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MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 1, 2020Chris GobrechtKaelin ImmelLas Vegas, Nevada Air Force - 60, Colorado State - 48 COACH GOBRECHT: I think the fast start had everything to do with us getting that win. Colorado State is an outstanding defensive team and we've struggled so much to score against them. I think that's the first time we've had over 50 points against them. So us being able to come out and hit some shots early, it just made you feel like, hey, everything's going to be okay. And then we continued to defend really tough. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Piggybacking off of hitting big shots early, how did hitting those big shots early build confidence and set the tone for the game? KAELIN IMMEL: I don't know, like, when you hit shots you feel good about yourself. It makes you play harder on defense. It makes you get in passing and makes you do all the extra things that make you feel good. And I think starting off well, hitting from 3 just gave us that extra boost to be able to play harder. COACH GOBRECHT: This team, these guys have been doing some great things for a couple of months now. And statistically I've been fairly pleased with how we've been playing. It's just been tough for us to get over the hump. I don't know how many close games we've lost. And so in that early going, we were getting the possessions. We were outrebounding people. We were forcing turnovers all the time and getting the hustle points, just doing so many things. At no point was I necessarily upset with how they were playing. We just knew we had to start clicking a little bit offensively. And that happened in February. We started to click offensively and we haven't looked back since. Q. You know that this season has had a lot of lows and now you're turning the county, you're on a three-game win streak, and, Kaelin, you're back in the quarterfinals for the second time in your career. How do you keep this going and how do you look forward to moving into the next game? KAELIN IMMEL: Honestly being that we've never been here as a group motivates us to play harder and feel more confident in ourselves. And I think, honestly, going into that unknown with such a young group of players, knowing that we could be here next year, too, gives us that extra boost of confidence to just trust each other and do everything we can to make a run here. COACH GOBRECHT: This team's been good because everybody's been doing their job. And they've taken a tremendous amount of accountability for getting some things figured out. And I'm just so proud of how far they've come. But it's totally them. We were the same coaches back in November that we are today. And these guys took it on themselves to get some things squared away, and they've done an incredible job and we're really proud of them. And this is a really special Boise State team, very talented, has had a lot of success, almost all seniors. It's just a huge challenge to play them, but it's the kind of challenge you can get pretty excited about, especially since I think we all know this is our last chance to play against this particular Boise State team. Q. Less than 24 hours from now you'll be back on the court playing Boise State. How do you prepare for that quick turnaround and for the challenge of playing the No. 2 seed? COACH GOBRECHT: That's what we were talking about. We're trying to figure out, this room, this hotel room I have happens to have a big jacuzzi right in the middle of my room. I'm not sure why. But, so, I'm thinking how many of them I could put in there to have an ice bath or something. We definitely are concerned about their legs being fresh, especially since Boise State. This is one of the things I sure we could get figured out in the conference. We just played three games during the time that Boise State has played no games. And the last game they played was last Monday. And we played on Thursday. We played on Sunday -- well I take it back, two games in the time that they've played no games. We also played on Monday, then played Thursday and then played yesterday. And they haven't played since Monday because their bye happened to come at the end of the year. We'll see how much of an advantage that is, but in terms of being fresh it's going to be an advantage. KAELIN IMMEL: I do think being cadet at the Air Force Academy gives you that ability to push through adversity and push through just being tired and tough times like that. So I think us knowing how to do that, having that mental toughness will be able to push us through being tired, maybe having no legs, stuff like that. So I think we'll be ready. And I think it's really just how tough are you. COACH GOBRECHT: I do think that the one advantage to having played is our elbows are a little sharper right now just because we've been competing and they haven't been. So I think there's that tradeoff. But Kaelin's right; there's not much that fazes these guys. We had them walk back from the restaurant last night to the hotel, and we didn't realize how far it was. It was lot further than we thought it was. So they hiked all the way back, and I was thinking, oh, my golly, I shouldn't have done that. I should have had the bus come pick us up. And then I thought, no, it's like when they go back and forth to the dorms on the hill. It's about the same distance, so we're good. Q. You also outrebounded them on the offensive end 6-to-18. That's triple at this point. How did getting those offensive boards help maintain your momentum and make sure that Colorado State didn't really creep back in? COACH GOBRECHT: Well, offensive boards are always a little bit of a back-breaker, when a team is -- we don't want it to happen to us and we know how much it can affect the other team when they've worked so hard to stop you and then they get another possession. It's huge for us to have those possessions, particularly against a team that's as good on defense as Colorado State is. It was huge to winning the game, for sure. KAELIN IMMEL: I think we've come to understand how important those rebounds are. And we've made that emphasis and we've decided that we're going to be the team that goes and gets those. And I think that's what's helped us turn the corner here. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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