BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2021

Denise Dillon

Maddy Siegrist

Villanova Wildcats

Mohegan Sun Arena

Postgame Media Conference

Villanova - 78, DePaul - 72 (OT)

COACH DILLON: We're fired up to have pulled that win off. I thought our team, with the exception of the beginning, that first quarter, did everything we needed to give ourselves a chance to win and kept their heads even going into overtime. And there was just a calm presence. And a lot of that credit goes to this one here on my right, just keep leading the team with her play.

But I commented to her, to Maddy, telling her it just felt she kept the team together and just remained poised from start to finish. So you get big wins like this when your leader is charging the force. So it's good stuff for the Cats.

Q. (Indiscernible) it takes a little while to get the team ready or thereabouts, (indiscernible) take a year or so to get it where you wanted it to get. Along the way what surprised you? What kind of happened that you didn't think might happen (indiscernible)? How has this team developed and improved?

COACH DILLON: I think just the camaraderie. We saw it early with this group. Obviously we knew what we were getting in Maddy when I got here with the year she had last year. But with Brianna Herlihy coming back from injury and Sarah Mortensen being eligible to play, I think from the beginning they set the tone with being our one, two, three punch. And that's what we saw today.

We had our ups and downs. A lot of players stepping up as the year went on. I think just continuing to battle and get better, which you want to see, but the development is so important. And for us to get today's win, we of course needed those three. And it's been a little bit. It's been a few games since we had those three in double figures.

So it helped, but you got a lot on the defensive end from every player that stepped on the floor. And that's been probably our greatest growth this season. And especially in the past -- over the last month.

Q. Doug was praising some of your unsung players like Raven James for making big plays. Talk about them a little bit.

COACH DILLON: Yes, exactly. It's just continuing to recognize what they bring, each player brings to the game and you're seeing it at practice. And Raven is one of the players who has been in this position, playing in the Big East Tournament and playing in big games and just staying on her, recognizing if they're not going to guard you, you're open, you gotta be ready to take the shot.

She missed the first one or two but she lined up on that third, knocked it down. Then she hit another big one in the fourth.

So I just think she did a really good job, Raven, on both ends of the floor. Sam Carangi came in, they were a good tag team in that position. We talked about that position being something by committee this season. And we were able to work with that in today's game.

I think Brooke Mullin, Bella Runyan in that 2-3 spot on the defensive end were disruptive and just executing what we had to. Of course, they would want some of those shots back. Lior, as well, she would want a few of those shots back. But she did some things for us that she did not do in other games, just being a little more disruptive.

It's that attention to detail, willingness to do whatever is necessary for your team to be successful. And I saw a lot more of that in today's contest.

Q. Maddy, they held you without a point in the fourth quarter. But when you came out in the overtime you scored the first few. Can you talk about a sense of urgency you felt on the offensive end?

MADDY SIEGRIST: Obviously DePaul is a great team. We knew they were tough the whole game, but especially in overtime. Like, they just bring such an intensity that we knew we were going to get open looks. And I think we did a good job of remaining patient and getting the looks we wanted to.

Q. Can you talk about the resilience of the team? The first quarter they had the better of it. And then in the fourth quarter they came back to tie it. You were able to answer each time. Can you talk about the resiliency of the team?

COACH DILLON: Yeah, I think with the first quarter, Maddy just alluded to it with DePaul being such a force, such a talented team. And they came out ready. They came out to prove themselves as they do year in and year out. And we took a couple of punches early, settled in, and got ourselves back.

So we didn't allow such a deficit early in the game. It gave us a chance, as we went into overtime. I thought we had a good third quarter. That's been a quarter of ours that we've struggled a little bit with.

So it was that third quarter that was good. It gave us a little separation in the fourth, but knowing how quickly DePaul can score. A few of those possessions I think it was a little bit feeling the pressure. It's a big game against a very talented, a great team. And we just had some miscues, a couple of crucial turnovers and struggled to stop them on some of the drives.

But as we said, we didn't lose our heads. And Maddy even said it before this interview. She said she felt all right with going into overtime. You heard the excitement about them playing some extra basketball. And the team did just that; they played some really good basketball in that overtime.

Q. Can you talk about the defensive effort, because it looked like it was the ability to keep the other team from scoring that was more of an impetus rather than getting buckets?

COACH DILLON: Right. And that was obviously the key focus with this game. DePaul can score at will. They score often. They're fast. They get the ball down and focus to transition D. And I think we stuck to the game plan with what needed to happen on the defensive end with transition.

Again, we were giving up a lot of rebounds, I think we gave up 10 offensive rebounds first half cleaned that up in the second half. Just understanding it had to be a possession game for us to give ourselves a chance. And I would say that's been some of the great growth of this team, we are able to score a little bit more than maybe in the past but now against teams really putting some points on the board, you've got to focus in on the defense and that's been a good buy-in.

Q. Obviously UConn is a major challenge, but beating the defending, two-time defending champ, has to give you a lot of momentum going into tomorrow, wouldn't you say?

MADDY SIEGRIST: Yeah, definitely. You know, DePaul's been such a force in the Big East. They have so much success with their program. So a win like that means a lot.