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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 8, 2019

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Kansas 76, Oklahoma State 66.

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the Oklahoma State Cowgirls Coach Jim Littell and his two student athletes, Vivian Gray and Braxtin Miller. Coach?

COACH LITTELL: We put ourselves in a bad situation and fell behind 13-2 and 30-10, and just too big of a hole to dig out of. They jumped on us early. We didn't do the things we needed to do. It's just a big hole to grind out of, because in the second half, really from the second quarter on, it makes it where every possession is just crucial when you fall that far behind.

Q. Braxtin, a bounce-back game for you today. What's been the problem, but you did have a good game today to finish it all out?
BRAXTIN MILLER: I don't know. I don't know really know what the problem was. Just confidence and staying true to myself. I don't know if anything switched. I just tried to keep my mind off things and play ball like I know I can.

Q. Vivian, in your first Big 12 Tournament game, how do you think you did personally?
VIVIAN GRAY: I'm not happy with how I played on defense. I think I could have done better and I let my teammates down and. First quarter wasn't where it needed to be, and I think that led to the hole we dug for ourselves.

Q. What was kind of defensively were you seeing there in the first quarter to allow them to have that big lead.
BRAXTIN MILLER: We just straight up weren't playing good enough defense. They were getting downhill and we didn't have our rotations on point like we need to off ball screens. Just went downhill. Just didn't do what we needed to do on defense, for sure.

VIVIAN GRAY: They just came out stronger than we did, ready to play. I think that's the bottom line.

Q. How did you push in the second quarter to kind of change the deficit?
VIVIAN GRAY: We just played how we know we can play. First quarter just wasn't -- we did not do well, and we bounced back in the second. I'm proud of that and Clitan was a spark for us.

BRAXTIN MILLER: She came in and was a huge energy that we kind of needed, and I think we came out in the second quarter and worked really hard and tried to find each other and play off each other like we know we can. We just came out really poorly.

THE MODERATOR: Ladies, you can go back to the locker room and we will take questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, after Kansas put up the lead to 20, what were you talking to your teammates about?
COACH LITTELL: We were slow on all rotations. We use a term call ball line and we lost our ball line and lost shooters. And just didn't play with the energy and passion it takes to play at this level, and that's all on me. You've got to play hard every possession and you can't take plays off. We're not talented enough to do that, and I've allowed that to happen so that comes on me.

Q. Coach, what did you think about the fight, coming back there, and Vivian getting it back to 1 twice -- Braxtin first and Vivian in that second half.
COACH LITTELL: I thought from the second quarter on we were a lot better than we were, which allowed us to grind back in the game. But then there were times where we just had breakdowns and they got easy. Baskets, you crawl back within 1 and then within 3, and then they would shoot a layup on us at the other end.

Like I said, when you fall that far behind it makes every possession from basically the second quarter on a must have-situation, both offensively and defensively. When we crawled back in, they got stops. Credit to KU. They were patient. They were waiting for a crack, and when they saw it they took us to the hole on that.

They shot the ball well from the three. Kylee Kopatich, we held her in check the first couple of games and we didn't do that today, and Lyons just killed us. She had a big-time game against us.

Q. Coach, how big of an impact did Miller and Gray have on your squad this season?
COACH LITTELL: Well, they both had nice years and that's reflected in Braxtin being Honorable Mention All-Conference and Vivian being newcomer of the Year, unanimous choice All-Conference. But we've got to get more pieces into the puzzle.

All season long we looked up and we had two people in double figures. That's not conducive to winning in the league. We have to develop some young players in the off-season and we've got to add some pieces to the puzzle as far as recruiting goes, but both of those had really good years, and we expect big things out of them in the future.

But we just gotta get better. We gotta get better with the kids that we have. We've got to develop them, and then we've got to add some pieces to the puzzle.

Q. If you could elaborate basically on Vivian Gray and what have you seen as a coach, you know, coaching her throughout the season and seeing her grow fundamentally or, you know, in areas that she could work on?
COACH LITTELL: First of all, she is a total joy to coach. She is the same way every day. It's not by accident that she had all those 20- and 30-point games. She works hard on her game and she is by far unquestionably our best practice player. She has a big heart, she cares about the game, and you know, even in games that she maybe didn't play well she was giving everything she had.

So I can't question Viv at all on anything. I think she's got a huge heart. She came to play every day in practice, she came to play every single game, and that's reflective in her being newcomer of the year.

To think she averaged 15 in a Division II league last year and came in and averaged close to 20 in the Big 12 is pretty amazing, and that's a tribute to how much she cares and how hard she works at the game.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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