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MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2019

Las Vegas, Nevada

San Diego State - 70, New Mexico - 61 (OT)

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by New Mexico head coach Mike Bradbury and student-athletes Nike McClure and Jaisa Nunn. Coach, an opening statement.

COACH BRADBURY: I thought, you know, hard-fought game. I thought both teams played really hard. Give San Diego State credit. They came in here and were definitely ready to go. And rebounded the ball extremely well. Attacked the basket. I thought they played well. Give them a lot of credit.

And I think for us, I think we played hard. But you just can't be minus-15 rebounding and shoot it the way we did.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. One possession that kind of came to mind was the last one of regulation. You guys only had one team foul. Did you have an opportunity to foul them or not really?
COACH BRADBURY: We couldn't get everything communicated because we gave up four or five offensive rebounds on that same possession. So in the whole thing, we were in scramble mode. So there was very little time to get that communicated to our team.

Q. I know there's probably not an explanation for this, but that's the second time against San Diego State for whatever reason the 3s just didn't go in. Is it anything they do or did you just feel like --
COACH BRADBURY: That's their plan. And it's fine. I thought out of 29 shots from the 3, I'm going to say 25 were horse shots. And you've got to make more than three of those. You just can't win like that.

Q. Coach, how much did Aisia's absence affect you guys?
COACH BRADBURY: I don't know. Aisia's not playing. So I have -- sorry I can't answer that the way you want me to. I don't think it had anything to do with anything.

We didn't win tonight because we didn't rebound and we didn't make a wide-open shot. And whether Aisia was playing or not, I don't think that changes.

Q. How much did the turnovers really kind of take you out of what you really wanted to do?
COACH BRADBURY: We had 17. I mean, we average 16. Again, I don't think that was what beat us. We're a good rebounding team. And we absolutely got killed on the boards. That's more the problem. The turnovers were -- it's about what we usually do.

Q. With the rebounding, did you feel it was more a lack of execution by your team or was it just something that the Aztecs were doing that made them so effective?
COACH BRADBURY: You know, sometimes -- I don't think it was execution. I think San Diego State played really, really hard. And they went and got rebounds. And I think sometimes the rebounds get skewed a little bit by -- if you're the team missing all the shots, you know. But we missed about the same amount of shots they did. So I think they just beat us to the ball a little bit.

But I don't think it was because we didn't play hard enough. I think that's just the way it was.

Q. In the fourth quarter you guys had that 10-point lead. Were there any breakdowns that you saw on those back-to-back 3s that San Diego State hit?
COACH BRADBURY: No, we went zone. We were having trouble guarding the ball. So we went zone about five possessions there and the first three were good. And the last couple they knocked down a couple 3s. But it was -- I mean it was just kind of what happened.

One was contested. They make 9 out of 20. And I don't know that their 20 shots were any higher quality than our 29. They just made a bunch of them. And give credit. They made shots. That's what you have to do.

Q. Jaisa, comment on tonight's game. You had a great game, obviously. Do you have any thoughts on the game tonight and your career at New Mexico?
JAISA NUNN: I just want to say, like, credit to San Diego State. They played a hard game and congrats to them. But it was just, we all played hard and it was a good game. That's my thoughts.

NIKE MCCLURE: Thanks to our fans for showing up. Thanks to our band and our cheer team. We really appreciate you guys. Don't really have any comments on the game.

COACH BRADBURY: I'll add this, too. First of all, nobody's career or anything up here is over. We're one of the teams -- we're 41 in the RPI. So this is definitely not our last game. And it won't be here. We're not one of the teams that comes to the conference tournament and it ends. We will always continue play.

So with that said, what we talked about in the locker room is we have to make sure we leave here mentally right so we can prepare for our next game. And it won't be next year.

Q. Jaisa, you even had a few looks at the 3 tonight. For whatever reason, they just weren't falling. You guys don't probably miss that many in practice on a normal day. Is it something about this arena? Something about playing San Diego State, or just luck of the draw?
JAISA NUNN: I think it was just the luck of the draw. We were hitting them at first then they just weren't falling. I tried hitting them -- Jayla, Jaedyn, Ahlise, like everybody, even A.T. (phonetic) started hitting them or trying to shoot them and they just didn't fall.

Q. Nike, it really kind of felt like when the kid made the shot with two seconds left or whatever to tie it, a little bit of the air went out of the arena. How did you guys feel going into overtime?
NIKE MCCLURE: Confident. We always feel confident going into overtime. This is a team that's really capable of playing in overtime. We just didn't show up today to do that. We'll have plenty more opportunities in the future to win basketball games hopefully. But I mean shots like that kind of, they suck, but I'm confident in my team to play the correct plays when they need to be made.

Q. What's it mean to hear what Coach said that you know you're going to have an opportunity to wear the cherry and silver again?
JAISA NUNN: I mean, he's right. With our record, we definitely worked hard -- we tried to win every single game. And we have the record that we have and so hopefully we'll still have a postseason, but just not with the Mountain West Conference.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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