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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: CHICAGOMarch 30, 2019Muffet McGrawArike OgunbowaleJessica ShepardChicago, Illinois Notre Dame - 87, Texas A&M - 80 MUFFET McGRAW: I thought Gary Blair did an outstanding job this year to get his team back to the Sweet 16. They had a whole new team built around Carter, though she is a phenomenal player. We obviously struggled to guard her. I think it was a really entertaining game to watch even if you didn't care who won, just a lot of great shots, a lot of big shots. I thought Jessica Shepard with the double-double, she was unstoppable down low, and then Arike hit big shot after big shot. I thought the steal for a lay-up late in the game I thought probably is the one that sealed the victory. Arike wins it with a defensive stop, I think that should be the headline. Q. Arike, it seemed like you did take things to another gear. Can you describe what it felt like in the fourth quarter, and then also the play your coach talked about, how you saw that develop? ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: Yeah, it's just fun being out there with my teammates, and we had a lot of fans. Our fans really traveled and supported us. So the energy was high, and I was just trying to do anything to help the team. That play was big. It was a real momentum changer. It made them call a time-out, and we had the crowd going crazy, so that definitely was good for us, the energy. Q. Jessica, the first quarter offense was looking for some stability and you provided that with 11 straight points. How big was that, especially with you being able to have your double-double? JESSICA SHEPARD: I mean, I think we knew our offense would get going at some point, so I think in the third quarter they did a great job of getting me the ball and then just finishing strong inside. Q. Arike, what did the official say to you about that technical, and did you feel like it was justified or were you surprised by it? ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: I mean, it was justified. I got a little too excited and let my emotions get the best of me, but it's basketball, so it happens. I'm glad that we were up by enough that those two free throws didn't die it up or something. But I've got to be smarter than that, but like I said, it's basketball, I was in the moment. Q. Arike, you got 10 points in the first half, 24 in the second. Were you looking for that shot more, the way they were playing defense? ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: I think I tried to keep the same focus, same mentality and just things opened up a little bit more. The game picked up and we got steals and we got in transition and we were getting rebounds, we had better defense in the second half, so when we get rebounds and get in transition, we get a lot of points there. Q. Arike, Chennedy did score 35 tonight, but she took 34 shots. What was the key to forcing her to tough shots and holding her to such a low percentage? ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: She's an amazing player. You can have two people on her, she gets a little bit of space, she's shooting it in. She has a great stroke. She can get to the basket, she can shoot. So she's hard to guard. But I think we got stops when it mattered. Fourth quarter we held her, we got stops. And like I say, we got stops when it mattered. So that's all that matters. We win and we go on. Q. Both Arike and Jess, did their physicality surprise you at all, and how good do you feel about how you responded to it? JESSICA SHEPARD: No, I think we knew coming into the game our coaches did a great job of scouting that they were going to be a physical team, and I think in the first half we kind of let them get too many rebounds and weren't really controlling the glass, and then I think we did a much better job in the second half. ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: I would just agree with Jess. We knew they were going to be physical, and we knew it was going to be a high-tempo game, but I think we let it go a little bit in the first half, but we responded better in the second half. Q. You faced them in the same round last year. I know they've had a lot of roster turnover, but how did this year's game compare to that one? ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: I think they lost a couple players, but the other players that they had stepped up a lot. They have great players, Chennedy, of course, but the other players around them are really good. They got to the basket. They did exactly what they were supposed to do. They're a great team. I think they're going to be really good in the future. But, I mean, they're a good team. JESSICA SHEPARD: Yeah, I think they're a very well-coached team, and I think they just came out and played hard today, and I think they'll be very good. Q. Just wanted to make sure the deck was cleared on this game first, but I do want to ask you about you as a group are closing in on 10,000 points. You'll need eight Monday. Can you wrap your head around that at all, the absurdity of what you've done collectively? ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: Yeah, I think we have really five All-Americans on the court. Even if they didn't put us in the list, we have five All-Americans on the court, and playing with everybody that can score 30 on any given night, each one of us is just amazing, and I think that's credit to the coaches recruiting us and getting great players and developing us over these four years, three years, whatever it is. I mean, that is pretty amazing. JESSICA SHEPARD: Yeah, I agree. I think we come into every game and we know we have five people on the court that can be All-Americans. I think, yeah, that's something that's hard to kind of wrap your head around, but I think it just is due to the coaches putting us in the position to score and then us just being willing to play together. Q. Muffet, can you kind of sense when Arike is going to take it to another gear, and how special is it to have a player who has those moments? MUFFET McGRAW: Yeah, the bigger the moment, the bigger she plays. She's not afraid of a big moment by any means. There was a lot of times we were just running stuff for her, and we ran a lot of sets for her, and she responded incredibly well. She has just got that mentality of "I want the ball in a clutch situation," and she's not afraid to miss. Q. Coach, following off that, she had those two big shots during that four-, five-minute stretch when it was tied. How much do you feel your experience that you've been here, you had a senior team, and Gary didn't, how much do you feel -- MUFFET McGRAW: Yeah, do think experience plays a big factor when you get to this point in the tournament. Having been there before, having won this game, gone to the next round, I think that is definitely -- and with a senior group, we just have such veteran players who have all played on the big stage. So I think experience down the stretch was huge for us. Q. Jackie had another spill there; what was she dealing with and maybe the toughness she showed to come back and have a fourth quarter like that? MUFFET McGRAW: Yeah, she got hit hard on the screen, and it was loud. We were trying to call it. But she just got the wind knocked out of her again, I think for the second time. She'll be pretty sore tomorrow, I think, but she'll be back. The resilience she has. I kept looking down the bench waiting for the trainer to give me the word she could go back in the game, and she came up big. That free throw jumper I thought was huge, and she had a post-up. I think when they tied the game, put us ahead. Q. How about the defensive job she did? MUFFET McGRAW: Yeah, she did a much better job in the second half I thought on Carter. She struggled a bit in the first half, we all did, but I thought in the second half, especially late, down the stretch, she did a better job. Q. You mentioned a couple days ago that you didn't really like any of your options for guarding Carter. So that being said, what were you hoping for defensively? What were some of your goals knowing that? MUFFET McGRAW: I'm apparently a prophet. I mean, we had a lot of ideas, and none of them worked, and double-teaming was the last idea, and I thought that was a little more effective when we remembered to do it. But she's really hard to guard. She might be the best individual player that we've played all year. Q. Back to Jackie, they scored the first five points in the fourth quarter to go up by two, and then Jackie had that driving lane to tie it up. Talk about how big that play was, not only for the team but also for her and her confidence in the fourth quarter. MUFFET McGRAW: Yeah, she wasn't getting a lot of shots. I thought she was open in the first -- really the first half. I didn't think we did a really good job of sharing the ball in the first half. I thought we were putting it on the floor, trying to drive it a little bit more than I would have liked. I thought we could have got more in transition if we would have moved the ball a little bit more. So she really didn't get a lot of opportunity. Second half we went to her more, late shot clot, we ran some stuff to get her the ball and get her the opportunity, and she really came up big for us. Q. Coach Blair said he was thrilled about how competitive this game was in light of the other six, I guess, being double digits in this round. Can you be as thrilled as him and -- MUFFET McGRAW: Am I ever? Q. Right, but is it a game you can even appreciate the quality as it's being played, or does that come later? MUFFET McGRAW: Probably later. I think that it was a very entertaining game, and I thought that was -- it was probably a great TV game, and the crowd was phenomenal. The crowd really, really made for just a great environment for us to play in, and that was -- I'm just stalling because I forgot your question. Q. I do want to ask you about the closing in on 10,000. I imagine that's not something you ever set your mind around imagining, having a group that would do that. MUFFET McGRAW: Yeah, it's pretty exciting, men's or women's, that's never been done before. I think it's just interesting because of the way the class settled in with Bri coming back for the fifth year, Jess coming in. So to go out with them, I mean, that is five All-Americans on the floor at the same time. But more impressive, I think, are the assists. I don't know if we're setting any assist records, but four people over 100 I think is pretty unusual, too. Q. Gary said that such a competitive game, and he said this is what women's game needs. Do you feel that way, too? MUFFET McGRAW: Absolutely. I think it's great this year just to see the parity. When you get down, especially -- the Sweet 16, there's 16 good teams, but the final eight, boy, anybody could win it. So I think it's great for the game for people to turn on and see competitive games at every level. I think we had a couple of competitive games yesterday, and maybe there will be a few more today. So I think it's really good for the women's game to see that there's parity now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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