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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: WACOMarch 23, 2019Julie GoodenoughBreanna WrightSara WilliamsonWaco, Texas Baylor 95, Abilene Christian 38 COACH JULIE GOODENOUGH: First of all, we just want to congratulate Baylor on such a great season and we wish them well. We honestly are huge fans of Baylor and hope they go on and win the National Championship. Love Kim Mulkey, and she does a great job with this program, and hopefully they will stay healthy and make a great run through the tournament and bring the National Championship back to Texas. I'd like to say I'm so proud of our team. A lot of people don't remember back in the fall, we were picked 76th in the Southland Conference, and here we are playing our first ever NCAA Tournament. Our team has really overcome a lot of odds and really exceeded expectations of everybody outside of our locker room. I am so proud of our team and thought they played pretty fearless today. Obviously we were overmatched in a lot of positions, and you know, just at a huge size disadvantage. But just love our kids. Love our team. We have been led by Breanna Wright and Sara Williamson all year. They have been tough as nails, and they have been incredible examples of toughness and work ethic and just examples of striving for excellence on the basketball court and off for their teammates. I really appreciate their leadership and what they have done for our team. I can't say enough about our team and our program. Just really proud of where we are right now. This is our sixth year to play Division I and we have won three conference championships, so we feel like we're headed in the right direction. Q. Breanna, as you guys were struggling to hit a shot there in the early going of the game, was it trying to overcome their length and what they did defensively, or was it sort of kind of that first game jitters or how would you describe that process there? BREANNA WRIGHT: I think it was a little bit of a conversations of both. Obviously coming from the Southland, the posts are normally the tallest on the court and we had some length out on the guards, as well. I think we were a little timid at first in the beginning of the game, looking for our open shots, being shot-ready to catch; obviously that got better as the game went on. Q. You got subbed out with about two minutes left to go in the game and you got a standing ovation from the ACU fans that there are there. What was that moment like? SARA WILLIAMSON: It was unbelievable. One of the amazing things is the community we are surrounded with. These fans, they have traveled for miles to come and support us and watch us play. That's just something we've always been appreciative of. To have them here for the last game of my career and pretty amazing and I really appreciate it. Q. Sara, just what was it like being playing for the last time in your career? SARA WILLIAMSON: I don't know if I have the words to describe it except I just feel honored and blessed. It has been a true dream come true to play for ACU and under Coach Goodenough and alongside Bre and a couple of the other girls, it's been a heck of a ride. Three championships in my four years here, I would say is pretty successful, but I'll let you guys be the judge of that. Q. When we talked to the men on Thursday after their game, I was struck by how easily they were able to reflect on everything that they had accomplished that season. Is it easy already for you guys to see how good of a season this was? BREANNA WRIGHT: We take it one day at a time but it's also really nice to look back on what we have accomplished. We actually just put together a video just of our journey here together. We tried to do that for our seniors, just to kind of honor them and it's just been such a blessing to be here. So we will take some more time to be appreciative of what we've done and it's just such an honor to be here and especially playing alongside Sarah. It's nice to look back. Sad that it's over, but we are going to be excited about what we have accomplished, that's for sure. Q. For both you guys. You shot 30 three-pointers in the first half and seemed to back off of the idea of launching it from beyond the arc in the second half. Was that a conscious thing, or did y'all want to see if you could go inside them more? SARA WILLIAMSON: No, we were just being true to our values. We were just being a little bit more I guess, smart, for our shot selection, and figuring out which were the collect shots to take. In the second half we got more layups than in the first half and we still shot the three eyeball, as well. Didn't stray too far away from our values. BREANNA WRIGHT: I think a little more conscious about it -- to get some more foul calls on their end and we wanted to attack and get some of those on our end, as well. We were still shooting the three-ball like we do every game day but wanted to see if we would get those calls, as well. Q. I know obviously it's a little bit tough right now, but besides the three championships that you have had in your career, how would you sum up your four years here at ACU? SARA WILLIAMSON: I'm never going to forget my time here. I never thought originally coming in that I would just win a championship off the back, but we did that, and I followed that up with two championships. And then to end my senior year, my four years here with another championship is something that I'm extremely thankful for. And without Coach Goodenough welcoming me to ACU and being a huge part of these girls lives and everything, I wouldn't be here where I am today. So I have them to thank for everything and I will always cherish our friendship and our sisterhood for the rest of our lives. Q. At that much of a size advantage, was there anything more could you have tried to do on defense? COACH JULIE GOODENOUGH: I don't think so. We work out against a male scout team on a regular basis, and we don't even have guys on our scout team the size of Kalani or Lauren Cox and some of the other players that came in. They are just so much bigger than our players. We were trying to double- and triple-team post players and tonight, they shot the ball so well from the three-point line, as well. So it's kind of a pick your poison. But the size disadvantage, I don't know what else we could have done, and they beat us at transition a lot I think because of the size. So I think our players tried to do what we were asking them to do, but we didn't really have an answer for the post game. Q. In the first quarter, you all had some good looks on threes and they didn't fall. How frustrating was that in the beginning? COACH JULIE GOODENOUGH: I think our players were really rushing their shots. Again, the defensive length I think made us rush our shots and made us feel like we were going to get our shots blocked. We took three-point shots in the first half, but a lot of those, we just tried to shoot them and get the ball out of our hands. I was aggravated we didn't shoot about 45 threes in the game. We kept telling them: Get the ball in the paint, kick it out, drive to the paint, kick it out. We did hit some layups and our post players scored a little bit, but I really wanted to shoot 40 or 45 threes today, but I was disappointed we couldn't get more of those off. Q. First seven minutes -- were you hoping for a ball to go in to break the ice for you guys -- COACH JULIE GOODENOUGH: Yeah, you know, it was almost impossible for us to defend their transition. We needed to score buckets, so they weren't, you know, so quick to get the ball down the floor and score on us, and so you know, without being able to score, they were able to rally off quite a few transition shots. So you know, I don't know what the answer was, except we need to put the ball in the hole a little bit more in the first seven minutes of the game. Q. What was the experience like for your first NCAA Tournament? COACH JULIE GOODENOUGH: It was phenomenal. And I think for Abilene Christian and our program, to play in our first-ever NCAA Tournament three hours away from home where we had a thousand fans here, I don't know if we could have script that had any better. Now, playing the No. 1 team in the country was very difficult. But we knew coming in that we were probably going to be a 16-seed and I know that, you know, with the NCAA Tournament for the women, it's all so geographical. We knew that we were probably either going to go to Mississippi State or Baylor, and so it worked out as well as it could have so that our fans could be a part of this experience. And for me personally, I love the Baylor program. I cheer for the Baylor Bears, and I cheer for Coach Mulkey. And so to be able to be on this platform with them and see them in person and battle against the No. 1 team in the country, it's a great experience for us. Something that our players will always remember, and something I think that will be special for our fans, as well. Q. What's next on the agenda in this off-season? COACH JULIE GOODENOUGH: Well, we are going to be talking the next year about, we don't want to be considered a 16-seed anymore. And again, I know it's all geographical, but we can't drop games at home in conference play. We need to beat somebody big, someone in a perceived higher conference than us. We need to win the Conference Championship, the regular season, and we need to win the tournament so that we're not a 16-seed next year. You know, you want to be able to jockey your position a little bit NCAA Tournament where you can win a ballgame, and as long as we're 16, it's going to be really, really hard. I think even being a 15 will be pretty tough. The conversations we'll have our players in the off-season and the summer is: We can't be okay with dropping games at home in conference play and we have to win games that we're not supposed to win. We've got to beat somebody we're not supposed to beat. Q. Was this the best team you've ever coached against? COACH JULIE GOODENOUGH: Absolutely. Maybe except the last time we played Baylor. No, I think it's the best team we've played. Gosh, they have got All-Americans at every position, and Coach Mulkey does such a great job recruiting players that respond to her style of coaching, play her style of play. I mean, they are phenomenal. I am sincere that I believe they have a National Championship-calibre team and we'll be cheering them on from Abilene and hope they do that. We would love to say we got beat by the national champions. That would be a great way for us to end the story of this team this year. Q. You and Kim after introductions had a little bit longer exchange than we normally see between coaches there. Do you mind sharing with us what you said to her and what she said to you? COACH JULIE GOODENOUGH: She was telling me how bad they were going to beat us -- no, just kidding. She asked me how my daughters were, actually, and I asked how was it to be a grandmother. So that was the exchange that we had. Q. What's going to be your message to the girls once you get back into the locker room? COACH JULIE GOODENOUGH: You know, the only thing I can think of right now for our team is just to tell them how proud I am of them. They exceeded a lot of expectations of people outside of our locker room, so proud of them. They really came together as a team. We have one senior this year and we have a Division I transfer that's been sitting out with our team this year, so she's kind of been a part of our team. So basically we have this whole team coming back. But I did notice that she played tonight. Anne McLeod played four minutes and she wasn't suited out (laughing). That may cause some compliance issues. This team basically is coming back without Sara, so we have just a really bright future ahead of us. Obviously there's a lot of different areas we need to improve on. Every year is completely different with chemistry and who the leaders of your team are going to be, but I'm just so proud of what they have accomplished this year, and proud of Sara's leadership -- and the ACU Women's Basketball Program in Division I history. She's won 88 ballgames and the first two conference championships we won, we were not eligible to play in our conference tournament, so we got the WNIT bid. So this is only the second year we've even been eligible to play in our conference tournament, so I think that we've accomplished a lot this season. I'm just really proud of our team. Dominique Golightly has been our leading scorer this year and she just has been tough as nails. She came so far from her sophomore year to her junior year. Breanna Wright has been starting point guard since her freshman year and that kid, she just exudes toughness and confidence. Those two, with Sara, I think those three, were the best guard trio in the Southland Conference this year, and just really appreciate their leadership and them leading us to the NCAA Tournament. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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