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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2019

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Texas 66, TCU 64

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the University of Texas Longhorn head coach, Karen Aston, and her three student-athletes, Sug Sutton, Danni Williams and Jatarie White. Coach, your thoughts about the game?

KAREN ASTON: It was hard fought. I definitely told our players in the locker room that it was really kind of just a gut check on our part. If you look at the stats we probably shouldn't have won. But I thought we came together as a group, really, in the final quarter and in particular the last minutes defensively, locked in a little bit better than we had during the game.

A lot of credit to TCU as far as how hard they played. I thought they played with a little more urgency maybe than we did today in a lot of areas. But credit to our team that they were able to gut this one out. Proud of 'em.

Q. Sug, you are down 6, 4th quarter, looks like that's when you wanted to take command. Was that in your mindset?
SUG SUTTON: Yeah, I struggled a little bit in the beginning of the game. My teammates picked me up in the game and I told them I was going to pick them up in the fourth quarter. We all came together as a team in the fourth quarter. I don't think it was just me. We all came together as a team and we finished the game out.

Q. You guys have a lot of fans there. Did you feed off the energy?
JATARIE WHITE: We think our fans are the best fans in America, so we're very happy that they come to our games and they come out and support and we just really go out and play for them. They do a really good job of helping us through the bad, lifting us up and all that. So thank you to our fans.

Q. Danni, you had a step-back three, two late in the game and felt like you could hit from anywhere. Talk about the game and where it felt like you couldn't miss.
DANNI WILLIAMS: I want to give credit to my teammates. We played them on Tuesday and TCU guarded me really well. I had to go back and look at film and my teammates were putting me in good positions to score.

Q. Toward the end of the game, just talk about the conversations that were in the huddles.
DANNI WILLIAMS: We were just really believing in each other. We would be down and we would say one stop, one stop and we were so positive. That's what got us through the game. We were so encouraging of each other. Somebody make a mistake we pick 'em back up, and it was our heart that got us through that game.

Q. Danni, I think you had 2 points last week against the same team. What did you discover on film that applied itself today?
DANNI WILLIAMS: On Tuesday they were being aggressive with me, trying to beat me to spots on the screens so just taking that personal and really trying to drive more. I know a lot of people are going to come at me so that's kinda how I got myself going is driving. Like I said, my teammates were creating, giving me the ball and good opportunities.

Q. Jatarie, obviously Jordan Moore is a huge threat for TCU. You guys were able to shut her down for the most part and she was dealing with foul trouble. Can you talk about how you were able to stop such a force on TCU?
JATARIE WHITE: I think going into the game I made sure I caught her early, making sure that I forced her to her left hand and making sure that I beat her to spots and not fouling because that's what I did last game. I fouled too much in the second half, so I made sure that I walled up and my teammates a really good job of setting and making sure she passed the ball out. So I think that's what really helped throughout the game.

Q. Sug, you were up 2, steal the ball, make it a 4-point game and they came close. Can you take us through that play, what you saw, how it developed and when you jumped in?
SUG SUTTON: I know we huddled up before we got on the court and the energy just went through me and I told myself I was going to get a steal. Like I knew, I was like, I'm going to get a steal and I went out there and she threw her body at me and I went out there and got the ball and it happened. I just fed off the team's energy and I just did when I needed to do.

Q. Big game tomorrow, Jatarie, Iowa State. Talk about what you expect from them. You beat them there. They beat you at your place. What do you expect from Iowa State?
JATARIE WHITE: I expect a really good game. They're a really good team. I think we're going back to the hotel knowing we're getting our heads straight and making sure we come out tomorrow and we play our hardest. We make sure we play to their tendencies and play with more energy and more effort.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.

Q. The game was close the whole time, 17 lead changes. Tell me what did your team do in order to get this win? What did they do good?
KAREN ASTON: I thought, first of all, they got a little more aggressive offensively and we got to the foul line. So that enabled us to get our defense set. Probably the biggest problem we had tonight was getting our defense set and there were times I subbed young players in and different combinations and we weren't good. We lost Kianna Ray, which we know after the third time of playing them not to lose her. She had a big night tonight particularly in the second half, but I thought the biggest difference was just them buckling down, again, and whether we were switching screens, not switching, a little bit more of a connection than what happens in transition defense sometimes. We struggled at times trying to figure out who we had in transition, but I think they locked in last five minutes of the game.

Q. Coach, you guys beat TCU in Ft. Worth on Tuesday. What do you have to say to your team this week coming off a hard-thought win to play the same team again to start this Big 12 Championship?
KAREN ASTON: This is the first time I've experienced this and it is different, you know, to turn around a couple of days later and play the exact same team. So you don't overanalyze too much. You start to look at things that you could have done differently, and in particular, against their zone. I anticipated what we saw in the first half which was a lot of zone because we had a little bit of trouble with it in the second half against them.

I anticipated transition defense problems which reared its ugly head again for us, and we're obviously a work in progress; I hate to say that in March. But we do have problems in the middle of games with getting back and getting matched up. It was one of those games where you really just wanted them to know that TCU was going to have a real sense of urgency. Playing somebody for the third time, and being in the situation where they're in, where they're trying to get as many wins as they can for their resume, which I must say that I think they are an NCAA qualifier. I think we are a good enough league that we should have six teams in. I'm not quite understanding where all of at that's coming from that we're not strong enough to have six teams in. I think you can watch the quality of play between a 3 and a 6 seed and see that they should be in the tournament. I hope that's a reflection of what people watched tonight.

Q. So TCU leads in turnovers in steals, in general in the Big 12, what was your strategy to eliminate that?
KAREN ASTON: Definitely against the zone we knew it was important to try to get the ball in the center of the floor. I thought the thing we did better this time than in Ft. Worth on Tuesday was we penetrated the zone a little bit more. Up there we sort of stood, our guards stood with the ball up over their head. I thought we did a better job getting in gaps and seams, much better than we did. But our composure has been pretty good against all the games against them which is ironic because they do force a lot of turnovers and they depend on those turnovers to get open court layups, live ball turnovers. So we preached that all week. Don't hand them layups.

Q. Coach, I talked to Jatarie about the stopping Jordan Moore and you guys did a great job of that. Whenever she is not playing well, but then Amy Okonkwo starts to pick up the pace, especially in the second half. Does your game plan have to switch there or are you sticking with what you started with?
KAREN ASTON: We tried the best we could to give Amy Okonkwo some different looks because she was pretty much scoring with whoever had her assignment, but I thought that the switch we made to put Danni Williams on her, actually Danni asked if she could guard her for a few trips to give her a different look was a positive one. It enabled our bigs to help in a different way.

As far as Jordan Moore is concerned she is a fantastic player and you have to kinda keep a big on her. What happened today was what I kind of expected which was for other players on their team to step up and they did that and that's what made the game so difficult for us. We gamble on a couple of match-ups, to help on Jordan Moore, and that didn't go so well for them, maybe on Tuesday. But I thought that the players we gambled off of stepped up tonight and it put us in a bit of a dilemma with the other players.

Q. Did you have any personal sit down with Danni after last week's TCU game, meaning she played poorly and I'm sure she beats herself up sometimes and for her to come out six days later and play like this. Did you have any role in that?
KAREN ASTON: No. I would like to take credit for that, but I think she is a competitor and she knew that she didn't play her best. One thing about it is she is a bit of a gym rat in a sense. She is going to watch film and take in what you have to say. We did watch a lot of film on that game, just to make some subtle adjustments offensively and I think she took it to heart that if everybody is going to play her like that she's got to make some adjustments and that was a conscious effort on her part. It's a competition now. Every day. Sometimes it's just a competition to get open but you have to do it if you're going to help your team win.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, congratulations.

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