel like it's something I can lean on, the ability to work hard and continue to push through whatever is going on. That's pretty much it. I mean, as far as it ending, things happen. It was four years, and I've learned a lot of lessons through those four years, a lot of lessons. Obviously I'm disappointed with the outcome, but it's life. It happens, and all I can do is move on from it and learn from it. Q. Kind of looking at the game as a whole and your first kind of Big Ten Tournament action, what were you able to take away just kind of an experience of the trip as a whole and kind of what postseason play can be like? KARISMA ORTIZ: Probably just making sure you're valuing every single opponent you're playing. Postseason, anything can happen. Every team is going to fight. Every team is going to want it. At this point, it's whoever wants it more. It doesn't matter what the rankings, the seedings are, anything like that. Whoever wants it more is going to win the game. Q. Did you notice any differences from when you played them in the regular season versus today? KARISMA ORTIZ: Not too many differences. I think they played really well. I thought they did a good job of making reads off of our defense. Nothing too different. They crashed the boards a little bit -- very well. We did a better job of keeping them off the glass before. But other than that, they played just about the same. Q. You guys were able to make a comeback in the third quarter there, start of the fourth. What does that say about the group as a whole that you fought back in it from being down double digits? KARISMA ORTIZ: It means a lot. A lot of hard work, determination. We've never really been a team that's going to give up, and I think you saw that throughout the season with every single team that we've played. So it was good to see in the third quarter. Q. And then finally, just obviously the graduating seniors, what are you able to take away from that group and what have they meant to you this year and hopefully going forward? KARISMA ORTIZ: Definitely a lot, just having both Teniya and Amari (Carter), both senior point guards, and being that that's my position, I was able to get a lot of great information from them, learn from them, a lot of advice. Going to miss them next year, but I think they prepared me very well for the upcoming seasons, and I'm ready and excited for them. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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