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MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 1, 2020Ben FinkbeinerHailey BassettSteph GormanLas Vegas, Nevada Utah State - 81, San Diego State - 79 (OT) THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Utah State. COACH FINKBEINER: We wanted to show up here to Las Vegas playing our best basketball. And I think our girls did that tonight. We competed really hard. We hit shots obviously when we needed to. And our team was just really focused and just really into it the last two days. And I feel like our best product that we can put out happened tonight. And obviously we want to continue that throughout the tournament as well. I thought San Diego State also put a great product on the floor. When you see a women's basketball game that high a level, obviously it's a very exciting thing, in March, to see two teams fighting into overtime. Their seniors and all of their players made big shots when they needed to and they forced us to play at an extremely high level. And we had an opportunity to have the ball at the end. And obviously Hailey hit a big-time shot for us. And we just needed that. San Diego State made a lot of really good plays and they had a great season, obviously. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. I want to ask about Emmie Harris' night, what you thought of her night. She played almost the whole game and looked like she was instrumental in most areas of the court. What do you think of her performance tonight? COACH FINKBEINER: Good observation, great observation. Emmie played a lot of minutes tonight and she played at multiple positions and she hit shots in the first half that were huge for us, when we talk about getting a 15-point cushion, I think it was, in the second half. Emmie hit shots when we needed her to because instead of playing tight and instead of coming in and not performing very well, I thought Emmie kind of led the charge for from the start in area of toughness. And throughout the game, whether she was playing point guard or 2 guard, the girl executes exactly what we want to do. When you see shots like Hailey's go in and you see shots like Steph hitting shots, there's girls like Emmie and Taylor, and Lindsey obviously hit shots, but it takes all those girls to execute what they do. And Emmie is right there on the top of the list of girls that understand what we are trying to do. Sometimes she doesn't get the praise for it, but, man, the big minutes is huge. And we haven't even talked about defense yet. She was unbelievable on that end as well. Q. Hailey, with the game-winning shot, the clutch free throws at the end as well, battling through four fouls, what kind of mentality do you have to have to play your game, play physical but not too physical at the same time? HAILEY BASSETT: Honestly, it was really scary. Going into the third quarter I was -- with four fouls, I was kind of, like, not trying to get another foul, obviously, because I wanted to play in the game. But I just kind of focused more on not -- because every time I go up to block a shot I always -- Coach always says I wind because I want to block it. So this time I had to kind of control myself. And I had Steph here controlling me, grabbing my jersey, saying Hailey, no, stop. So I just kind of -- it was more of a mental thing. So I tried to stay in the game for as long as I could and tried to do my best. Q. So for the first time in Mountain West women's championship history you guys have moved on to the quarterfinals, the 11 seed. How are you feeling right now, for Coach or any of the players? HAILEY BASSETT: I'm really excited. We just celebrated in the locker room and now, once we leave, we're going to make it back to business and get another win tomorrow. STEPH GORMAN: I definitely just think it showed how good we can be when we play to our potential. So it's really good to see. COACH FINKBEINER: It was big for these players, because they have been working extremely hard, as has so many other teams in this country. And not everybody gets sort of reward for it. There's no guarantee on that. And with us obviously struggling a little bit this season, the fact we're an 11 seed, tells you we've been through adversity and injuries and different things. But to have a little bit of a pay-off on the end with the tournament, it's great that the girls have that sense of, if we work hard and if we continue the course, then there's some reward there. And then like Hailey and Steph both already know and have said, the reward isn't winning a first-round game necessarily. It's nice to have that but nobody comes to Vegas, Utah State or Wyoming or anybody, nobody comes to win just one game. So that's going to be our focus moving forward. Q. You're now in a unique position where less than 24 hours from now you're back on the court playing Wyoming. How, from a coaching perspective and a player perspective, are you guys going to keep yourselves sharp both mentally and physically to move into tomorrow's game? COACH FINKBEINER: Good question. It's going to be a fine balance on rest and then getting what we need to get in and obviously between now and then it's going to be a lot of mental reps. We don't have a whole lot of opportunity to go out on a practice floor, go 5-on-5 and run line drills, whatever you must do. But it's important for us to realize -- Hailey mentioned it -- we're approaching it in a business sort of way that we're going to rest our bodies, going to rest our minds but at the same time we've got to have this super amount of focus for tomorrow because it's a tough position to be in. Wyoming has had a good season and they've earned the ability to have a bye. No doubt about it; it's an advantage. But at the same time we're playing really well right now. So hopefully we can play our best tomorrow again because I feel like we did that tonight. HAILEY BASSETT: Being a player, it's going to be tough on, like, the legs and everything, but I feel like it will be important to go to bed early and get up early and just focus and be business-like and go through the day in a good manner. STEPH GORMAN: Just trusting that we're prepared early, like put the work in early. Now we can just rest and get it done tomorrow. Q. Steph, you guys, against New Mexico, took a lot of really confident 3s but didn't necessarily see a lot of them fall. But how did it good to see the early 3s falling tonight? STEPH GORMAN: It's always a confidence booster when the first one goes. It definitely helped my confidence just being able to shoot them and having that trust in the team and the coaches to be able to shoot them, knowing if I do miss we have phenomenal offensive rebounders down there ready to put it back. Q. Coming in as the underdogs, what kind of mentality do you feel you have to set for yourself or do you set for yourself in general to get your head in the game for -- HAILEY BASSETT: To me, I'm actually really excited because I like going, coming in and no one believing in you and proving them wrong, that's kind of mentality. STEPH GORMAN: Having the pressure is really nice, but just being able to leave it out on the floor, giving it our all, it felt good today. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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