|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 8, 2019Lisa BluderMakenzie MeyerMegan GustafsonIndianapolis, Indiana Iowa - 70, Indiana - 61 LISA BLUDER: You know, I always think the first one is the hardest. Indiana is a great team, and we knew that coming into this game. They obviously got us during the season by two points on their home court, and we wanted this one back. It was kind of a goal of ours that we wanted to beat everybody in the Big Ten, and we've done that now. And I thought our first quarter was good and I thought our fourth quarter was good. We missed the first several three-pointers, but when Mak hits that one at the end of the first quarter, I think that just kind of gave us a huge momentum and really opened up the threes for us. Q. It wasn't a great 34 minutes for Kathleen to start the game, but boy, she was really clutch there at the end. What did you see out of her coming down the stretch? MAKENZIE MEYER: Yeah, she came in strong when we needed her. And Kathleen is one of my best friends, and she's such a competitive player, and she was getting frustrated with herself, but we all kept telling her how great of a player she is. She's first team all-Big Ten. She's an excellent distributor. She still was able to get a good amount of assists tonight, and when she knocked down those two shots at the end, that was huge for our team. Q. Megan, incredible physical game. Have you ever gotten used to being like tackled 19 times a game? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, it's pretty normal, something that I've gone against throughout this entire Big Ten season the past couple years. I have a big target on my back and Indiana did a nice job of sending in extra players, and fortunately I was able to find my guards outside so they could hit some threes. Q. Sometimes shooters are surprised when they're so wide open, but with Megan, the attention she draws, are you almost expecting open threes as shooters? MAKENZIE MEYER: Yeah. After playing Indiana the first time we knew we were going to get open with threes. And Megan does such a great job of passing the ball out. And the in and out three is such a good look for us, and we were really able to convert that tonight. Q. Makenzie, both you and Hannah had kind of big games today. With injuries and everything, it's kind of been a long season. Can you talk about kind of the season that you guys have gone on and how it's transformed into today? MAKENZIE MEYER: Yeah, we all know the Big Ten season is a grind, and this year we played two more games. It's a really long season, but we're able to just keep grinding and pushing through, and we have a goal to finish out the season with a Big Ten championship, so we're just going to keep grinding and hitting open shots when we get them. Q. Megan, it wasn't just you inside, Hannah had 13 rebounds, I think, Monika had a couple big baskets early. Tell me about the progress both of those two have made. MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, inside it's not just me down there. We've got some very good post players on our team, and we battle against each other every single day in practice. We make each other better. I'm not the player I am without those two for sure, and they really did help us out a ton. Monika a couple shots early on, and Hannah just being consistent as she always is. When we have more than just one person really battling down low, we're pretty hard to stop. Q. Megan, tonight you had 30 points and 17 rebounds, and then coming off a double bye, what makes the physicality of a game like this different when you've been resting and all that stuff, and then boom, you're immediately hit with the physicality down low in the paint tonight? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, having that double bye is nice so we can have that rest, but at the same time we're preparing and practicing for that day in and day out. I thought we felt pretty prepared for it. But again, you just have to work as hard as you possibly can. I'm not doing this for myself. I'm going to take those hits every single time so I can get my teammates open. Q. It seemed like any time Indiana would make a run you guys had some kind of an answer. How did you weather the storm and keep the lead most of the game? MAKENZIE MEYER: Yeah, it was just a back and forth game the whole times, and those are fun games to play in, and we just stayed confident. And I missed two free throws early and that's tough as a shooter. You like to see one of the first couple shots go down. And once I saw that three go down at the end of the first quarter, it kind of took a lid off the rim for me. And then throughout the rest of the game, we were just confident shooting that three. Q. Makenzie, you've probably had a rougher season shooting from three-point than you had hoped. How good is it to have such a good game the first game here in March? MAKENZIE MEYER: Yeah, it's fun. This time of year it's just about grinding, and we want to play as many games as we can in March, and we want to just keep being able to play with each other, I guess. We love this team so much. It was just nice to see the shots fall today. Q. Megan, what was the mood in the huddle five minutes to go, you're down a point? What was said in the huddle and how were you able to finish the game? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I think one of our coaches just told me to rally the troops, and that's what we did. Our leaders were able to talk to people and be like, we're a good team, we're the 10th ranked team in the nation. We've got to show it right here, right now, get stops, back to back stops is really important. So just really putting an emphasis on defense is what we really said in that huddle, and that's what transformed on the court. Q. (No microphone). MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, she's a really good player. She can create, whether it's shooting from the three or really penetrating and making some really tough shots, and so credit to her and her teammates do a nice job of really setting her up, too. Q. Coach, you talked a little bit about Doyle struggling shooting the ball, but it seems like she's more important to your offense in the way she moves the ball. How important it her ability to move the ball? LISA BLUDER: Yeah, she led us with six assists tonight. It's interesting, it takes a lot of mental toughness, I think, to do what she did tonight. She was struggling a little bit in the first three quarters. And then she gets a charge, she gets a big three, she hits another basket for us, again leads us with six assists. And at the same time, she's trying to guard Patberg, which is not easy. That kid is a really, really good player. She brings a lot to our team defensively, as well. Q. What was the mood in the huddle there the last TV timeout when you were down one with five minutes to go? LISA BLUDER: Yeah, it wasn't a panic situation at all. It was kind of like, it's our time. Like every game has these momentums. Like we're up 10 and then they cut it to one. So I feel like our team really just stayed level headed, and I think when you have a lot of seniors on the court, that's a little bit easier to do because they've kind of been there before. I just think they keep believing in themselves so much, and they also know they've got Megan. So I think that's kind of a big relief for everybody, too. Q. You smirked a little bit there about Megan's double-doubles. When you consider the physicality she's gone up against, how much more significant is that number to you? LISA BLUDER: Yeah, she's got three -- sometimes more people around her all the time, and she's still able to put up those kind of numbers. I think the defensive rebounding is really amazing. And Hannah did a great job, too. Hannah had 10 defensive rebounds today. Those two women, Hannah and Megan, had almost as many rebounds as the entire Indiana team. I think you've got to finish up your defensive possession with a rebound, and those two did a great job with that. Q. On the defensive possession toward the end, I think you were up maybe four and Patberg had the ball. What could you say about Kathleen's defense? LISA BLUDER: Yeah, that's -- Kathleen knew how important that was. You give Kathleen a challenge, she's going to step up. She's going to give you everything she has. That's a challenge to guard Patberg. She is hard to defend, and I thought she did a really good job. Q. What have you learned from the last time that you guys faced Indiana, and how did you guys kind of take your experience there and how does that kind of impact what you guys did today? LISA BLUDER: Well, you know, we knew it was going to be a tough game just because the game they gave us at their place. We knew it was going to be down -- they have incredible fight. They're not going to give up. This is a team that really works hard and executes well and has so many weapons. So I think what we took from it, we knew how they were going to guard Megan a little bit more, and that was kind of nice, coming into the game kind of knowing what was going to happen. I thought Hannah started us off really well, though. We were anticipating the double, and I think Hannah did a good job of cutting back door and getting that for us. Q. You guys struggled with turnovers in the first half. I think you guys had nine. In the second half you only had four, which was pretty good. Were they out of focus at halftime? LISA BLUDER: Yeah, we talked about it a lot because we were forcing the ball in. We don't need to force it in. We can keep running it and working the ball. We don't have to score in eight seconds. Sometimes we like to score so much, we think we have to score in eight seconds. Well, we don't. Don't force it if it's not there. We only had four turnovers in the second half and two came in the first minute and a half. So for the remaining 18 minutes of this game, we only had two turnovers. So they did a much, much better job of valuing the ball and making good passing decisions. Q. You said Indiana is a great team. Do you feel like this conference deserves more teams in the NCAA Tournament? Is Indiana one of those teams? LISA BLUDER: Oh, absolutely. I think there's no doubt. Indiana, they were in the top 25 early in the year. I know they suffered through some injuries with Patberg. You take Patberg out of the team, and yeah, they're a little bit different. But now she's back and she's healthy, and they definitely deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. Q. Your first season defending against a player like Patberg, this is the second time around and it didn't seem any easier for the team. How tough is she to game plan for? LISA BLUDER: She's just so good, trying to keep the ball out of her hands because when she gets it she's so crafty. She's able to create, and not only shoot threes, she's great off the bounce, and then she's got a little floater that's really -- it's really hard to defend that. So she's a really good player. Good get for Indiana. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|