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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2020Nikki FargasFaustine AifuwaKhayla PointerGreenville, South Carolina Mississippi State 79, LSU 49 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by LSU. We will start out with a statement from Coach Fargas. NIKKI FARGAS: This is a tough loss for us. It's going to sit a little bit longer in the pit of our stomach. But I will say that I was proud of this group for coming back after yesterday's win and playing 20 minutes of really good basketball, really high-level basketball. We hit adversity in the first half, and we still had players playing with a lot of confidence and a lot of competitive spirit. In the second half Mississippi State, being one of the best teams in our league and in our country, showed exactly why they are. This is something that we're going to take from, learn from it, and be better for it. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Faustine, y'all had a lot of success against Jessika Carter in the post. How do you feel you did taking her out of her game? FAUSTINE AIFUWA: I think the biggest thing was just staying aggressive. We knew she wanted to get down in the post. I think the biggest thing was push her out there and make her do something else besides operating in the block. We did a good job in the first half. We just kind of slipped up in the second. Q. Khayla, they kind of dictated the game with their defense in the second half. How tough is it to go against them when they're pressuring the ball as much as they did? KHAYLA POINTER: Yeah, kind of like Coach said, they're one of the best teams in our conference and in the country with their defense. When you give a team like Mississippi State turnovers and transition points, that's what they're good at, that's what their game is. In the second half we kind of folded with that. We did a great job in the first half taking care of the ball. Our turnovers in the second half led to their transition points, that kind of got them going. Q. Obviously big moment in the game was the shot right before the half. From a player perspective, how tough was it to go into the half after that shot? KHAYLA POINTER: Yeah, I mean, I'm thinking it gave them a little momentum. We tried to come out and we wanted to be the team to punch first. But I think they kind of fed off that shot a little bit. It was a lucky shot it went in. They kind of fueled off that I think in the second half. We didn't come out ready and they hit us first. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you. We will continue with questions for Coach Fargas. Q. Did you see anything different from them in the second half than the first? More of a pep in their step? NIKKI FARGAS: I thought Jackson's play was huge. We didn't match what she was doing on the floor. I felt as though a lot of 50/50 balls, they were more in their favor than ours. They played scrappier and harder. You have a point guard, experienced point guard, in Danberry, who I thought just kind of took over. Her defensive presence really disrupted us. There were so many times where when you're playing a team like Mississippi State, you got to play downhill. We started settling for jumpers. Those weren't falling. Next person shoots a jumper, that doesn't fall. It just adds more pressure on that jump shot. Mississippi State is a team that rotates very well. We didn't do a great job of making the extra pass. We've got to be better. We had a couple of charges that we took by not playing off of two. Shot-fake-shot, when you're playing shot blockers in the paint, you have to go to the basics of the game. I felt like we got away from that, especially in the second half. Q. You mentioned Rickea's play in second half. You kept her pretty much in check when you met the first go-around. What was different? NIKKI FARGAS: Ayana Mitchell can keep a lot of people in check. That was her defensive assignment, so to speak. We don't have Mitchell, but we still got players that are going to lay it on the line and do their best. They've had to move themselves up a notch from Awa Trasi, now our starter, who was hot coming off the bench. We were moving up Mercedes Brooks, a freshman, to take that spot. It's just been a work in progress. Like I said, this is a 40-minute basketball game. If you just played the first 20, I'd be happy. Again, Mississippi State has players that can make plays. At this time in postseason, you go as your guard play go. Rickea had an unbelievable night against us. I thought she did a nice job, too, of elevating from a standpoint of board play. When you're controlling the boards, you're going to control the tempo of the game. Q. Walk me through what you do between now and March 16. Take a little time off? Practice? NIKKI FARGAS: You do a little bit of both. Right now we have some time to take some days off, but we want to get back and make sure that we're practicing and working on the things that challenged us this week. We want to make sure that we're getting this group ready as best as we can, but also being aware of the recovery. The pounding in the SEC is really tough. I mean, when you go through our schedule, January, February, it's physical, it's up-tempo. This is an opportunity for those who are a little banged up to kind of have that rehab, recovery time, hopefully get your legs underneath you. We know we have a tough challenge ahead of us coming up for NCAAs. We'll split time with rehab, recovery, then obviously getting on the court, getting some skill work in. This is a good opportunity for us to do that. It's also a great opportunity for us to watch a lot of film. We can get better mentally through watching film on ourselves. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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